Traces of Bliss

What would you risk to relive the bliss? In the affluent Los Feliz enclave of Los Angeles, five wealthy seniors recall vivid memories of ancestors after Claire, a young massage therapist, uses her grandmother's specially blended, Amazonian, aromatherapy oil. The seniors' live-in caregivers, each with a rich history, are inevitably caught up in the drama as the past collides with the present. The caregivers divulge details of the memories to Alma Ruiz, a pseudo-homeopath, amateur genealogist, and pathological liar. She conspires with Soledad to dupe the vulnerable seniors into paying them vast amounts for memory retrieval reenactments. Alma and Soledad's transgressions awaken the buried shamanistic sense of Octavio, a gifted gardener who immigrated to Los Angeles seeking revenge on the oil companies that dumped oil in the Shuar tribal lands of Amazonian Ecuador. Traces of Bliss reveals how memory can travel through the blood, and how much we are willing to sacrifice for lost treasures from the past.

Cecilia Velástegui was born in Ecuador and raised in California and France. She received her graduate degree from the University of Southern California, and speaks four languages. She lives with her family in Monarch Beach, California.