Full Circle in Fire and Makeup

In The Road of a Dreamer, I wrote about the first time I saw KISS—not in person, but as a curious 7-year-old kid growing up in Mexico. Their music, their theatrical energy, and that surreal makeup burned into my memory like a spark waiting to become fire. At the time, seeing them live was an impossible dream. I didn’t even speak English. I didn’t have access to concerts. I didn’t have the means or the chance.

Years passed. I grew up, crossed borders—both literal and emotional—and built a life far from the neighborhoods of my childhood. Many things I once thought impossible started to happen: I studied in the U.S., built a family, and began to see dreams once held in the imagination become part of my lived reality.

Then, something unexpected happened in the music world.

After years of tension and separation, KISS announced a reunion of their original lineup in the late 1990s: Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss were back together. The original faces, the original sound, the original fire—it was happening. The band that had once seemed to drift into the past was returning, even if only for a short time.

And here’s the part I never shared in the book: Paty and I went to see them.

Yes, the same woman who had walked with me through many seasons of life, stood beside me as we witnessed something that once felt like a childhood fantasy—KISS live in concert.

There was something deeply emotional in that moment. Not just the roaring guitars or the spectacle on stage, but the meaning behind it. As fireworks lit the air and “Rock and Roll All Nite” echoed through the stadium, I realized I was standing in the middle of a dream I had carried since I was seven years old.

And I wasn’t alone.

Life, it seems, doesn’t move in a straight line—it loops, it circles back. Some chapters don’t close; they wait for the right time to continue. This concert wasn’t just about music. It was about time, memory, and fulfillment. About the long, winding road that starts in Piedras Negras, takes you through heartbreaks, border crossings, factory floors, and quiet motel nights… and eventually lands you in a crowd screaming lyrics you barely understood as a child.

That’s what my book is all about.

Not fame. Not fantasy.

But the power of persistence, of small dreams coming full circle in the most unexpected ways