Family and Disfunction

The focus of the collection of stories in Night at the Fiestas is on family. Each story line centers on the family unit, their relationships with each other and dysfunction. Many of the stories relate the lives of non-traditional family structures, with absent fathers or mothers, children adapting to their new life with a step parent and cousins living with their aunts and uncles.

Both Claire and Cordelia from Family Reunion and Mojave Rats are children of divorce. They are forced to adjust to their lives with a new father and feel separate from the rest of their family. Both feel that their mothers do not love them as much as their new husbands and new babies. In Cordelia’s case her mother realizes that she treats her differently as she is a reminder of her ex-husband. She knows Cordelia will never feel like...