Hi, I’m Valerie. I’m a 30-something Sacramento native (4 generations deep) Chicana, who recently left the corporate world, like many others during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This site has evolved so much since 2009 when I first started blogging on WordPress. By 2011 my blog was being read across many continents and had a small but faithful following which led me to be quoted in the Wall Street Journal for my opinions about Instagram. In 2014 I finally had enough of my dead-end job at a coffee chain and quit it to pursue my artsy projects (blog, youtube, photography) and moved into the Warehouse Artist Lofts which actually ended up pushing me towards giving it up to work full-time again. After trying some new things, new jobs, new people, and new websites, and new cities,I’m back to where I began and all I want to do is write about what’s on my mind in the hopes it helps others.
In 2022 I re-launched this blog as a storefront called La Mariposa California, named after my Great Grandma Candelaria’s restaurant La Mariposa that she owned in the 1940s to 50s in Sacramento, California.
Follow me along this journey as I reinvent myself for what feels like the millionth time.
I love the way you write! be sure and add that you have been quoted in the Wall Street Journal!!! just sayin … LOVE YOU
MAJA
“Roadtrips, politics, and classic cars”….we have a lot in common!
Different generations, different parts of the state, and different ethnic backgrounds…funny how that works!