Candelaria has always considered New Mexico his home and, in addition to moving there permanently as an adult,[1] has set many of his stories there.

His short story teacher, Edna Vann, had a Hollywood background, working as a script editor and secretary for Alfred Hitchcock.

After four years working as a research chemist for a pharmaceutical company in Glendale, California he resigned his job, obtained a commission in the Air Force (1952) with the intent of pursuing a career as a writer after military service during the Korean War.

The Korean War ended about the time he finished the course and, like most of his fellow young officers he opted to be released from active duty, remaining in the Air Force reserve.

He had applied and been accepted in the writing program at the University of Iowa but decided to return to Los Angeles and seek work as a writer.

During this time he worked as an editor for a research organization designing nuclear reactors for producing electrical power.

Shortly he moved to a job as a technical writer about chemical laboratory instruments for a prominent company in the new industry.

He married in 1955 and subsequently fathered two sons while working at his day job and writing fiction in his spare time.

It tells the story of a middle-class family who moves from Albuquerque to Los Angeles in search of the American Dream.