Elena Acoba, Detours

We've all had that friend or loved one who seemed to have a clear path laid out for them, only to suddenly diverge and begin traveling in a very different direction. For Elena Acoba, that person was her teenage daughter, a story she told on the Odyssey stage at the Detours show in August 2015. From Elena's Odyssey bio: Los Angeles-born Elena Acoba has been telling stories her whole life. Her first published works were part of an elementary school anthology; her pieces appeared in the section of second-grade authors. Elena gravitated to writing stories about real people and events, which naturally led her to a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from Cal State Long Beach and a career at several news outlets in the Los Angeles and San Diego areas. Looking for another gig, she decided 27 years ago to accompany her now-husband to Tucson, where he landed an editing job at the Arizona Daily Star. The only thing she knew about Arizona was Barry Goldwater. She decided to go only after she discovered that Tucson had a good Chinese restaurant. After another year of journalism, Elena switched to telling the story of the Old Pueblo as publications director at what's now Visit Tucson. Today she is marking nearly 18 years as an independent writer and editor, telling stories from gardening to the miracle of mechanical hearts. This episode was performed and recorded in front of a live audience at The Screening Room in Tucson, AZ, on August 6th, 2015, and was curated by Carolyn Langford Hussein Fort. For more information about Odyssey Storytelling, please visit www.odysseystorytelling.com