American Chica – Two Worlds, One Childhood
American Chica – Two Worlds, One Childhood, by Maria Arana. (2001)
American Chica is a memoir of a Peruvian/American girl who grew up in the 50’s. Her parents met in college in the US, then moved to Peru just before their first child was born. The majority of this book takes place in Peru where Arana recalls her early childhood. For the better part of 14 years the family lived in Peru surrounded by her fathers family, his country’s cultural and political beliefs, and a Catholic Latin world view. After 14 years, the family moves back the United States where the life style and world view are quite different. Arana’s writing style is very easy to read and kept me reading the book at every opportunity. While there were some things I could certainly relate to, perhaps because of the time period during which it takes place, the experience might be a bit removed for the younger reader. I think that perhaps a reader of my parents’ generation would be able to connect with her experience a little more closely.
What initially drew me to this book was that like me Arana has a Latino father and an Anglo American mother. One major aspect of her story that I found very interesting was how it seemed that Arana was affected by the experience of watching one parent navigating through a culture that is totally different from their own. For the first 9 years of her life, her mother was the outsider, but then the family moved to the states where her mother now became the person in her native culture and her father was now the foreigner. This interested me greatly because it made me think about my own parents. My mother was living abroad when she met my father and I was born in a country that was not hers. What was it like for my mother who was still learning the language as she was meeting my father’s family? What was it like for her being in a different country and having her first child? Was it similar at all to Arana’s mothers experience? Likewise what was it like for my father to be married to a foreigner? What was it like for him meeting my mothers family for the first time and not speaking the language? What did he experience when we moved to the states? What was her experience? Having moved to the states so young, I have only ever remembered my father as the foreigner. What would it have been like for me if we had gone and lived in Guatemala for that year or two when I was in high school? Would I have seen my parents differently now that I was old enough to witness the one becoming foreign again and the other becoming native again? What would that have done to my understanding of my parents in this bicultural relationship they had going?
Other questions that were brought up in my mind that I would love to find out more about relate to Maria’s transition to another culture. I would have been very interested to hear more about her high school years, her coming of age and college years. How, if at all, did her Peruvian-ness affect her American-ness? Did she feel she “lost” part of one while taking in the other? Is her story an example of an older generation of mixed heritage person where they decide to be one or the other or is it more like younger mixed heritage folks? Did she feel she could shift between the two depending on the situation, or was there a place in between in between where she resided?
During my journey to find myself and what it means to be a biracial/bicultural person I have often thought only of what MY experience has been, or what my parents thought of ME as a biracaial/bicultural person. I have not often taken the time to think about what it was like for them as they worked to live in cultures that was not theirs to begin with. This book has certainly made me want to talk to my parents more about their experiences living with each other and how, as Arana puts it, they built a bridge between two cultures.
Posted on Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 in the following categories: 2001, Book, Latino/White, Maria Arana, Memoir
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