A Memoir About Learning to Live and Love in Another Language

by Lisa F. Jackson

It wasn’t supposed to happen, but a cynical New York filmmaker met a charismatic Mexican cattle rancher, and a sea change ensued. The Unexpected Ranchero plots the twists of their unlikely romance, parsing the challenges of a decade spent living in a small Mexican pueblo in love with a Mexican man.

It’s a book about venturing into unmapped zones of one’s own heart and gaining a fresh appreciation for the existential necessity of place. It’s about the nuts and bolts of a multicultural life, finding the courage required to challenge one’s baked-in preferences and re-learning the non-denominational language of human connection.

The Unexpected
Ranchero

The UnexpectedRanchero

Two smiling people, a man and a woman, standing close together in front of a weathered wall with peeling paint and posters.
A man wearing a wide-brimmed hat and checkered shirt stands on a concrete water trough in a dusty, fenced outdoor area, tending to cattle. Several cows are nearby, drinking or standing around in the background.
Desert scene with several large cacti and smaller red flowering cacti, along with dry soil and sparse vegetation, under a partly cloudy sky.

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Coastal landscape with rocky shoreline, sparse desert vegetation, and a mountain in the background under a clear blue sky.

An excerpt from The Unexpected Ranchero

“In that moment he moved out of the back-lit glare, and I could see his dark eyes. Something inside me shifted. The scene became oddly cinematic: I will always recall that moment as being sprinkled with magic sparkly fairy glitter. I’ve never had a memory so consistently radiant and twinkly and utterly confounding.”