Love for the Written Word

by Stephanie Struyck Elgin

While not a native to California, Ricardo Ali Fernandez certainly calls Santa Clarita home.  Having moved here in 1974, Ricardo purchased his home for less than $50, 000, something unheard of in today’s day and age.  “I enjoy everything about Santa Clarita, the moderate climate is far different from the place I was born,” states Ricardo.
Born in Nebraska, on the “Siberian western plains where the wind never stops,” Ricardo wrote a fictionalized autobiography, La Taza Azul, documenting his life as he and his family moved from the farms of Nebraska to Alaska.  “Dad  was hoping to get an Alaskan homestead, however conditions were different than advertised and seven years later we moved back to the family farm,” recalls Ricardo. “On the farm, my best friends were a shovel, hoe, and a pair of hay hooks.”
The youngest of six children, Ricardo recalls life to be very different back then. “When we complained about going to school, Dad would tell us ‘There’s a quarter mile of irrigation ditch that needs to be cleaned out.  If you want to stay home next week you can.’  Sure enough, we went to school!”
After graduating high school, Ricardo went to New Mexico State University and met his wife at the local military base where they both worked part time. Now married for 42 years, Ricardo’s wife currently teaches mathematics at Canyon High School. Together, they have three children who all live in southern California.
In 1980, Ricardo decided to join the United States Navy.  He took his wife and children and the family relocated to Florida.  “I had to be a little crazy to do that. I must have been like my dad when he moved to Alaska with six children all under the age of eight.”  
After the Navy, Ricardo moved to the Santa Clarita Valley and was very active in the community.  He spent much of his time volunteering for the Canyon Country Little League, and due to the benevolent hearts of his fellow baseball volunteers he was awarded both the 1992 Canyon Country Little League and District Volunteer of the Year Awards.
Life didn’t stop there, as Ricardo sought out his MBA from the University at La Verne. In 1995 and 1996 he was also awarded the District 52 Toastmaster of the Year Award.
Following retirement in 1998, Ricardo graduated from Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles where he studied counseling psychology and is now licensed in the field of psychotherapy.  A man of many goals, Ricardo continued his education and in 2007 he completed sixteen units of Spanish at College of the Canyons. Ricardo enjoys working as a part-time assistant librarian at St. Clare’s, in Canyon Country. He is also a member of the SCV Senior Center Golden Pen Writer’s Guild.
Ricardo has a passion and love for the written word and he shares that with us with his slightly fictionalized autobiography, La Taza Azul. Ricardo gives readers a first hand experience of life with his family, mental illness, inner and outer experience, emotional healing and more.  Ricardo reminisces and reminds us of the power of hope and healing and the power of the human spirit.
To purchase Ricardo’s book, visit www.amazon.com.  Proceeds for the next 100 books sold will be donated to the Santa Clarita Child & Family Center.