They Were Legal: Balzac y Lopez

The History of an Hispanic Family

New York 1901 – 1906

In Part I of They Were Legal: Balzac y Lopez, Spanish and French Pepín Balzac, a compositor and translator, emigrates from Puerto Rico just after the Annexation. Once in New York City, he finds himself in the vortex of irresistible events: the assassination of McKinley, World War I, the Spanish Flu Epidemic, the Depression and the Great Hurricane of 1938.

Coming from a genteel island culture, Pepín runs smack into the dog-eat-dog immigrant existence that kills his sister-in-law, Daisy Lopez in the Triangle Fire 1911.

Part II presents the tears and laughter of Nena, Pepín's daughter – weaver of tales, preserver of the past, mother and surrogate mother, avid moviegoer and kindest of kind spirits.