Making a Decision

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Anita Perez Ferguson

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Golden Secrets

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synopsis

Synopsis
Alicia Ortega, a 14-year-old Mexican girl, struggles to protect her father’s land when she and her older sisters are aggressively courted by land-hungry Yankees and rough-cut fur traders in the Spanish colony. It’s up to Alicia, her sister Clara, and their Chumash friend Nina to shoulder the responsibility of caring for the Ortega home and business. When Alicia’s oldest sister is sent to finishing school in Texas for protection and refinement, the remaining younger sisters must run the rancho alone. Dangers on all sides begin to descend as the sisters are pursued by Yankee immigrant merchants and sailors hoping to cash in on rich lands and access to Pacific ports. Alicia is trying her best to keep her family’s home and business afloat and thankfully, her companion, Nina is there to help. But as an indigenous girl, Nina is valuable to traders, trappers, and surveyors for her knowledge of the Californian terrain and her network of tribal relations. However, she won’t always be there to help Alicia’s family, especially since she has problems of her own. The Franciscan Mission is pressuring her family to convert to Catholicism, a charming trader is courting her, and, worse of all, their tribal territory and tribal ways are vanishing. The girls struggle to protect the Ortega family’s land and black market dock from conniving suitors, but tough family secrets are threatening everything, and Alicia doesn’t know if they’ll be able to survive until her parents return.

bio

Author Biography

Dr. Perez Ferguson is a cross-cultural educator and consultant. Her fiction brings to life the voices of California inhabitants living 200 years ago. She has twice won the Best YA Fiction Award from the San Francisco Writers Conference, 2021 and 2022.

Regarding Broken Promises:

"The tightly wound plot flows effortlessly from one moment to the next.... readers will find themselves inspired by the future Sparrow creates for herself and those around her." — Kirkus Reviews

Her non-fiction promotes the voices of under-represented communities in the twenty-first century. This earned her the 2014 Lacayo Lifetime Achievement Award from the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute. She is an Advisor and Former Chair for the InterAmerican Foundation and a former Visiting Lecturer for the Council for Independent Colleges. She enjoys living and writing on the Pacific coast.

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Author Insight

Making a Decision

How do you make a moral decision when you are under pressure? Alicia, a teen, in the novel Golden Secrets, is trying to protect her family's rancho from being taken over by a land-hungry Yankee. Her parents are away from home and she has little time and few resources. I often see young people who face great responsibilities in our modern-day life. They, like Alicia, make precarious choices. As an author, I wanted to give my character time and support. I determined to give her a faithful friend even if that meant complicating her choices.

Book Excerpt

Golden Secrets

Alicia didn’t plan to use magic to solve her problems at first, but by the time Nina suggested a visit to her grandmother, Alicia was desperate for any kind of help she could get. Alicia knew the old woman was a healer for the original tribe that lived on the Mission lands.
            “Big trouble, Masagawa help.” Nina shared her plan. “We go village, see Masagawa.” Nina’s grandmother had the strangest name.
            “I know you want to help, but this is serious business. How can your grandma’s magical cures help?” Alicia resisted the idea at first. Plus, she remembered her mother’s warnings about Nina’s tribal village; she said it had dark magic. Nina’s grandmother and brothers clung to the old ways.
            Then again, Alicia envied Nina’s skills and confidence, her ability to see how Harris brought trouble to the house. She seemed to possess the knowledge of a grown woman. How could they be the same age? After all, Nina was just their household helper. The title to the rancho was at stake, and Alicia needed official help.
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Anita Perez Ferguson

Golden Secrets

Synopsis

Author Biography

Author Insight

Book Excerpt

Golden Secrets

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