Interestingly, See writes about her paternal great grandparents, the grandfather being Chinese, the grandmother American and Caucasian. See herself, several generations later, has only one eighth Chinese ancestry. But she considers herself Chinese.

I think that people identify with the ethnicity of the culture that they’re given. I grew up with a French grandmother, but often think of myself as having French ancestry because that is the grandparent who spent time with me, and told me about her family and traditions.

The research that went into On Gold Mountain must have been incredible. I imagine that it took years of combing through records and interviewing relatives. I especially enjoyed the photographs of the See family that were included.

Also included in the family history was information about adultery, unplanned pregnancy, and alcohol abuse. I wonder how a family historian manages to pull that off – getting permission to publish deeply personal events. I have, now about a year and a half into the family history adventure, had a few conversations about sensitive family events. But releasing them to the world in print is something else entirely. I think the inclusion of these traumatic events is what makes the book authentic, and a tribute to the family. Because real people have problems, and sometimes make poor or hurtful choices.

I had no idea of the significance of the area called China Camp, before reading the book. I once asked my father how it got the name. In his usual, brief way,he said Chinese lived there, life was terrible for them. And that was most of the conversation.

I may read the book again. The characters seem like friends.

Related posts:

• Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
• The Island Calls Book

As it turns out, the book is famous, and controversial. And somehow I missed hearing about it. I just stumbled on it in the e-library.

Our family had Chinese and Korean American friends growing up. I knew that we would only ever see them at functions that included the whole family, once per week or less often. I knew that for them, piano lessons were mandatory. And so were Chinese language lessons. (I don’t remember if my Korean American friends had language school.) I thought Chua’s book might tell me why, what thinking made piano better than sports.

Chua argues that the most important thing that she can do for her children is to help them to succeed, driving them, nagging them, and chastising them if necessary. She goes to great lengths to take her daughters to the best instructors, and ensure that they practice, study and obey. While not offended by her practices like some readers and friends (that she mentions in her epilogue) I’m far less extreme.

As a non Chinese mother, I have no interest in arguing with my children for hours about school, Chinese lessons or anything else. It’s not because I think it’s ok for them to be lazy failures. I just have a more moderate (Western) approach. I think they need to do well in school, and make certain homework gets done. I think children need positive extracurricular activity. I just don’t think that it has to be painful or needs to exclude playdates.

Though I do not subscribe to extreme parenting, I found the theories fascinating. Definitely an interesting read.

When I came across the title later in the elibrary, it was the only new title in which I had any interest that did not have a waiting list. Being impatient, needing something electronic to read, and bearing no financial risk, checking it out became a good idea.

I was expecting an immigrant story like many others. But was pleasantly surprised to read what was part memoir, part family history, interspersed with Peruvian American relations and cultural differences. Knowing next to nothing about Peru, I was really interested to learn about Arana’s early childhood in Lima, and later the company towns of Cartavio and Paramonga.

She has an interesting cast of relatives, including a Peruvian engineer father, mother who has no interest in discussing her own past, a loving but intrusive grandmother and an uncle who brings home animals he finds in the Amazon. I was fascinated to discover what they would do next.

I found myself enjoying, more than ever, the laying down of historical facts alongside family events. Having learned more of my own family history in the past year, I would think to myself, ah, so Abuelito Arana is probably older than my great grandfather, who was fighting the Spanish, in another part of the world at that time. This somehow made me feel more connected to the story.

I had associated the word Putamayo with a producer of children’s music. It is also the mountainous region separating Colombia and Peru, currently having a cocaine trafficking trade, and previously a brutal rubber trade. I wonder how, with all of the news about cocaine, I have never learned before the name of its chief growing region. How did that get overlooked?

Eventually, Marie and her family move to the United States, where they enter school in a very homogeneous New Jersey and experience a racism different from that which they witnessed in Peru.

Several times while I was working at the Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton, friends recommended it. It was out of print, but not difficult to borrow. I was busy working and studying. I didn’t have time to read anything that wasn’t required for my degree program. And being surrounded by Marines did not inspire me to read about them too. The information seemed all too available.

When I watched The Pacific, I remembered the book title and name Robert Leckie, and many compliments of his work. So I checked it out from the elibrary when it became available. I think I would have enjoyed it even more if I had purchased it and read it on Kindle where I could just depress the fact of interest and look it up easily, instead of what I did – hop back and forth from Overdrive to dictionary.com to Wikipedia. It is an English teacher’s dream.

Leckie’s vocabulary is massive, but in a way that seemed to me descriptive and applicable, not wordy. I would recommend the book to anybody studying for the SAT or GRE. Or any other test of ones English vocabulary.

That probably doesn’t sound inviting. But I did enjoy the book. I could have looked up fewer words. But I was engaged fully, and did not want to infer meaning.

There are maps and photographs in the text. I didn’t get to enjoy them much, because I read on an Android phone (HTC Droid Incredible II). The small screen is fine for reading text. For viewing photographs, not bad. For viewing map illustrations the screen is just too small.

I also picked up a bunch of random information, such as what kind of grass grows in Micronesia and Melanesia, that not all human toes are prehensile toes, that Pelelieu has an area of only five miles by ten miles and has no source of fresh running water – no rivers. This fact about Pelelieu probably surprised me the most. Human beings actually live in a place whose only fresh water source is rain.  And survive?

 

Low tide at Asan Beach by cappuccino_iv

Without giving the whole story away… She doesn’t find her father, but rather his deeds, family, and life story. The author’s is a story of ethnic identity. And of overcoming great trauma and finding a sense of closure.

I felt throughout the novel that Roberts was holding back parts of her story. Too painful? Legally dangerous? Offensive to other family members? I appreciate these concerns as a family historian. But as a reader, would like to know the entire story.

As a hafa houle myself, I share the author’s quest to learn the history of Guam and the despair and victories of war that nobody talks about. Though she was clearly looking for information of an even more personal nature.

I am very pleased to find literature online now about Guam and the Chamorro people. There seems to have been such a dearth of both historical records and personal accounts in the past.

The Island Calls is a good read. I am glad that the author has the courage to share her lifes investigation.

Related posts:

• Hold the Marianas Book
• Family Tree

DSC02543 by KF-in-Georgia

I stumbled on two of Balls books in the library. And since checking one out and not having time or concentration to read one wouldn’t cost me a dime, I decided to give it a try. I was sucked in by the statement that Ball hails from a dangling branch of the family tree which was not the main branch. I relate to this.

I would categorize the book as a genealogy and genetics hybrid, sort of genetics lite. It has some science, and a lot of humorous application to actually humans. As the jacket suggests, his conversations with his cousin, Katherine, are hilarious.

Ball clearly did a lot of research. And I have not memorized all of The Vocabulary, as he calls it, relating to the science of genetics and genealogy. But it is all in there. At least it appears to be from the tired mommy perspective. More important to me, I was able to read it in small bits of time and enjoy and follow it. For the past year, I’ve been reading mostly magazines. Or books where one chapter and the next don’t require a lot of remembering to understand them as a whole.

If you came only for the book info, here is your exit point. .

In other news, my youngest is now six months old. I’m still unpacking. And my six year old is still very social and mostly well behaved. I have mountains of paperwork to do, have not managed to file the taxes, and haven’t written anything that will provide income for quite a while.

Seahorse has the same hairstyle

I did managed to login and see what I need to update on eHow. And I did backup and upgrade this site. There is hope.