Stories can rebuild what conflict leaves behind.
I'm Ana — an author, a community advocate, and a builder. I write about the war I was born into, and I help build the places where the next generation gets a different childhood.
I write about the places that change us — and build the spaces where children can imagine more.
What I do
Three threads, one thing.
A memoir, a schoolyard, and a software company look like different work. They aren't. Each one is about giving people the tools to decide what happens next.
The book
Ana, Hija de la Guerra — a memoir of a childhood shaped by El Salvador's war, and the people who refused to be defined by it.
Read about the book
Los Horcones
A library, a playground, and a court for a rural school in El Salvador — built with the community, not for it.
See the project
OptimaAI
Co-founder of an AI and automation studio in Regina, Saskatchewan, helping service businesses get their time back.
Meet the company
The memoir
Ana, Hija de la Guerra
Memorias de una infancia en conflicto. A story of war, displacement, and the fierce, ordinary love that carries a family through it — my father's village, my mother's courage, and the anonymous heroes who kept a country's children alive.
Los Horcones, El Salvador
Every child deserves a story that sounds like their own.
My father was born in Los Horcones. Today the school there has a library, a place to play, and children who stand up in front of their classmates and read out loud.
About
A life shaped by more than one place.
I was born in El Salvador during a civil war and grew up learning that survival is a group project. Today I live in Canada, where I write, build software, and spend a good part of every year going back.
I travel to listen. I write to remember. I build because remembering isn't enough on its own.
From the blog
Los Horcones School Now Has Its Own School Library and Playground
A 2022 visit found a rural school with two classrooms, one teacher, and nowhere to play. By May 2023 it had a 400-book library, a playground, and a basketball court.
Let's build something worth reading about.
Speaking, collaborations, press, or a copy of the book — I read every message myself.