Living beyond the troubles of life can be difficult, but never impossible. Carlos Alejandro Lujan, author of “El Cancer No Detiene Mi Rugir: Cancer Can’t Stop Me Roar,” is one of 18.1 million who have survived their fight against cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Lujan moved to El Paso from Chihuahua, Mexico at 19–years–old to attend UTEP, where he graduated with a bachelor’s in marketing and business administration. While handling personal hardships with relationships and continuing his education, Lujan was diagnosed with cancer at 26 while living in Boston.
After the devastating news of his diagnosis, Lujan went back to Chihuahua to visit his family. He knew that visiting would be his only way of seeing his family members, knowing that their passports were expired.
Throughout his battle with cancer, Lujan said he was not able to focus on himself, and instead made sure that his significant other was happy. During this, he said he lost his job and was fired after his employers found out he was diagnosed with cancer.
However, this did not stop Lujan. He said he focused on his strengths and managed to sue and win the settlement against his employer. Lujan kept fighting for what he wanted, and that was to survive.
“If I died, I was going to be someone’s inspiring story of why they keep going, (however), if I survived, I decided that I was going to do something to inspire someone in a way that they should not give up,” Lujan said.
Leon the lion was a stuffed animal Lujan kept that would help him through tough times. To Lujan, it was him and Leon against the world. After Lujan’s mother visited him, he discussed the idea of writing a children’s book.
“I am going to survive because I want to tell my story and I want to tell the story of Lion,” Lujan said. “As much as I survived, Lion did it too, I don’t want my story to be just me, I want it to be someone that everyone can relate to.”
Lion, the protagonist of Cancer Can’t Stop Me Roar, and Lujan share similarities of resilience and strength. As Lujan wrote his book and won his battle with cancer, he was also able to create illustrations of Lion himself through coding software after being allegedly scammed by a publishing company.
“I told my family, that if I don’t finish this summer, I’m just going to do it, I don’t have money to pay anyone to help me anymore,” Lujan said. “I have a friend that taught me how to do coding and I learned how to at night and learned how to do the designs myself.”
Even with the difficulties of life, Lujan was able to face them with Leon alongside him.
“Truly what I wanted was to be able to read to kids and to be able to use it to share my story with other cancer patients and for them to understand that, yes we see you but don’t focus on the illness, focus on you,” Lujan said. “We all have a Leon inside of us and we all have different struggles.”
Staying strong and positive can be difficult, but with a goal in mind, Lujan wants to change the trajectory of those who are battling cancer. Cancer Can’t Stop Me Roar is a bilingual book, that can be found and purchased at Amazon.com.
Avery Escamilla-Wendell is a contributor and may be reached at [email protected] or on Instagram @by_avery_escamilla.
