Diane Fortuna They Were Legal: Balzac Y Lopez

Annotation

They Were Legal: Balzac y LopezThe History of an Hispanic FamilyNew York 1901 1906In Part I of They Were Legal: Balzac y Lopez, Spanish and French Pepn Balzac, a compositor and translator, emigrates from Puerto Rico just after the Annexation. Once in New York City, he finds himself in the vortex of irresistible events: the assassination of McKinley, World War I, the Spanish Flu Epidemic, the Depression and the Great Hurricane of 1938. Coming from a genteel island culture, Pepn runs smack into the dog-eat-dog immigrant existence that kills his sister-in-law, Daisy Lopez in the Triangle Fire 1911. Part II presents the tears and laughter of Nena, Pepns daughter weaver of tales, preserver of the past, mother and surrogate mother, avid moviegoer and kindest of kind spirits.