The Footprint of Memories September 26, 2022 – Posted in: Books, Edwin Fontanez, News

As a young man, like many others my age, I could not wait to get away from the judgmental constraints of my small island. Life seemed bigger on the other side. It was a time to look ahead and not be held back by sentimentality, a feeling that wouldn’t overcome me until I was much older. Nothing could match my endless optimism and youthful arrogance. I was hungry for a new existence. But I never suspected that the path I took along my protracted course would one day lead me home.

In the year 2000, some devastating news brought me into a dark reality: the unmistakable mental decline of an unapologetically ordinary man. The deteriorating disease of dementia plagued my father’s existence for sixteen years until the last day of his life.

It wasn’t until his passing in 2016 that I revisited my family journals and realized the copious observations I had kept as witness to his journey into darkness. Thankfully, my notes helped me discover bright, reassuring insights into his fleeting mind and prompted me to take a fresh look at my life and relationship with him.

Following the footprints of my memories through writings, photography, poetry, and art, I’ve attempted to reconstruct the path of his unsung life and honor my Papá Modesto. The result is One Last Song for My Father: A Son’s Memoir, my final elegy to the imperfect man I loved.

—Edwin Fontanez, author