Filipino folklore teaches that hardships endured as a caterpillar ultimately guide one’s flight as a butterfly, “Buay Dalawang.”
Teesa Paruparo’s family needed rescuing—it would come from a surprising and unexpected source. Beginning on a small Filipino island during World War II, Teesa’s mother, Marita, survived unspeakable conditions as one of thousands of lost war refugee children, while her orphaned father, Manny, migrated to the United States in search of a new American life. Years later, in 1960’s West LA, Teesa and her four brothers struggle under their butterfly parents. Raised in poverty, they fear their mother’s tirades, which often manifest in physical and mental abuse. But, generations of adversity infuse a strong common thread of hope, which leads to understanding, and finally forgiveness of both their parents and themselves. Follow the sometimes heartbreaking, inspirational Paruparo’s unfolding saga where things are not always what they seem.
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MEET THE AUTHOR
My name is Keith Canedo and I live in the picturesque Pacific Northwest of the United States. Like the beautiful north fork of our Skykomish River, my creative journey walks on a path with many forks. One as a novelist. My first historical fiction novel, UNFOLDING, As It Should was published in 2017. It is a generational Filipino family saga, and the first of many. The next one, Echoes At Ehkola is about a young university student of Chinook Indian heritage in search of the truth within a dark family secret and is currently in progress. My novels focus on cultural, folkloric and mystical family accounts infused with my love of history and telling a good story.
Other forks in my path are as a published single panel gag cartoonist, HIGHBEAMS Vol.1 and a children’s picture book author, Have You Seen Green? With yet another fork as a musician, performing in various charity and personal events and as a Community Service volunteer. I guess you could say my creative paths are energized by the love of my children and an inherited gift from my father; the capacity to dream big. When my paths gets hindered, I’m inspired from a quote by Dr. Wayne Dyer, “don’t die with your music still in you.” And I do have many novels, cartoons, performances, children’s picture books and stories still in me, waiting to get out.
