Historical women’s fiction with romantic elements. Revising. 99,500 words.
Antonio Lee and Rosa Salas are separated in an anti-Chinese crusade that erupts during the Mexican Revolution.
Antonio, a mixed-race young man who was raised in a Catholic orphanage in China, feels he belongs for the first time when he settles in northern Mexico in the 1910s. He falls in love with Rosa, who works at his sweetshop.
Pastelería y Dulcería Lee. Image by Masa Assassin
When her family forbids the relationship, they run away together but are caught.
Rosa is sent to Arizona to live with a great-aunt and eventually works to support immigrants in the US and Mexico. Antonio returns to China, though he cannot forget Rosa. For years neither knows the full truth of their separation, but then, by chance, each of their lives becomes entwined with the same couple.
Based on academic research.
Novel excerpt: “Monsoon Valediction,” The Hopper, November 2018. Nominated for Best of the Net Anthology.
*Today this cake is called trés leches. For some history and a modern recipe see: http://www.nickmalgieri.com/recipes/pastel-de-tres-leches/