Castañeda is the Community Opinion Editor at The San Diego Union-Tribune. She lives in Chula Vista. @presspasslc on Twitter
I go through the motions, day to day, with a heavy, queasy, sad and almost inconsolable feeling inside my soul.
As people all over the world started getting sick during this pandemic, I worried about friends and family in San Diego and Mexico and also about my loved ones in my home state of Illinois, especially those with underlying health conditions. But in every phone call, they promised they were staying safe.
Things can change so quickly.
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In August, I learned that my dad, Ignacio, and my stepmother, Josefina, tested positive for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Both have underlying health conditions. For three weeks, I heard my father’s voice grow weaker and weaker. At night, I had only silent tears and prayer to cling to.
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One year ago on New Year’s Eve 2020, we had our own little party in the sala. We ate grapes at midnight, toasted with sparkling juice and watched the big ball drop in Times Square on TV. We called our family in different time zones. The freshness of a new beginning lingered in the air, but it didn’t last long.
By February, the novel coronavirus starting making headlines as people around the globe started getting sick. And it was making its way here to the U.S. and San Diego, like a spreading wildfire.
We were forced to stay home, and reexamine our lives and our country’s response to racial injustice and political divisiveness.