These fiction stories are about families and how history shaped their ethnicities, lives, and culture. The characters are my actual ancestors who spread out throughout Mexico, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and other parts of the USA. Covering a span of 425 years, family histories come alive along with the historical events of their time. The ethnic groups in these stories are: Native Americans, Spanish, African, French, and Mexican mestisos who lived in Northern Mexico and the Southwestern United States. The "cactus on the forehead' is mostly used as a condescending identity. I chose to use this...