An apparently insoluble local mystery thrilled the imagination of Ben Gonzalez Jr., and provided the spark for his new book of 11 short stories, “E Pluribus Undecim” that is, Out of Many, Eleven.
About a decade ago, while visiting the Vancouver Barracks Cemetery at Fourth Plain and Interstate 5, Gonzalez realized that plot No. 1 is the last resting place of a German prisoner of war named Friedrick Leonhardt, who died in 1943. It seemed odd that an enemy casualty of World War II occupies what Gonzalez fancifully considers the military cemetery’s “sentry’s post.” Gonzalez went digging online, and even enlisted the help of German newspapers and university students, and still uncovered nearly nothing about Leonhardt.
“The more I looked for him, the more he became a ghost in his own way,” said Gonzalez. The puzzle became a “mother lode” of inspiration for this aspiring author, he said, and his book came to be haunted — literally — by the spirit of Leonhardt, and by other ghosts too.
These shades stay pretty busy in the book connecting long-lost lovers, comforting doubtful priests, providing fresh insights into the warn-torn past even helping one aging protagonist feel at peace with the end of a passionate romance.
The setting for many of these stories is past and present Vancouver, rendered in loving detail. In addition to several visits to that Fourth Plain cemetery, there’s a Mass at the Providence Academy chapel; Burgerville and the George Propstra statue in Esther Short Park; the Grant House and the downtown Hilton hotel; side trips to PDX and Vanport and the city of Portland; there’s even a homeless man shoving a shopping cart up and down Officers Row who turns out to be more than he seems.
Officers Row is where Gonzalez lives. The Spanish native went to college in California and “came home” to Vancouver 39 years ago, he said. His passion for his adopted hometown is obvious; he’s a longtime supporter of a name change to the more distinctive Fort Vancouver for this historic city.
A retired business consultant, Gonzalez has been writing left-leaning political columns under the name Ben Tanosborn for years. Social justice is the theme in those columns, he said as is the way our view of history changes over time.
Witness his fictionalized visit with the Indian-hating editor of the Vancouver Independent (precursor of this newspaper), circa 1877, who spews some odious opinions about the original inhabitants of this area and what should be done to them. Gonzalez said the man’s feelings are a carefully researched reflection of his times.
“At the time he was considered an honorable man,” said Gonzalez. “You don’t really know who the good people are. Only history reveals that.”
His book is published under the pseudonym Gil Tower-Meadow and available at www.opusmeipublishers.com.
— Scott Hewitt
Bits ’n’ Pieces appears Fridays and Saturdays. If you have a story you’d like to share, email bits@columbian.com.
