By Frank Nuñez
Director, Vista Irrigation District | Board Member, Vista Historical Society | Candidate for Vista City Council, District 1 | Founder, Future Filmmakers | Filmmaker & Author
We watched Tina Turner fight back in What’s Love Got to Do with It. We held our breath during Sleeping with the Enemy. We cheered when Jennifer Lopez refused to be a victim in Enough.
Then the credits rolled. We walked out of Cinépolis, grabbed an ice cream at Handel’s, and life went on.
This past Sunday in Vista, the credits never rolled.
Because this wasn’t Hollywood.
This was real life.
At Prohibition Brewing Company, I had the privilege of attending the book launch of Dr. Ana MarÃa Serrano’s powerful memoir, The Day Her Chains Fell: My Journey from Domestic Violence to Freedom. The event brought together community members, local leaders, and supporters to celebrate not just the release of a book, but the courage it took to write it.
As I began reading the opening chapters, I realized this wasn’t simply a memoir about surviving domestic violence. It begins much earlier, with a little girl searching for acceptance, identity, and a place to belong. It reminds us that before we judge someone’s story, we rarely know the chapters that came first.
That realization stayed with me long after I closed the book.
As a storyteller, I’ve always believed that every meaningful story begins long before the audience arrives. We often see the dramatic moments on the screen, but we rarely see the defining moments that shaped a person’s life long before the story reached us.
Dr. Serrano’s memoir reminds us that the roots of domestic violence often reach back long before the abuse itself. For many survivors, the story begins in childhood, shaped by experiences, difficult relationships, and moments that quietly leave lasting impressions. Healing may begin after escaping abuse, but understanding the journey requires looking at everything that came before.
That is what makes memoirs so powerful.
They remind us that behind every headline, every statistic, and every news story is a human being whose life cannot be understood in a single chapter.
Dr. Serrano knows that story because she lived it.
More than two decades ago, she founded God’s Heart Ministry and Las Valientes, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping survivors of domestic violence find safety, navigate the legal system, obtain restraining orders, and begin rebuilding their lives. Through her work, she has transformed her own experiences into hope for countless others.
By the end of the afternoon, as the book launch came to a close, books had been signed, hugs had been exchanged, and conversations continued long after the formal program ended. It was a reminder that sometimes the most important stories are not the ones projected onto a movie screen. They are the ones sitting only a few feet away from us, waiting for someone to listen.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please don’t be afraid to reach out for help. No one should have to face abuse alone, and there are people and organizations ready to help.
Dr. Ana MarÃa Serrano’s memoir, The Day Her Chains Fell: My Journey from Domestic Violence to Freedom, is available through Amazon and other online booksellers. It is a story of resilience, faith, and hope that deserves to be read.
About the Author
Frank Nuñez is a filmmaker, author, and community storyteller from Vista. His forthcoming memoir, Los Angeles Street: From Juvenile Hall to the Ballot Box, tells his story of resilience, redemption, and second chances and will be released later this year.
If you have a local book, film, theater production, art exhibit, or community story worth sharing, email Frank at Frank4Vista@yahoo.com. While he may not be able to cover every submission, he welcomes ideas for future columns.
