In this short story collection, mothers tattoo their children and abduct them; they act as surrogates and they use charms to cure childhood illness. The story Letters' sees an Irish mother cling to love of her son, though he abandoned her in New York. In Queen of Tattoo,' Lydia, the tattooed lady from the Groucho Marx song, tries to understand why her son is a bad man. Set in Ireland and America, as well as Paris, Rome, and Mexico, these stories map the lives of parents and the boundaries they cross. Ni Chonchuir's sinewy prose dazzles as she exposes the follies of motherhood as well as its triumphs.
A Mother's Tale is a tale of salvaging one's soul from received and inherited war-related trauma. Within the titular beautiful story of a mother's love for her son is the cruelty and senselessness of the Vietnam War, the poignant human connection, and a haunting narrative whose setting and atmosphere appear at times other worldly through their landscape and inhabitants. Captured in the vivid descriptions of Vietnam's country and culture are a host of characters, tortured and maimed and generous and still empathetic despite many obstacles, including a culture wrecked by losses. Somewhere in this chaos readers will find a tender link between the present-day survivors and those already gone. Rich and yet buoyant with a vision-like quality, this collection shares a common theme of love and loneliness, longing and compassion, where beauty is discovered in the moments of brutality, and agony is felt in ecstasy.
Married in the '70s, Blakely expected to be the kind of mother society could admire. But, caught up in the women's movement--and an increasingly chaotic world--she soon lost her innocence about expert wisdom and began to break the rules. With humor and insight, this acclaimed journalist explodes the myths of motherhood today.
A dual first-person memoir by the acclaimed Vietnamese-American novelist and her thoroughly American teenage daughter In 1975, thirteen-year-old Lan Cao boarded an airplane in Saigon and got off in a world where she faced hosts she had not met before, a language she didn't speak, and food she didn't recognize, with the faint hope that she would be able to go home soon. Lan fought her way through confusion, and racism, to become a successful lawyer and novelist. Four decades later, she faced the biggest challenge in her life: raising her daughter Harlan--half Vietnamese by birth and 100 percent American teenager by inclination. In their lyrical joint memoir, told in alternating voices, mother and daughter cross ages and ethnicities to tackle the hardest questions about assimilation, aspiration, and family. Lan wrestles with her identities as not merely an immigrant but a refugee from an unpopular war. She has bigoted teachers who undermine her in the classroom and tormenting inner demons, but she does achieve--either despite or because of the work ethic and tight support of a traditional Vietnamese family struggling to get by in a small American town. Lan has ambitions, for herself, and for her daughter, but even as an adult feels tentative about her place in her adoptive country, and ventures through motherhood as if it is a foreign landscape. Reflecting and refracting her mother's narrative, Harlan fiercely describes the rites of passage of childhood and adolescence, filtered through the aftereffects of her family's history of war, tragedy, and migration. Harlan's struggle to make friends in high school challenges her mother to step back and let her daughter find her own way. Family in Six Tones speaks both to the unique struggles of refugees and to the universal tug-of-war between mothers and daughters. The journey of an immigrant--away from war and loss toward peace and a new life--and the journey of a mother raising a child to be secure and happy are both steep paths filled with detours and stumbling blocks. Through explosive fights and painful setbacks, mother and daughter search for a way to accept the past and face the future together.
MOTHER AMERKA A Living Story of Democracy BY CARLOS P. ROMULO DOUBLEDAY. DORAN COMPANY. INC. GARDEN CITY. NEW YORK 1943 Press, GARDB ci Y, N. T u, 8. A. CI, COPYRIGHT, 1943 BY CARIES P. ROMULO ALL RIGHTS kESfiRVED FIRST EDITION Dedicated To the Filipino soldiers who fought and died beside Americans on Bataan and Corregidor in defense of the Philippines, and to their brothers in the Far East the one billion inarticulate Orientals who are daring to lift their eyes toward the dazzimg hope of freedom. AUTHORS NOTE THE FIRST FOUR DOCUMENTS included in the Appendix . are the Magna Charta of the Philippines. They show the im portant steps in the evolution of the Filipino people to self government. That the Filipinos believed in democracy and thought along republican lines even before the advent of American rule in the Philippines is shown by I The Con stitution approved by the Philippine Republic in 1899. PREFATORY NOTE THIS is a living story of democracy. It is political science per sonalized. Americas work in the Philippines is a masterpiece in human relationship because it is human. I write it as a Filipino who is one of the beneficiaries of Philip pine-American collaboration. I write it so that America may know what she achieved in the Philippines. I write it also for the world that subject races may be informed of how the Filipino people in creasingly fought for their freedom, and that sovereign nations may profit by the example of America. For America was the only sov ereign nation in the Far East that in its hour of danger was able to count on the loyalty of its subject people. I write as a private citizen of the Philippines. The views expressed in this book are mine and are notofficial. I presume to speak for no government But I am convinced I bespeak the sentiments of all my Filipino comrades-in-arms who fought in Bataan and Corregidor. We know why and what we fought for there. My acknowledgment goes to President Manuel L. Quezon, who granted me leave of absence without pay from the Philippine Army and later placed me on inactive military status to General Douglas MacArthur, for having sent me to America from Australia on special detail to Harold Matson, for valuable advice and help to Evelyn Wells, my loyal friend, for research and co-operation and to Solomon Arnaldo of the office of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, for the appendices. I must not forget to dedicate a few words of appreciation to the memory of the late Very Reverend Father James M. Drought, Vicar General of the Maryknoll Mission, with whom, before his untimely death, I discussed various portions of this book. CARLOS P. ROMULO CONTENTS PAGE Introduction. Why America xi CHAPTER I What Imperialism Means to the Far East ... i II The Oriental Looks to Democracy 7 III The Philippines Under Imperialism .... 12 IV Revolution Against Spain 19 V Revolution Against America 25 VI America in the Philippines 31 VII Material Advantages 37 VIII Of Higher Values ......... 41 IX His Ways Are Peculiar 46 X The White Man in the Orient,54 XI The Japanese Mind 65 XII Our Third Fight for Freedom 72 XIII Details of Democracy, 80 XIV Problems of Other People 91 XV Countries in Jeopardy, 107 XVI Voices of the Far East 114 XVII Pattern for the Pacific 123 xi zu CONTENTS CHAPTER PACE XVIII Position of the Philippines 134 XIX Spiritual Pattern 140 APPENDICES I The Constitution of the Philippine Republic . . 147 IIThe Jones Act 163 HI The Tydings-McDuffie Independence Act With the Amendment. 181 IV Constitution of the Philippines 206 V The Mind of a New Commonwealth 228
Born in Tijuana to a Mexican father and an Anglo mother, Urrea moved to San Diego at age three. In this memoir of his childhood, Urrea describes his experiences growing up in the barrio and his search for cultural identity.
"She asked me if I liked them. And what could I say? They were wonderful." From the very beginning of Sergio Troncoso's celebrated story "Angie Luna," we know we are in the hands of a gifted storyteller. Born of Mexican immigrants, raised in El Paso, and now living in New York City, Troncoso has a rare knack for celebrating life. Writing in a straightforward, light-handed style reminiscent of Grace Paley and Raymond Carver, he spins charming tales that reflect his experiences in two worlds. Troncoso's El Paso is a normal town where common people who happen to be Mexican eat, sleep, fall in love, and undergo epiphanies just like everyone else. His tales are coming-of-age stories from the Mexican-American border, stories of the working class, stories of those coping with the trials of growing old in a rapidly changing society. He also explores New York with vignettes of life in the big city, capturing its loneliness and danger. Beginning with Troncoso's widely acclaimed story "Angie Luna," the tale of a feverish love affair in which a young man rediscovers his Mexican heritage and learns how much love can hurt, these stories delve into the many dimensions of the human condition. We watch boys playing a game that begins innocently but takes a dangerous turn. We see an old Anglo woman befriending her Mexican gardener because both are lonely. We witness a man terrorized in his New York apartment, taking solace in memories of lost love. Two new stories will be welcomed by Troncoso's readers. "My Life in the City" relates a transplanted Texan's yearning for companionship in New York, while "The Last Tortilla" returns to the Southwest to explore family strains after a mother's death—and the secret behind that death. Each reflects an insight about the human heart that has already established the author's work in literary circles. Troncoso sets aside the polemics about social discomfort sometimes found in contemporary Chicano writing and focuses instead on the moral and intellectual lives of his characters. The twelve stories gathered here form a richly textured tapestry that adds to our understanding of what it is to be human.
John Perry Barlow’s wild ride with the Grateful Dead was just part of a Zelig-like life that took him from a childhood as ranching royalty in Wyoming to membership in the Internet Hall of Fame as a digital free speech advocate. Mother American Night is the wild, funny, heartbreaking, and often unbelievable (yet completely true) story of an American icon. Born into a powerful Wyoming political family, John Perry Barlow wrote the lyrics for thirty Grateful Dead songs while also running his family’s cattle ranch. He hung out in Andy Warhol’s Factory, went on a date with the Dalai Lama’s sister, and accidentally shot Bob Weir in the face on the eve of his own wedding. As a favor to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Barlow mentored a young JFK Jr. and the two then became lifelong friends. Despite being a freely self-confessed acidhead, he served as Dick Cheney’s campaign manager during Cheney’s first run for Congress. And after befriending a legendary early group of computer hackers known as the Legion of Doom, Barlow became a renowned internet guru who then cofounded the groundbreaking Electronic Frontier Foundation. His résumé only hints of the richness of a life lived on the edge. Blessed with an incredible sense of humor and a unique voice, Barlow was a born storyteller in the tradition of Mark Twain and Will Rogers. Through intimate portraits of friends and acquaintances from Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia to Timothy Leary and Steve Jobs, Mother American Night traces the generational passage by which the counterculture became the culture, and it shows why learning to accept love may be the hardest thing we ever ask of ourselves.
