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Fault Lines: The Whittier Narrows Earthquake of 1987

USGS 1987 Whittier Narrows Earthquake
(Photo credit: U.S. Geological Survey via Wikimedia Commons)

I grew up in Southern California, famous for its Hollywood movie stars, tangled network of freeways, and earthquakes. Somehow, I’d escaped earthquakes for the first ten years of my life, even though the San Andreas Fault line runs a stretch of over 800 miles.

It begins in Mendocino north of Sacramento, through the Santa Cruz Mountains and the San Francisco Peninsula, along the base of the San Gabriel Valley Mountains near my hometown of South El Monte, and all the way down south to the Salton Sea in the Imperial Valley desert.

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Life Lessons in Music: Learning to Play the Clarinet

King Olivers Creole Jazz Band
King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band

About ten years ago, I discovered 1920s and 1930s traditional jazz. The mix of cornet, trombone, and clarinet with the piano, string bass, and guitar (or tenor banjo) was exhilarating. I was already familiar with the clarinet from listening to Benny Goodman and his big band swing of the 1940s, but when I heard the New Orleans hot jazz sounds of Sidney Bechet, I thought, wow, this instrument doesn’t just make music…it sings right through your soul. It’s that feeling that makes the hair stand up on your arms and a tickle run down your spine.

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Spelled with an X

american-letter-x

My parents, being from Mexico, unconventionally spelled my name “Alexandra” instead of “Alejandra.” My mother would make the point that Mexico, in Spanish, was pronounced “meh-hee-coh”—meaning, the “x” had a “j” sound (the “j” sound in Spanish is equivalent to the “h” sound in English). Although, to be fair, the “x” in every other Spanish word has the “ks” sound (conexión, xilófono, etc.).

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How It Took Me 8 Years to Discover They Might Be Giants

Kindred spirits. Sonia and I wanted to marry them when we grew up.
Kindred spirits. My best friend and I wanted to marry them when we grew up.

Why is the world in love again?
Why are we marching hand in hand?
Why are the ocean levels rising up?

I learned the answers to these questions when I was in the 9th grade. It was 1990, and They Might Be Giants had just released a new album called Flood. Up until this point, my musical taste was quite stunted.

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Growing Up in Aguascalientes, Mexico

Home is Not Always Where You’ve Lived the Longest

Growing Up in Aguascalients | Colegio Cristobal Colon
First day of kindergarten at Colegio Cristobal Colon in Aguascalientes, Mexico

Although I say that I grew up in Los Angeles, California, I secretly identify with growing up in Aguascalientes – I spent all of my childhood summers there. So much of my family history comes from Aguascalientes.

My grandmother on my mother’s side grew up on a hacienda in Durango, Mexico in the early 1920s. After my great grandparents lost their home and surrounding land during the Cristero War in the 1920s, they re-established roots in Aguascalientes. My grandfather grew up not too far from Aguascalientes, and it was there that he met my grandmother.

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