We never imagined that we’d make such a big impact with this podcast. This episode we’ll explore how Elisabeth Villalta and her family had their lives changed forever in a way they never expected. This is a story about the search for family and identity. It’s also a story about the power of community and how it can help overcome the impossible and reunite long lost families.

Who are you? Where do you come from? The need to find and define our identity is innate in all of us. We don’t need it to live, to eat, to reproduce. Still, we can’t ignore it. You need to know your story and the stories of all the people it took to make you.

This is where Elisabeth Villalta finds herself and this is where this story will take us. Her father, Jose Napoleon Villalta Jr. lost connection with his fathers’ side of his family as a toddler. He’s never seen them since. Elisabeth has always had an intense curiosity about that side of the family. To her, it seems like her dad has given up on ever finding them. But Elisabeth persists, she continues to wonder and to ask about that history.

Her story wasn’t about living in Spain, but she couldn’t help sharing that impactful trip to Berlin with our listeners. I published the story, tagged Elisabeth, and moved on to the next season. I didn’t think much about it after that. Then, a few months later, I got a message I wasn’t expecting.

Five years ago, the Villalta family found Napoleon’s childhood home in Berlin, Usulután. Even though the house was in ruins, it made Elisabeth feel more connected than ever to her dad’s family and to El Salvador. So much so that she shared that story with us as part of our Salvadorans Around the World episodes last season.

To understand the significance of all this, to really get the Villata family’s story, we have to start with Elisabeth’s dad. His name is Jose Napoleon Villalta. His family calls him Napo Junior or simply Napo. His father has the same name, and they call him Napo Senior.

Napo was born and spent just a few years in Usulután, the largest Department in El Salvador, located in the eastern half of the country. Berlin and Estanzuelas are small town towns in Usulután about a 40-minute drive from each other. Meanwhile, San Miguel is El Salvador’s third most populous city east of Usulután. That’s where Napo’s maternal grandmother raised him.

He left El Salvador when he was 17, leaving his grandmother behind. He made it to Mexico in ’79, stayed a few years, then finally made it to US in ‘81. He’s been in California ever since. He stayed in touch with the grandmother that raised him but unfortunately, she passed away in 2023.

He met his wife, Rosa Elvira, in California. She’s also Salvadoran.

They had three daughters together.

He built a successful life in the US with a loving family and ambitious daughters. Life sounded complete. Despite all this, there was still that question of what happened to his father and that side of the family. Napo Jr. had tried to look for him in the past and Elvira mentioned that he brought it up from time to time. He questioned why his father, Napo Sr., had not made the effort as well. Why hadn’t he looked for his son? Turns out, in fact, that he had.

Napo’s mother returned to Espanzuelas. Napo Sr had tracked her down there and asked for contact information for his son. Napo’s mother did not want to give it to him. That was 15 years ago. The family learned that Napo Sr. was living in Miami, Florida. That’s all they learned.

Elisabeth sees her father’s story as tragic, but he sees it differently. He grew up with his maternal grandmother and aunts, so he says he always felt he had family. He thinks there’s no such thing as normal because so many kids grow up without their parents.

Elisabeth and her sisters were still interested in knowing what happened. Napo Jr. on the other hand, seemed to have made peace with not finding his father. The days of Facebook searches were over for him. That missed connection 15 years ago, was just a story now. But Elisabeth’s story was just beginning. Her deep curiosity would not let the matter rest. It’s something that’s been on her mind since she was a small child.

This curiosity, this need, drove Elisabeth. Sensing her father’s curiosity, she pushed the family to take their first step in exploring Napo’s birthplace. Berlin is nestled between mountains in Usulután. It’s 12 hundred meters above sea level so the evenings and mornings are quite cool. You might need a chumpa, a jacket, to keep warm. The surrounding mountainsides are filled with rich coffee plantations but also small, poor villages with no running water, lights, or schools. The wealth of the coffee plantations allowed the town center to develop. You’ll find a park in the center with municipal buildings, shops, and the town’s emblematic church surrounding it. It’s a picturesque town with Spanish and Belgian architecture and several tourist attractions.

The Villalta family tried to find information about Napo’s family at the city hall but had no luck. Then they asked around town, being led from one person to another but no one knew anything. Finally, someone pointed them to the matriarch of the town. She was a teacher that had taught pretty much everyone in the town. She remembered Antonia Villalta, Napo’s great grandmother in his father’s life that had raised him early in his life. She showed him the house she had lived in. It was in ruins. That’s as far as the family got that day. They didn’t find connections to any family at all.

That trip was in January 2019. The ruins of his family home had helped Elisabeth feel more connected than ever to that side of the family. That feeling stayed with her.   Years later in February 2022, Salvis Unidos launched a project to collect and tell stories of Salvadorans around the world. It was going to be our biggest episode yet, something we wanted to do for a long time. So, we posted a call for stories on Instagram.

We released two collections of stories, one in Spanish and one in English. Elisabeth was featured in the English collection with 5 other Salvis from Australia, Singapore, Finland, and the UK. We published the episode in Juen 2022. It was an amazing experience being ablet o share stories from Salvadorans in all sorts of places. The story Elisabeth carried in her heart was now out there for the world to hear. That was it, the end of the third season. We moved on to our seasonal break to recharge and work on pre-production for the next season, but then something happened. Something none of us ever expected.

Elisabeth got a message from a Ruth Cañas claiming that that she Napo Junior’s cousin. That’s Napo Junior’s cousin from his father’s side of the family. That’s right. The side of the family he had lost all contact with. The side of the family that they had given up all hope of finding. Here was Cousin Ruth sliding into Elisabeth’s DMs.

Elisabeth was in disbelief, but Ruth was confident that they were related after speaking to her father and aunt. Her family is from Berlin and her ears perked up when she heard Elisabeth mention the town on the podcast. She had just visited Berlin for the first time not too long ago and she had also met the teacher matriarch of the town. After the podcast was over, she called her father to see if he recognized any of the names. When he heard the name “Antonia Villalta” he casually said, “oh that’s my Tia.” Ruth couldn’t believe it, her father said to call his sister, Ruth’s Aunt, because she certainly remembered more. Her aunt gasped when she heard the name and said “that’s my Tia!” They remembered Napo Sr and his great grandma. They had played together as kids. Ruth decided to reach out to Elisabeth.

They spoke and confirmed details on both sides of the family and quickly concluded that it must be true. They were both worried about how Napo Jr would take the news so Elizabeth told her mother first. Her mother suggested she tell him on a weekend. He seemed unfazed by the news, but Elisabeth saw it affected him the rest of the day and Elvira said she’d never seen that expression on his face before.

Elisabeth and Ruth quickly set up a Zoom for both families. Napo was still a bit in disbelief, but as soon as they got on the call, Ruth’s father and aunt said he looked just like Napo Senior. Napo could not speak; he was in shock. The call was silent, and Elizabeth and her mom saw Napo’s eyes watering. Elisabeth broke the silence and ended the awkwardness. When Napo recovered, he went straight to business, asking about specific details about his great grandma that only people that knew her would know. The Cañas were able to confirm all the details. It was fully confirmed. This was Napo’s family from his father’s side.

By another random twist, they found out that the two families live close to each other. They met each other in person and slowly started building a relationship. They’ve met up several times now and spent two Christmas holidays together.

Both sides feel happy to have found family they didn’t know about. However, there was still the question of Napo Senior. Ruth and the Cañas did not know him and did not know where he was.

Napo Jr seems to have made peace with not knowing his father but with motivation from this newfound family and Elisabeth’s undying curiosity, he’s ready to continue the search. He wants to find his siblings, other children of his father that he’s pretty sure are out there. Now, both families are working together to find the missing Napo Senior. They’re traveling to Berlin to see what other information they can gather and the Villata’s are taking DNA tests to see if they make any connections that way.

It’s a very difficult journey. None of it would have been possible if one of Ruth’s friends had not shared the podcast with her. Ruth didn’t normally listen to the podcast but Jorge Alfaro shared episodes with her from time to time. It just goes to show how powerful community is. Maybe the Villaltas and Cañas don’t have to go through this journey alone. Maybe the Salis Unidos listener family can come together to help.

This is an official call to all listeners of the podcast, to help us find Napo’s father and long lost family.

The last known clue about Napoleon Senior’s location pointed us to Miami, Florida. He was there 15 years ago, maybe he still lives there. He’s probably in his 80s. He was raised by Antonia Villalta, his grandmother, in Berlin, Usulután. He potentially has kids from another marriage, and they’d be in their 50s or 60s. We’ll publish a family tree on our blog to make the connections easier to understand.

So, if you are a Villalta or a Cañas with a connection to Usulután, ask your family if they know Antonia or Jose Napoleon.

If you know someone with those last names, share this story with them. Ask them if have connections to the families or to Berlin.

If you live in the Miami area, ask older Salvadorans if the name Jose Napoleon Villalta sounds familiar.

But no matter where you are, no matter who you are, share this story with friends and family. Maybe they have a connection. Napo Jr’s lost siblings are in the baby boomer generation and his lost father is in his 80s so people of that age might have the most information.

If you want to reach out, you can message us on Instagram or email us. We’ll also tag the families in our Instagram posts and include links in this blog post.

We’re a small community and if a random segment, on a random episode of this podcast was able to create this life changing connection for two families, imagine what all listeners working together can do.

That’s the end of our fourth season. Wow, what a way to go out with an epic episode like this. We’ll be taking a break from publishing for a couple of months, but you can still find new content from us on Instagram. Follow us there to stay up to date with our future projects and for the release date of the next season.

Every episode features music from a Salvadoran artist. Find our music playlists on Spotify to listen to all the music from this and past seasons. This episode’s music is courtesy of Mauricio Trabanino, a Guatemalan-Salvadoran medical doctor, pianist, composer, and producer.

If you like our content and the work we do, consider supporting us on Patreon. Your support ensures that we can keep producing the podcast and helps us support the artists that lend their music to the show.

As always, you can also support by sharing our podcast with all the Salvis you know. Especially if they’re from Berlin and named Jose Napoleon Villalta.

Special thanks to the Villalta and Canas families for being gracious enough to share their story with us. And thanks to Jorge Alfaro for being such a dedicated fan and making this connection possible.

We’ll see you again next season. This is Carlos, signing off. ¡Hasta la próxima, salu!

Links:

Elisabeth’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elisabethvillalta/

Salvis Around the world episode with Elisabeth’s story:

Blog: https://salvisunidos.com/s03e20/

Podcast episode: https://pod.link/1473755905/episode/eca7211cfada1ab9c72ec18b9c0ba12c

Music:

“La Alegría del Encuentro” by Mauricio Trabanino

“Canción de Cuna” by Mauricio Trabanino

Find us on: