Towa’s Journey: Finding Our Path was inspired by my love of animated movies. Years after seeing The Lion King, I began to dream of seeing a beautiful Pueblo Native American story set in the time of Mesa Verde (circa 1150 AD). A tale formed, reminiscent of what I remember my Great Grandmother Petra telling when I was a young boy growing up in my village, Jemez Pueblo. Blending my imagination with bits and pieces of what I remember of our Pueblo mythology creation story, I created a world guided by love. I felt compelled to write this story because of the intense digital computer environment our children are growing up in today. They are undergoing a loss of connection to Nature and spiritual growth, and disengagement with their own creative imagination. I wanted to convey to young people that the journey inward creates the journey we experience outwardly. I also wanted to create a story within the worldview and cosmology of the Pueblo people, to provide our young people with a story they could relate to and be proud of, and that people worldwide could use to gain insights into our history, culture and lifeways.
Molly Boyle, a fiction editor at Random House for many years, served as the copy editor on this book. She notes, “It’s a delightful project! There’s a real peace and reverence for nature and cultural history that comes through on nearly every page. I thought about when I was a kid on road trips through the Southwest, how I’d always be looking for a book like this to explain the customs and origin stories of the Pueblo people to me. I thought the story was remarkably well paced, with savvy chapter breaks that kept the action moving. I think it can find a wide audience. I felt good reading this story.”
The story revolves around the character of a boy, Towa, becoming a young man, and the journey he helps lead his tribe on to a new land. Their ancient enemies, the Atote, had driven them into a cave, but there the group finds a chamber with mystical powers that delivers them into a safe but challenging new realm far from their homelands. They smartly learn to adapt, and even thrive in their new environment, facing harsh winter blizzards and baking summer droughts. Animals—Hummingbird, Mother Bear, Eagle, Badger, Coyote and more—share the secrets of a happy life and help them survive.
While it is primarily written as a story for children and young adults, in its genre of magical realism, it will appeal to readers world-wide drawn to books like Life of Pi, The Jungle Books, The Chronicles of Narnia, and another Southwestern classic, Bless Me Ultima.
We believe it is the first-ever novel-length boo by a Pueblo author written for children and young adults—magical realism of Native American roots.
The story is imbued with the values and cultural practices of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, and the power of landscape is embedded in the tale’s threads. It is filled with references to prayer, gratitude, meditation and the power of love and family. It is a redeeming story of hope wrapped in a tale of adventure. It embodies a reverence for life and the need of mutual respect—values sorely lacking in today’s world.
The writing of Towa’s Journey seemed a channeled experience. I asked myself, if I were a father what spiritual teachings would I want my children to know, what lessons could I leave behind for them? With the intention of wisdom, truth and love, I decided to explore the Pueblo people’s mythological origin story, of how we came from the underworld to the surface world today. Once I decided upon the concept, to find the story’s setting, characters and time period, I would simply sit, say a prayer with my hands open and then begin to write. What came to me I believe was from beyond my own intelligence; the way the story flowed was extraordinary. My hope is that this book will be a part of the shift back to authenticity that I feel needs to take place in the minds of today’s children and young adults.
Cajero Fine Art 