In Search of Bernardina

In Search of Bernardina: A Book to Make Think
Bernardina Hernandez
1926-2001

Daughter of Andres and Viviana Guevara freshly arrived from Spain to start a new life in El Salvador in the early 1890s, Bernardina was married to Francisco Hernandez on March 15, 1952. They had four children: Julio, Manuel, Amadeo, and Modesto.

In Search of Bernardina is a chronological narration of a series of events starting January 20, 2001. This book describes in specific detail the desperation and feelings of impotence felt by the author at having his mother go missing in a Las Vegas casino and the experience of not knowing who else to turn to after all avenues with local and state authorities in the state of Nevada and California were exhausted to no avail.

This sad tale takes place after the author's parents arrive from El Salvador to the United States to spend the holiday season in the city of Los Angeles, and it reflects the initial joys of a family reunion after decades apart as well as the pride felt by the author at finally being able to bring his folks to experience the wonders of this great country.

After Amadeo Hernandez's older sibling decides to take their parents for a weekend getaway in Las Vegas so they could enjoy what is known as fun capital of the world, things change at vertiginous speed to transform what was originally conceived as a pleasure trip into a macabre nightmare. Their mother disappears without a trace and never to be seen again at approximately four fifteen in the afternoon at the Nevada Landing Casino, located in the outskirts of the city of Las Vegas.

This book takes the reader through the many possible theories of why this gentle elderly woman went missing, such as the possible overcrowding inside the casino, which prompted her to go outside for some fresh air and ultimately ended in her tragic loss. But mainly, it narrates the extensive yet unproductive search through shelters, churches, hospitals, morgues, and even various states.

This book speaks of the heartless bureaucracy of having to wait twenty-four hours to get the police system into gear to look for someone, of being told of their mother's disappearance three hours after the fact, and of the overwhelming sensation of knowing how the person who brought you into this world is somewhere out there-lost, alone, and confused-helpless.

As the search extends throughout the states of Nevada, California, and even Tijuana and El Salvador, it takes the reader through the dark paths, which even prompted the author to pursue answers in unexplored venues such as psychics only to try and find an answer-any answer. Things he had never in his life considered before.

More than a book, In Search of Bernardina is a diary of the anguish and desperation that filled the author's every hour for several months, the tale of a struggle against a storm for a man to find his mother, a detailed narration of the days and the hours of pain, refusing to surrender in order to find his mother, who had gone missing in the desert.