In Memoriam:

By Elia Esparza

She was 53. Shawna Baca died Sunday, May 28, 2024, after battling an aggressive and terminal cancer.

A gifted cinematographer, writer and director, Shawna was born on September 9, 1970, and was raised in Montebello, California. She founded 4 Elements Productions where she amassed 14 producer credits with several of her award-winning short films having garnered recognition at national and international film festivals and showcased around the globe. 

 She is best known for short films, Girl Please! (2006), Isabel (2007) 3:52 (2005), and Rose’s Garden (2003). Her 3:52 stars America Ferrara and was the recipient of the 2006 Audience Award from the San Diego Women Film Festival and the Tabloid Witch Award, an Honorable Mention in 2007. 

In 2007, Shawna was selected by Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett from more than 20,000 filmmakers to be part of his 2007 FOX reality show, On The Lot after catching their attention with her short film, Isabel.

Her other producing credits include Laseerium, Désirée, The Lesson, Bearspring, Her Morbid Desires, We Are All Latino, Tomoko’s Kitchen, Dolorosas, Man, Where’s My Shoe?, Impersonal Impression

Los Angeles’ La Opinion newspaper awarded Shawna the “Mujeres Destacadas” Award. She was also honored at the Latina Symposium (Washington D.C.) with an award and recognition for being a “Latina Entrepreneur,” and given a scholarship to the prestigious Tuck School of Business Executive Education Program at Dartmouth University by Latina Style magazine. 

She is the author of a transformational 2020 memoir, “Fear Less: An Agoraphobic’s Journey Out of Mental Purgatory,” which chronicles her debilitating panic attacks and agoraphobia at the age of 21 that left her sequestered in her home for over a year. It was at this time that her Indigenous mother took her to see a “medicine man” (shaman) on the Pala Indian reservation and cured her in a sweat lodge ceremony. Shawna states in her book, that this shaman, “…cured me that night in a sweat lodge ceremony, which was nothing short of a modern-day exorcism.”

This experience led her on a lifelong journey of exploration into Indigenous shamanism, spirituality and the unknown. 

How this writer met Shawna was through her book and it was such a gift to be able to talk about our childhood traumas and losses. For me, it was a cherished gift to have someone else to talk about life challenges and dealing with ongoing childhood PTSD. 

A book excerpt, “Fear Less: Conquering the Demons of Mental Purgatory” goes on to detail a labyrinthine journey that explores my road to healing using various Western and Eastern modalities, conventional therapist, twelve step programs, and spiritual healers, all of whom helped me learn how to deprogram the emotional condition that resulted from childhood trauma and a series of loses and to instill tools to reprogram new life conditions and achieve breakthroughs that re-awakened my true self. It is a gritty inner exploration into the darkness that lived inside me, and how I challenged and re-framed my mind to face those inner demons to cultivate new life conditions.” 

How did Shawna got into filmmaking? Her book states that she got her first taste of filmmaking at the tender age of six when John Cassavetes rented her uncle’s house to make the movie, A Killing of a Chinese Bookie. Four years later, her uncle lost her at the wrap party for One from the Heart, where she met Francis Ford Coppola. When he asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, she answered confidently, “You.” He tried to talk her out of it, but she held her ground. And, how grateful we are that she did.

Shawna was born in east Los Angeles. She’s part Apache, Yaqui, Spanish and French. Family legend has it that Shawna was named after a medicine woman named Schwanawa who healed her great grandmother after an illness. A promise was made by her great grandfather that one of their daughter’s would be named after her. 

Shawna was the chosen one to fulfill her great grandfather’s promise… may your celestial angel spirits from your indigenous birthrights—guide your mystical journey home. 

Godspeed, Shawna. Thank you for your contributions. You will be missed.

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By Elia Esparza

Like so many Latinos, David Damian Figueroa was blessed with a Mexican mother who always had a “dicho” (saying) to confront just about any challenge, loss or triumph—blessings. 

Figueroa has penned a book that is part memoir, part self-help, and overall a great journal. A Reminder to My Twenty-Three-Year Old Self is founded on the great lessons his beloved mother taught him growing up. During these current times of great doubt, injustices, and mistrust, this book comes at a perfect time.

Figueroa, who lost his mother, Antonia Hernandez Figueroa when he was 23 years old, has dedicated the book to her– honoring the abundance of love, wisdom, and guidance she packed into his life– from the day he was born until the day she died. “A Reminder to My Twenty-Three-Year Old Self” is a gem of a book, where Figueroa shares all that he learned growing up– wisdom that came in the form of dichos.

I found the book to be an addictive read and with each axiom, my mind wandered back to my own childhood during those times when my own mother would offer up her own dichos at times to defuse a sad situation with some humor.

Figueroa has published the best of his mother’s dichos and has added a few more from other people he admires, like Dolores Huerta and some of his own that have come to him throughout his life.

The book begins with an introduction about Figueroa’s life with his mother, a loving tribute to the woman who shaped his childhood and prepared him for the rest of his life. Afterward, each additional page expands as a journal, where readers write in their own thoughts, tailoring each dicho’s wisdom to fit into their own lives.

All around, “A Reminder to My Twenty-Three-Year Old Self” is a book about staying positive to meet a goal and/or build confidence. Each page presents a “saying” opposite a lined journal page to write your ideas, quotes, and whatnots. And, oh what a joy to learn about the significances of dichos that many Latinos have heard their entire lives. Personally, I found myself reading this book and remembering my mother reciting the dichos as stress-relieving moments.

For those who need a boost in creativity, some of the journal pages can be filled with ideas and drawings or doodles that often come when we’re drawing a blank on what to do or what to write, draw or invent next.

A Reminder to My Twenty-Three-Year-Old Self: A Book of Quotes, Thoughts on Life, and Personal Wisdom
David Damian Figueroa
Lulu.com, 2019
ISBN: 1684702445, 9781684702442
172 pages

About the Author
The host of The David Damian Show, David Damian Figueroa life has led him to work with some of this country’s most iconic civil rights icons, artists, and entertainment professionals. In addition, Figueroa is a respected non-profit leader, activist, and farmworker advocate. He partnered with actors/activists Eva Longoria, Forest Whitaker, and author Eric Schlosser to bring focus to the farmworker issues with the critically-acclaimed documentary Food Chains. He was also associate producer of The Harvest—The Children Who Feed America/La Cosecha—Los niños que alimentan America.

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