As far back as she can recall, Celeste Rodriguez has been aware of her father’s childhood trauma.
Some 70 years ago in Pacoima, a Los Angeles neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley, Rodriguez’s dad watched men he did not know put his grandmother into the back of a van. It turned out they were federal immigration authorities, intent on sending her back to Jalisco, Mexico, from where the two had immigrated ahead of the rest of the family.
The 5-year-old boy watched from his neighbor’s porch as the van with his abuela receded. Then he fell to pieces…