Some stories begin long before we know they’re ours.
They live in our parents’ voices, our grandparents’ memories, the languages we grow up speaking, and the traditions we carry forward without always understanding their significance.
Other stories begin when we venture beyond what we’ve always known—when we leave familiar places, encounter different cultures, and discover new versions of ourselves.
I’ve spent much of my life doing both.
I was born and raised in Brownsville, Texas, along the U.S.–Mexico border. Spanish was my first language, and my childhood was shaped by Mexican traditions, family gatherings, and a culture in which two countries often felt like one community.
As I grew older, life took me beyond the Rio Grande Valley. I built a career, experienced different places and perspectives, and married a man whose Finnish-American family history was very different from my own.
But it wasn’t until my mother passed away nearly three years ago that I began looking at my own history differently.
Her passing stirred a curiosity about the people who came before me, the stories I had heard but never thought to preserve, and the questions I wished I had asked while there was still time.
Memories that once seemed ordinary began to take on new meaning.
And somewhere in that process, I realized I wasn’t only trying to understand the stories that shaped me. I was also beginning to think more intentionally about the stories I was still creating.
A Place for Stories
Between Roots & Horizons is my personal literary journal—a space for essays about family, heritage, identity, belonging, and the sometimes unexpected experience of becoming ourselves.
Some stories will return to my childhood in South Texas or the places in Mexico where my family’s history began.
Others will explore marriage, cultural differences, travel, reinvention, and the questions that emerge as life moves into new chapters.
There will be memories of people I’ve loved, places that have changed me, and moments I didn’t fully appreciate until years later.
Because Spanish was my first language, you’ll occasionally find it woven into my writing, just as it has always been woven into my life. Eventually, I hope to share selected essays in both English and Spanish.
I don’t intend for every story to offer a lesson or a tidy conclusion.
Sometimes I simply want to remember, to understand, or to ask a question that might resonate with someone else.
The Journey Ahead
I’ve come to believe that our identities aren’t fixed by where we were born, the names we carry, or the lives we imagined when we were young.
We are shaped by what we inherit, certainly.
But we are also shaped by what we choose.
And perhaps one of the most meaningful parts of growing older is discovering that there is still so much of ourselves left to explore.
I’ll be sharing new essays approximately once a month. You’re welcome to subscribe and have them delivered directly to your inbox.
Whether you recognize something familiar in these stories or find yourself looking at life through a different lens, I hope you’ll enjoy spending a little time here.
Thank you for joining me at the beginning.
Con cariño,
Elizabeth Y. Valenzuela
Between Roots & Horizons
On the lives we inherit and the lives we create.