Chrysalis-Dionne   In Search of Glowworm

Knowing without a doubt her husband, Deek Jorgensen, was falsely imprisoned, Lourdes Jorgensen worked diligently to get proper representation for him.  Back in her hometown of Los Angeles, California, Lourdes has to endure the injustices and humiliation of prejudice . . . just as her husband had.

Lourdes’s Journal:

Back under the Los Angeles dome, I felt like an insect sizzling under a magnifying glass.  Hot, nauseated from morning sickness and saturated with an abundance of pregnancy hormones, my emotions had spiked beyond rationality.  I waited impatiently in the pretentious lobby of Deek’s high-priced attorney’s office.  Even with plenty of funds to pay the silver-haired, arrogant lawyer, he still treated me as an illegal alien, “free-holie,” “beaner,” “taco,” “wetback” . . . all names I had internalized growing up in my country.  A native Californian, within a predominantly bilingual Latino city, and I was still treated like dirt on the soles of the wealthy white men’s shoes.  As a little girl I had felt the hatred penetrate my eleven-year-old world when speaking Spanish with girlfriends.  It was hard for us to understand.  We were just little girls.  Why had white people frowned upon the beautiful Spanish vernacular as if they had been listening to a constant flow of vulgar curse words?  I fanned my warm face with a stuffy financial magazine.  I could not wait for the next hour to be over.  Legal jargon spoken down to me as if I was a Mexican illegal immigrant with no understanding of the English language was only part of my discomfort.  At the end of the session, I would then have to face more humiliation and pay the fat, intelligent prick for treating me like a wetback pariah.  You see, dark-skinned clients, especially of the Latino persuasion, had to pay on the spot; we were considered high risks for bad debt.  Never mind the fact that Deek’s and my current bank balance was more than this rat-bastard would make in fifteen years.  Sadly, however, I knew the appeal process, lack of future income, and Deek’s lawyer fees would devour that capital faster than a ravenous cancer.