Sonríe Hoy, Llora Mañana

I share two excerpts from my collection of memoirs Sonríe Hoy, Llora Mañana. The pieces "Oraciones de Mama" and "The God in Long Beach is Different" depict the realities of mental health, death, and religion as I saw them as a first-generation American child of Mexican-immigrant parents. These stories give an insight to the challenges of reckoning with the murder of a loved one while trying to grapple with the fear that grew out of it. Within that complexity, the family tries to fix the brokenness.