Something Followed Us Home With Cynthia Pelayo

Hola, hola, I'm Cristina and this is Spooky Tales, the podcast for all things spooky, haunted places, myths, legends, and sometimes horror books. And that is what we are doing today. There is no Carmen, but I was lucky enough to be accompanied in this episode by the one and only Cynthia Pelayo herself. For those that, for some reason, don't know who Cynthia Pelayo is, she is a Bram Stoker Award-winning and International Latino Book Award-winning author and poet, the first Latina and the first Puerto Rican to win the Bram Stoker Award. She writes fairy tales that blend genre and explore grief, mourning, and cycles of violence. She's the author of Loteria and so many of our other favorite books, but today we are talking about her newest work. Something followed us home. Or lo que nos siguió a casa en español. This book was edited by her. And let me just read you the blurb from Simon & Schuster here. Dive into the chilling depths of Latina horror with this groundbreaking anthology edited by Bram Stoker Award winner Cynthia Pelayo, where each story reimagines immigration, colonization, faith, and folklore as the fears we inherit and carry across borders and generations. Something followed us home. It crawled in with our prayers, slipped into our beds, watched from mirrors, waited in water, and learned our names. Gathering chilling work from some of today's most acclaimed Latina voices, this horror anthology moves through haunted households, brutal landscapes, sacred spaces turned dangerous, and bodies claimed by forces both ancient and intimate. The dead murmur behind locked doors. Bones rebuild themselves under merciless suns. Love becomes a doorway for demonic hunger. Blood, devotion, and memory intertwine as the past presses back with teeth. Something Followed Us Home is an unnerving, visceral, and impossible-to-shake collection that proves that what is carried forward does not remain quiet, and what follows us rarely leaves without taking something in return. And this book features stories by some of our absolute faves that we've already talked about in our other book club episodes. Agustina Basterrica, Isabel Cañas, Gerardo Samano Cordoba, the author of Monstrilio, Maria Enriquez, Leopoldo Gu, which we read piñata for the book club. Monica Ojeda, who is on our TBR. Of course, Cynthia Pelayo herself and so many other authors. There's a story in here for everyone. It's going to make you cry. It's going to scare you. Some stories are going to make you laugh. This feels like a must read for this spooky season, which for us here is 24-7. So I'm going to stop rambling now. And here is our episode with Cynthia Pelayo talking about Something Followed Us Home, but also her journey into becoming a horror author and a paranormal story of hers. So I'm here with Cynthia Pelayo, the author of so many of our favorite books. Thank you. Thank you. But today, we're here to talk about one specific book, a collection of short stories, which I have here with me, Something Followed Us Home. Yes, I like the English and the Spanish. Yes, I started reading some of them in Spanish, but I don't know. I feel like listening in Spanish is so much easier for me than reading in Spanish. But yeah, first, I just want to say how much we loved this book. For our listeners that haven't heard about the book, can you tell them a little. Bit about it? Yeah, so Something Followed Us Home, Lo Que No Sigo A Casa, it is a Latino, Latina horror anthology. But many of the authors here don't come from the tradition of horror. And that was very important for me. I wanted to connect with as many people like leading figures in Latin American literature. Because I wanted their perspective of a prompt that I had given them. And I am just thrilled. So overall, the theme was what haunts you from where you're from? Like what has followed you throughout your life? If you've left your home country, your ancestral home, like what story or stories do you feel like are always like in the back of your mind? And that was it. And I made it very general. And all of the stories are so, so, so different in the way they wrote it, in what they wrote about. And I am just like thrilled. So we have, I mean, we have like Mariana Enriquez, we have Agustina Basterica, we have Alex Segura, Leopoldo Gaut, Brenta Lozano, Monika Ojeda. It was just like, I feel like everyone I've ever read was in this book. It was, it was like a, you know, a project of a lifetime. There was like just one author. And I will say her name, that I couldn't get Samantha Schwiedman. I wanted to get her because she wrote and she was just finishing her last story collection. And I just remember like begging. And they were like, and she's literally wrapping up edits just because I'm like, I fever dreams like in the back of my mind all the time. And I would have loved to have, I mean, but she gave us the good and evil or her last story. But they all, they've all been so wonderful. And I'm so grateful to everyone here. I mean, Zoraida Cordova, I mean, it just kind of goes on. I'm like, thank you for trusting me. Yeah. Yeah, no, it truly is amazing. Like I said, almost like every we have a they're supposed to be monthly, but we take so long reading one single book that they end up being like every six months. But we have a book club, like specific book club episodes. And I feel like everyone, every author that we've had for a book club episode is in this collection of stories. That's very cool. I'm really glad. Yeah, it was just like I'm even like looking at Daniel. Daniel was older, who writes a lot of like young adult and fantasy. I was like, well, how would you approach this? So it's just been I'm sad that it's now going to go into the world because it's been fun. It's been like the best group project in the background. I've just been I've just had like a blast with all of them. I bet. How did this even come together? Did you just wake up one day and you're like, you know what we need? A collection of horror stories or just stories from Latin America about what haunts us. How did this come to be? I wanted it to be positioned more as a literary anthology. And the more that I kept thinking of, and this was when just a number of things started picking up in the news. Things happening. And I really wanted a literary approach to this, like more general fiction. Like I didn't want it categorized in a specific genre. And so like, I had been in touch with many of them and I, you know, kept saying, you know, I want it to be something connecting to where we're from. And I wanted that. But then the more that just the last few years have seen a lot of increased intentions. I just kept thinking of all the anxieties that we've been living with. And I started then being curious, like, well, you know, somebody from Argentina, like, what is, what kind of anxieties do you have? And like, Brenda Lozano wrote the introduction and she's, she lives in Mexico, she's from Mexico City and she lives in Mexico. And I was just like, I really wanted to like hear from her, like, what is going on? Like for you who live in Mexico City, how are you interpreting all of this. And so it kind of became this conversation of what are you experiencing there? Because this is what I'm experiencing here. And then it just kind of became like, all right, it's going to be more of this tension of what we're dealing with. And the publisher wanted it to be positioned more like framed more horror. But I think if you read it, it's just people think horror and they think like blood and guts and violence. And so sometimes that's not necessarily what horror is. Sometimes horror is the fear of not feeling like you belong or that you're not accepted or that people, Ananda Lima's story, that there's a lot about linguistics and language, how you're not understood. So I think, and it was important for me also that people saw us, people from Latin America, not as a single thing. Because we are so, so different. I was born in Puerto Rico. My husband's from Mexico. Even speaking Spanish to him. And I've known him for like 25 years. Even speaking Spanish to him, I'll say something and he's just like, what are you talking about? You know, he's taking me to Mexico. I've taken him to Puerto Rico. And so we both have experienced like our cultures are so different. And then when you come here to the States, it's even different. And we're different state by state. Puerto Ricans in New York are very different than Puerto Ricans in Chicago or Florida. And so I really wanted people to see we're not homogenous. We all have different fears. And we all, although one thing that I found that was really fascinating was that's why I wanted to kind of not push so much the prompt. I wanted to see what they came back with. So many of them, family and belonging just kind of seem to be a consistent theme throughout. Yeah, I noticed that there's so many of the stories are about either belonging, family or both. One of my absolute favorites, and I didn't even expect it, but where is it? Oh, Pomelo by Xochitl González. How beautiful. I... That was really, and I really wanted to include her. I was just like, and she was like, I don't write horror. I'm like, you have something. Yeah, yeah. When you write, she's a journalist and she covers like so many fascinating topics. I'm like, dig, dig. You have to find it. And she had this piece and she's like, well, it's not a short story. It's more like a novelette. It's a longer piece. And it was beautiful. It's so beautiful. I'm looking forward to people reading Fomelo, yeah. It was absolutely a gorgeous story. And another one of my favorite stories was yours. And it's not the only Puerto Rico one. What was the other one? It was also very fun. Her first cruise ship, the one with the zombies. I did not expect that. That was so good. And I just feel like I keep looking at Anne and I'm like, this story... It's going to hit the awards circuit. And I am predicting it's going to hit the awards circuit because it's funny, but the social commentary underneath, I'm like, it's so smart. Yeah. And it's so interesting to see two stories, both set in Puerto Rico, but very, very different. Yeah. Yeah. Hers is modern. Mine takes place. It's like a more historical piece. And it's very, yeah, it's much more. I write a lot of sad things. I was like, it was so sad. I cried. Actually, that leads me to what I was going to say. One of my absolute favorite things about reading horror is that it's used to explore themes. And yours is not the only story that touches on this, but it's used to explore themes on about imperialism, colonization. Historical injustices. Um, is this like, was this intentional when. You were reading, when you were writing your story and here out of the Puerto Rico, or did it just like, did it just happen? You were just like writing and it just, it's what came out, what came out. So I've never really written widely about Puerto Rico. I've written like, I did Loteria, but, um, that was my MFA thesis. I did Loteria, but that was like all different stories. I did that book, That was a. Special edition that had a lot of stuff about my family. And then I did something in the Stephen King End of the World as we know it. And I knew when I wrote this piece, I knew when this book came together, I knew I'm going to deal with the Ponce Massacre. And when I was younger, much, much... I shouldn't even say this, but I'm going to say it. So when I was much, much younger, I... would attend a lot of protests dealing with the bombing that was going on in Vieques. Yes. We have another history podcast called The Historias Are Known, and we've done an episode on Vieques. We did one about the Ponce Massacre, one about Lolita Lebron. So I know me and Carmen are more familiar with it, but I don't know if, I mean, we do have a lot of crossover with listeners that listen to both podcasts. So I think a lot of listeners are familiar with the Ponce Massacre because of that episode. Thank you. And so like, I was really involved with like a You know, a lot of local youth groups. I was involved with like developing a lot of youth initiatives to like foster education and whatnot. And one of the things that we wound up doing, we wound up, a group of us went to New York for like this huge protest about it. I mean, the military is no longer in Vieques. However, I wound up getting an FBI file. Oh my God. For many years because of my involvement. I went into the military when I was very young, when I was 17. And so I come from a military family. But at the time, I remember they're literally bombing. There's bombing exercises happening on our island. Children are developing really rare forms of cancer. Oh, yeah. And then like the fishermen, they couldn't do like sustain what they used to live on, like because of the chemicals affecting the water. Houses were being like like falling, caving in because of like the shaking from the bombings like so much. And I remember like recently I had heard somebody say, well, you know, the U.S. military would never turn on it's citizens and I was just like really you know we they literally were bombing on the island in the you know the nationalist the nationalist parties and so yeah so that's why I generally have been quiet about like my involvement with them because yeah when I would I was uh The FBI wasn't very happy with me for a few years yet. I bet. I bet. Yeah. Yeah. What I mean, what amazing work, really, because it's it's a scary thing to like, you know, stand up for what's right, really. Yeah. And I mean, and I won't go too long on a tangent, but like Puerto Rico is one of the oldest colonies in the world. They don't have water right now. Yes. And so, you know, you know, the the. But some of us have experienced, not just people in Puerto Rico, but like throughout Latin America because of imperialism. Yes. Because of the U.S. involvement in other countries has created huge instability and huge economic, you know, difficulties that have rippled throughout generations. So I'm happy that I was able to write about the Bonsai Massacre in this. And I was just kind of like being careful because I'm like, well, We haven't had any trouble in a few years, but... In a few years, yeah. In a few years, but, you know, I... Yeah, yeah, so... And I hope that the story. Again, a beautiful story that made me and Carmen cry. We texted each other. We're like, oh my God, this part made us cry. But I hope that it leads people to read about the Ponce Massacre and Puerto Rican history. Yeah, I hope it leads people to see... how the U.S. has been involved and going in, taking people's farms, forcing them to work on their own land, you know, and that's, you know, and there's still like la aparición, you know, the forced sterilization of Puerto Rican women. Yes. Birth control. Anyone that's ever been on birth control in the United States, you can thank a Puerto Rican woman because they were tested. And they didn't know they were being tested, many of them. And so we've been used as guinea pigs. Yeah. What was it like a one third of the women on the island were sterilized through either like, I mean, through the birth, was it through the birth control trial or also just sterilized like because they were sterilized? Sterilized too. And so part of the practices were like they would go in for like an appendectomy or something and then automatically they would just be sterilized and they wouldn't even know. They wouldn't even tell these women. And so the suffering of the Puerto Rican people, I think, is something that's not discussed. I mean, again, throughout Latin America, it's just, I mean, Cuba. Oh, ni se diga. Yeah. This is the worst that they have been because of the United States. Like, it's the United States doing on purpose because they want to, I mean, what is the end game? To destroy Cuba? It's... Yeah, I have thoughts of what they want. But, you know, for another country to come in and prevent oil from coming into another country or medical supplies, I think, you know, the number of deaths throughout Latin America have been in the millions and millions and millions because of even recent because of the U.S. involvement and what they have done or not done. Oh, 100%. And I think that's why such a important piece of like work, this book is coming out in such an important time where it seems like things have not, it doesn't seem like things really have gotten more hostile, not only for like Latinx people in the US, but in all of Latin America, like Latin America has. Shifted, right? Of the, and it's of the US is doing really the meddling, the, yeah, And so a book that shares like so many different stories across all of Latin America, which you did on purpose, you got so many people from different places. I think it's such an important time for it to be coming out. Yeah, I tried to get as many people from Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico. You know, I tried as much as possible to Brazil, even Brazil, like throughout South America. So I wanted just a huge perspective. You know, people came back with true crime stories. People came back with, you know, what it's like to uh, like Diana's with the vampires that kind of has like, what's it like to like assimilate? Like, I kind of feel like that's like the underlying of that story. Like, what's it like to fit in? Yes. The last one, we are gathered here together. Yes. There's some, and that's, you know, I feel like I'm going all over the place, but like one, I remember growing up, we were not allowed to speak Spanish outside of the house. My dad was always scared. And, you know, he came here in the 50s and he would go back and forth. But I remember when we were out of the house, we do not speak Spanish because he was always scared that something, so someone would do something to us. And so like, I mean, he has stories. I mean, he had told me stories of he would go to like a diner to get a cup of coffee before going to work in the factory in the morning. And he wouldn't even say anything. He would just say coffee. And that was, and they would, he had a story with the waitress at a down and she kind of like looked at him and she could just tell, no. And she took the coffee and she's like, get out of here. And that happened in Chicago in the sixth. Oh my God. And so that's why, you know, I feel like we have the no sabe, no sabe, no sabe kids. Yes. I mean, my niece and nephew, they don't know Spanish, but you know, I think I feel bad that they are shamed. I don't think we should shame them for not learning Spanish. That's not their fault. And us who speak Spanish shaming them, that's not the way to go about it. It could have been a number of reasons. It could have been because of that. Their parents were scared that they didn't want their children to learn it. They wanted their children to learn English just so they could navigate better. But I mean, there are many of us that had to figure out when can I be myself in this situation? And when do I have to act like American? And that's kind of like Diana's kind of gave me that feeling. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And that's what's difficult about, I think people don't realize like that's part of the difficulty of being Latin American in this country. Sometimes it's like, who can I be right now in this room? You know, you have to assess the room. And so like, yeah. And then it depends like what part of the country you're in. Because like for me, growing up with my parents, my dad's from El Salvador and my mom is from Mexico. They met in English school in Oakland, California. But the part of Oakland we were in, it was basically like little Mexico. And my parents never had to really, they eventually learned English. Everyone spoke Spanish, basically everywhere, at the doctors, at school, and not even on purpose. But our first grade teacher was bilingual. And so, and almost all the kids spoke Spanish. Like I didn't realize that there was like, like, I just thought everyone was Mexican. And then I moved like as an. Adult later, I moved to Vancouver, Washington. And I was like, this is the whitest place I've ever been. Where are all the Mexicans? The first time I found a Mexican store, a grocery store, I walked in. They were playing like, I don't know, Mexican music. And I almost cried. I was like, oh, my God, there are other Mexicans. And then I felt so silly for almost crying. I mean, I don't want to like, I still live in the same neighborhood I grew up in. And I'm in Chicago. It's the same thing that there's neighborhoods in Chicago where you don't need to know English. You can just, the grocery stores and the signs are in Spanish. My neighborhood is about like 90% Latinx, Latin. And so it's like, we have people from South America, Central America. My neighbors are from Ecuador. Like neighbors across next door are from Mexico. And so I feel like, at home here. Like, you know, I feel like I can go out and I can just be myself. And then I go to another neighborhood where it's just like, okay, they don't, I don't hear Spanish. I have to be. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The, the switching back and forth, the switch. And then it's like the, you know, and I grew up very sheltered too. So that was another thing. So I grew up very sheltered. I grew up in the eighties. Um, and so, um, I, you know, I kind of, I didn't go away to college. You were not, as the only girl in the house for a bunch of Puerto Ricans, you were not allowed to leave. You had to sit in the house until you were married. And so when I did college, it was go to the college, take your classes and come home. Because that, you were not, there was no leaving the house until you got married. Yeah. So even after I got married, I got married young because traditional Latino Puerto Rican and my husband's parents are from like, from Mexico. And so it was like, we got married, what, 21? 21? 22? And so I've always kind of been, you know, in my little world. And even when I worked, it was like in my little world. And then kind of being an author now, going to different places, I'm like, oh, shit. I see what everybody's talking about even more now. Yeah. It's a little scary. Yeah. Speaking of scary and author, I was wondering, Did you? Because I remember, I think I was listening to Susto when he talked to you about, what book was it? The Peter Pan book, maybe? I can't remember what book. It was Forgotten Sisters or Vanishing Daughters. One of one of those. I can't remember what book he was talking to you about. But I remember in the episode you mentioned having been a journalist, like a crime journalist. But how did you like end up leaving that and becoming an author? And then did you just like say, oh, horror, I'm writing horror. Did this just happen? Like, how did that happen? Yeah, I used to watch a lot of horror movies growing up. I loved horror movies. I didn't read a lot of horror novels. I went to inner-city schools. My parents worked in factories. We were lucky if we got, like, a little golden book for, like, a dollar or somewhere. So whatever I read is whatever our inner-city schools had. And those were, like, mostly, like, the classics, like Huck Finn or something, or those types of books. And I wanted to be a journalist. And that's... My dad would always get the newspapers, reading the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune. And I loved... that. And I knew I wanted to go to college. And I was the first one in my family to go to college. And I was like, well, I'm going to write. I'm going to study writing. My dad's like, no, you're not. Journalism. And I covered crime, inner city crime. This was like in what, 2001, 2001, 2002. And around that time, a bunch of newspapers were for closing up shop. They're reducing their staff. It was not paying much. And so I was like, what else can I do for money? And somebody was like, get a master's in marketing. And I was like, okay. I got a master's in marketing because someone told me, well, you could do public relations. It's writing. It's still storytelling, right? And then nobody was going to hire a Puerto Rican girl to do public relations at that time. And so I wound up working in research, so data analysis and consulting. So I was doing that by day. researching, doing data analysis research by day. And I was still working as a reporter at night. And there was one crime, or one crime, one, yeah, it was a guy. Well, he was shot in the back. The police were just like, we don't know who shot him. And I was just like, you're the ones who are here with guns. But this was at a time where there was no cell phones, really. This is like It wasn't the way it is today. Today where everything's recorded and we have like evidence of who did it. Yeah. Sometimes, but yeah. And so I was like, I need to shut up or something bad's going to happen to me. So I was like, okay. And I remember there were a bunch of people in the community, like people from like neighbors and they were shouting at me. And that's when I felt like, I just felt my heart break because they were shouting at me and they were like, you see what we see. You cannot go home and write something what they're telling you to write. And I was like, fuck. And I just remember calling my editor as I was walking back home. And I was like, I quit. I was like, I quit. I can't do it. And I'm scared. I don't know what's going to happen. I see what I see. And I'm going to give you a story. And you're not going to want to publish that story. So I quit. And later I realized, oh, it's PTSD is what I have. But I knew I wanted to... I didn't write. I wasn't writing. I was really depressed because I wasn't writing. I eventually applied and got into a Master's of Fine Arts in Writing program. And it was there that I just started kind of writing. I was thinking I wanted to do creative nonfiction. I wanted to do like longer think pieces, like, you know, like social, you know, like more pieces. But every time I would start writing, ghosts would start appearing in my room. essays and I'm like what is happening and my graduate advisor was like you're a horror writer who doesn't know she's a horror writer and I was like is that a bad thing like that's bad he's like just go with it and that's sort of where I got into it. Because it's essentially, I think every story is me saying something that I can't comfortably tap into without including a ghost. Because I would just cry and cry and cry. You know, like, you know, the Ponce Massacre. Like, I could have written that story as a historical piece. But I think I would have been like in a ball in the corner of my room crying for a long time. Yeah, no. And the way it was done for the book here, I was in a ball in the corner crying. But it was it was it was so good. It's such a beautiful way to just tell like, again, tell people about the Ponte Massacre, but also like these things happen and they leave behind. wounds that last like a lifetime. People move on, but this thing still happened in this town. And there's still, I don't know. I mean, like maybe I'm being a little like too spiritual, but there's still like remnants of whatever happened, right? In these places. And what a way to just convey it in your story. Like, oh my God. Like I'm trying to, you know, I think everything I write, I'm always trying to get better. And I've done, I've written things where I'm like, it didn't hit the mark for me. But my goal is to be able, if I can write something and communicate to somebody, here is what really happened. And you can feel that. And I feel like I've accomplished my goal. And that's all I want to do. I want to, I guess I'm still a journalist, right? I'm still covering crime. I'm still talking about these really bad things that have happened to people who didn't receive any type of justice when they were alive. And my goal is to at least be like, I see what happened and I hope that I can share your story with other people. So, I mean, it's the writing world. It's frustrating because, like I said, every every new book, I'm like, OK, how can I say this better so that somebody is like, it's boring or how can I say this better? So the action moves. But underneath, I'm hiding the story, you know, that I. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. What a, what a challenging task, really. Yeah. I mean, you know, sometimes I, I hit it a little bit. Sometimes I, it didn't come out at all. And I'm like, well, I just keep doing it. And, um, I just keep, you know, this is my, this is my full-time job right now. Um, I've been a full-time writer for three years, two, two years, which is scary, but, um, I keep telling myself it's bigger than me. What I'm trying to tell people is bigger than me. So how can I do this the right way? How beautiful. Oh, my gosh. Yes. Thank you. Before we go, I did want to ask, because everyone that comes on, I always ask, but do you have a ghost story that you want to share with us that happened? Well, first, I guess, do you believe in ghosts? I don't know. For a long time, I said, no, I don't believe in ghosts. But I think that's a lie because I believe we never, we never go away. I believe that I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a, you know, I'm a practicing Catholic. And so I, I'm liberal and I believe everybody should love everybody and we should, you know, everybody has the right to love and live their life in accordance with the way it doesn't hurt people. But I, I kind of struggle with that. I'm like, well, my belief tells me we don't end. We always continue on. And so I've had some weird stuff happen. Oh, okay. So I grew up in a haunted house that they would say was a haunted house. I remember that there would be people upstairs. It was my grandfather and my aunt would leave. And you would hear people running back and forth. running back and forth, and then you hear the doors slamming. And I remember when I told my dad, and my dad's dead, but I remember when I told my dad that, and I must have been five, I was like, I hear somebody running and I hear somebody slamming the doors. And my dad was like, you don't talk about those things because to talk about those things is to give those things power. And I was like, oh, and I still remember that. I still remember. So if you see something, don't say it. Yeah. But then I remember, and another, there's a few weird things in that house. One of the other weird thing was I was in my bedroom. I must've been like 10 or 11 and my bedroom door was open and my mother was washing the dishes and I could hear her washing the dishes. And then the water stops and she still has, because she used to do like the yellow gloves, like down and she's standing in my door and like her face is like stunned. And she was like, did you just walk into the kitchen right now? And I'm like on my bed, I'm like reading or something. And I was like, no. And she was just like, and I was like, what happened? She's like, I saw you in a white dress walk into the kitchen. And I was like, oh, so that. Oh no. Really, really like, like my, like I, yeah, that was a really scary thing. And I just remember how like terrified she was. And then later on they would have like, an exorcism in that house. Oh, wow. So there was a series of prayers that were prayed. I was told not to be in the room, but I remember being in the kitchen. I mean, I remember, I have a memory of a lot of people being in the living room, doing a lot of prayers. And I was very, very little. So it was a weird house. So I don't know. I think you never end. I think we always continue on. And I think it's important that if you love someone and they're no longer here physically to continue talking to them. Yes. Ask them for guidance. You wake up in the night. My dad died in 2020. I used to talk to that man every day. I wake up in the morning. Oh, my mom does the same thing for my grandpa. She wakes up, she's like, hi, how are you? Blah, blah, blah. She has this picture and there's like, it's decorated with like a rosario hanging on there. And like every morning she passes by and she's like, buenos dias. So yeah, that's me. Every morning I wake up, I say, good morning, dad. I take my, because we would always drink coffee together. Before my first sip of coffee, I was like, I always say, thank you, dad, for taking care of me. Yes. Yeah. Everything is energy. I'm like very spiritual too. Kind of like, whoa. But I think we never, we never end. So. Yeah. Yeah. No, I completely agree. Um, one more thing about my grandpa, when the world cup was happening, I, I took his picture with us to watch like one of the watch parties for the Bexley game. And then I was like, how could you lose in front of my grandpa? Yeah. I was like, you're supposed to win for him. He's here watching. I think they're here. I really feel like they're here. You just have to talk to them. Um, It's, yeah. So I guess I do. I guess I do believe in ghosts, but friendly, friendly ghosts. Friendly, yeah, friendly. Yeah, no, I think there's something also like beautiful about being, it makes it easier to like, not cope with, but maybe deal with eventually the passing of someone like I know my family believes like they'll visit you in your dreams um and my twin has uh seen my grandpa and I'm like. Why haven't I one day one day but and. So I has my mom in dreams like he'll just be like sitting in a bench and they're like oh we saw him and I'm like I'm so happy for you yeah. My dad came to me I remember because I was you know when he died in the house because he wanted hospice in the house We sat there with him with his body. We did like the last row. It was like intense. I remember we had the priest come in with the last rites. And then I sat with him after he died. We sat with him for like a few hours. And I just remember holding his hand. I just remember being scared. I'm like, papi, please don't come to me in a dream. I'm so, so, so scared. And he still wanted to come to me in a dream because he told me he sent me a message that I sent to my mom. I was like, dad wants me to tell you this. And she was like, OK. So he's come to me in two dreams. And I always get so scared, but when he comes to me in dreams, he's in his 30s. Oh, wow. That's so interesting. He's how I remember him when I was a five-year-old. That's exactly how he looked. Oh, my gosh. 35, 40, handsome. He still had his hair and his black suit. And it's just really interesting that that's how I see him in my dreams, too. Yeah. No, that is. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Also beautiful though. Wow. Amazing. Yeah. I, it makes sense to me that they, that, you know, it gives me comfort. It gives me hope. This world is, it's difficult. Even if you live like an easy life, there's always every difficulties, but I think turning to, your ancestors like that has been a huge sense of comfort for me. Yeah. Yes. Yes. I completely agree. And then one more thing before we go, I always also ask people if they have a spooky recommendation for everyone. For me, it's this book. Something followed us home. But anything spooky, any spooky media that has been like on your mind that you would recommend to people? Oh, Leopold of Galt's Rooted comes out, I think the same week. Really? The same day? I think. So Leopoldo got his next routine. comes out as well in September so check that out. Okay yes that's on my list um I read Piñata and it was uh amazing yeah so I think so I'm excited. Excited that we um yeah I really get same day September 29th so um yeah check that out so Very cool. Very cool. And thank you so much for doing this. I would say with us, but it's just me because Carmen's not with me. So thank you for doing this with me. I was very excited to talk with you about this book. Thank you so much. And I'm definitely going to check out the show that you did when you talked about Puerto Rico. I would love to hear that. So I'm going to check that out. Yeah, we've got several. The Birth Control... Trials. We did one on that. And then, yeah, like I said, the Ponce Massacre. Lolita Lebron was another one. I have on my list, like my white whale of research is a full episode on Pedro Alviso Campos because he was done so wrong. They experimented on him. Yes. And that's on my list to tackle one day. But so much. I have to look up so many things. Yeah. There's a lot. Yeah, if you were... Another one to add to your list, the Puerto Rican race riots in Chicago that happened in the 60s. There was a huge thing in the 60s where the police shot and killed a Puerto Rican during the Puerto Rican parade. The first one. During the parade. It was like the first parade they shot and killed one young man and then like this huge riot just happened for like Days and nights. And my dad was involved. So I remember. Oh, wow. They rioted for a few days. I remember my dad was attacked by like a dog in a fire. Oh, my God. And yeah, I mean, the Puerto Rican neighborhood was like under surveillance for a long time. Cultural Center of Chicago, people like me would get involved with them. And then later on, like, great. So I'm definitely going to add that to our list. And before I take it up any more of your time, thank you again so much for making this happen. And everyone else, make sure you check out someone, not someone, something followed us home. Thank you. I hope that this episode has inspired you to go out and check the book out. It is available September 29th, which will be in like five days. And again, it's really the perfect read for this spooky season. All right, stay spooky and we'll catch everyone next time. Bye. Spooky Tales is hosted by Christina and Carmen, produced and edited by Christina, researched by Christina, Carmen, and with the help of Dawn. Shout out, Dawn. If you're enjoying the podcast, consider leaving us a five-star review. We would really appreciate it. If you don't want to do a five-star review, just don't leave a review, but don't leave anything lower than that, please. I'm just kidding. You can reach out to the podcast at spookytales.gmail.com you can go to our website at spookytales.com and fill out the contact form if you want to support the podcast you can join our patreon where we send exclusive stickers have bonus episodes eight dollar members get an exclusive keychain it's super cool i you got new ones and these ones are huge and if you want to support but you can't or don't want to join the patreon that's fine too you can also get some merch you can find shirts that say espuki in old english letters there's a beanie i love the beanie there's also a hat there's a no mammoth shirt which is a fan favorite There's a lot of options, crop tops, sweaters. It's almost sweater weather. We're nearing a spooky season. So yeah, get your hoodies. You're going to need them. If you don't want to do all that, that's fine, too. You can just listen like you're listening now. And that's the best support that you can give us, like I always say in our ad break. And yeah, if you like history, you can follow Historias Unknown, mine and Carmen's other podcasts. And you can find Spooky Tales on all of our socials at Spooky Tales. All this is in the show notes and we appreciate every single listen. Thank you so much. Stay spooky.