Last Drop of a Holy Drink: 🦋 Chapter 2: "Holy Mother, Blessed Are You Among Women"
Last Drop of a Holy Drink: 🦋 Chapter 2: "Holy Mother, Blessed Are You Among Women"
My Mexican Mother and The American Dream
Welcome
Hello! I’m Emily Lupita. I’m a travel writer & artist from rural Iowa currently living between my hometown south of Des Moines - and Ankara, the capital of Turkiye. I’m also an English teacher & editor.
Last Drop of a Holy Drink is an autobiographical novel I’m writing and sharing my progress on via my creativity journal - Emily Lupita Explores - where I share explorations from my art & writing desk + cultural travels, as well as motherhood with my two Autistic sons.
Emily Lupita
Last Drop of a Holy Drink
WIP 2024
Chapter 2: Holy Mother, Blessed Are You Among Women
Juana Maria, a young woman from a Mexican-American family, faces a forced marriage arranged by her father. Agapito, her Mexican father, believes that this marriage will reunite his family which has been split in two between Mexico and America, as well as secure Juana's financial future. However, Juana now considers herself an American and resists the arrangement, shocking her family by refusing to accept her father's decision.
The story explores the clash between traditional Mexican values and the 1970s American culture in which Juana has grown up. Despite her father's insistence, Juana remains determined to find her own path and defy the expectations placed upon her. Through a series of everyday events, including a chance encounter at a dance with her future husband, Juana begins to question her father's plans. She ultimately discovers a different path for her life, which eventually leads her many years later to the stroke recovery unit at Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines, Iowa, surrounded by the prayers of her three children and their American father.
Chapter 2: Excerpt
“What she didn’t know, but everyone else in that room did know, was that Juana Maria Gutiérrez Rodriguez was the most beautiful young woman anyone inside that room had ever seen. Her gorgeous smile with such straight white teeth, her slim frame, and her pretty nose, her smile at just the right angle. Her shining brown eyes with long black lashes. And that laugh, that laugh like the songbirds sing in the morning. Yes, Juana Maria was a bird once, too. She was a beautiful, exotic, dancing bird at the center of a dance floor in a club in Davenport, Iowa. And that’s when Joseph first saw her. He saw Juana dancing with another man and his heart burst into flames. Joseph knew from that very moment that Juana Maria would be his wife and the mother of his children.”
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