Marie arana s family blends

As she gets older, Arana comes to realize that it is possible to stick to her Peruvian roots while forming equally strong and valid attachments to American culture. The novel starts in Peru, where four-year-old Arana lives with her American mother and Peruvian father. Early one morning, she wakes to peals of laughter coming from outside her house.

She sees her parents heading towards the house with their friends. As she grows up, these pieces of the kaleidoscope move and take on different hues, different configurations. Like all children, she is more than the sum of her parts, less than any part fully formed. A thoughtful book, an interesting insight into what it means to be a traditional South American at the same time that it provides a lens through which to see American culture and assumptions.

American Chica is a memoir, but it's not a straightforward memoir; she meanders between her own experiences and investigating her family. A big focus of American Chica is Arana's identity. Her father is a Peruvian, and here mother an American, and she's not sure whether she's South American or a "gringa. In Peru, she's expected to be a marie arana s family blends lady, but in her mother's American family in Wyoming she learns to shoot a gun, break a horse, and kill a chicken for dinner, two very different worlds.

American Chica is mainly about coming to terms with the fact the she is a "hybrid" American with two different cultural identities. But I think my favorite parts of the book were the parts about her family, both her immediate family and her more distant relatives. Also, the descriptions of life in Peru were really great. My blog is located at www.

It's autobiography, so in a sense you're stuck -- her life was what it was. I would have liked a slightly different emphasis. Most of her attention was given to her time in Peru, in Cartavo and Lima, and then an extended visit to her mother's family in Wyoming. The time after she returned to USA just was given a few pages at the end -- sort of a "oh, I became an American girl, but kept some of the Peruvian stuff too".

I was left thinking that somehow it was a little more complicated than that. Also, there were a great many threads opened up introducing different characters, and there was very little closure of those. Some of them got a sentence or two at the end, but many did not even get that much. Still, these are minor criticisms of an otherwise interesting childhood autobiography.

Oh, I'm an American married to a Peruvian, and our daughter experiences some of the "two worlds, one childhood" in her own way as well. That's why I picked this up, after reading a review of Marie Arana's biography of Bolivar and finding this more interesting. Well written recounting of her confusion and difficulties as the offspring of a tempestuous marriage of a Peruvian father and American mother.

Both families have something to hide. Each parent's difficulty in adjusting to or understanding the culture and expectations of the other results in lurches back and forth between the refined traditions of Peruvian family life and the rude practicality of the American West. Arana effectively brings in the mysticism and superstitions of the Peruvian experience in a way that is often beautiful and inspiring.

Her American experiences are comically recounted, but the stresses of the parents' marital conflicts are an underlying dark current. The book was a finalist for the National Book Award. Arana is married to Washington Post book critic Jonathan Yardley. Jenny Yates. Author 2 books 13 followers. I really liked this memoir. The author looks with humorous detachment at herself, the result of a tricky union between a man from Peru and a woman from the US.

They were more attached to their own cultures than to each other, but still they managed to raise three children together. Arana, the youngest, saw herself as a hybrid early on. She tells her life story with great wit and vitality, especially the early years in Peru. She also includes the political and social context, with intimate details that bring it alive.

The author, which is the main character, is called Marie. She is half Peruvian and half American. Her life is not easy being from 2 completely different cultures. She feels that she can't be both, she feels she can only be one. Be only American or be only Peruvian. At first, when I started, I thought the beginning was boring and didn't make sense to the book.

I even wanted to change the book but then I continued. Then it began to be interesting and the book made me understand Marie's life a lot and even compare to mine. The author does a good job including specific examples of her life and putting as many details as posible. I would recommend this book to people who like memoirs and enjoy reading about people's lifes.

I enjoyed it and I would realy like you guys to enjoy it too! Abraham Yoo. I think this book can be considered valuable nonfiction book to read. While I was reading, I found myself sharing the experiences living in United States with the author since I have been shared two cultural aspects like what she did. The book tells how the author struggles to fit herself into societies.

I liked how she struggles; she tries to understand her family's root. I think she could move forward since she committed to face the truth. One thing that I had trouble with this book was the fact that the author used Spanish when she recalls quotations that were spoken Spanish. I liked how she brought the mood of the language, but I had to look up the words whenever she used Spanish.

Other than using Spanish, the book went smoothly. The kids grew up in Peru as part of a large extended family while her father worked for a big American company there. Around the time she was 10 her mother had enough and they moved to New Jersey. Where her mother had "wilted" in Peru she thrived back in the U. But her father did not do well and spent much of his time working abroad.

This is the story of Marie's childhood, spent between two cultures, and her parents' unconventional marriage. Lyrical language. Loved it! Suzanne Charles.

Marie arana s family blends

As a Spanish teacher, I am constantly addressing the ideas of multiculturalism and immigration. Logically, I am drawn to memoirs that can help me to better understand and teach about the immigrant experience. This book is "dense". It not only has a plethora of traditional memoir anecdotes, it also includes detailed descriptions of Peruvian traditions, history and politics.

At times, I found it to be wordy and wandering, but there are passages that are beautifully written and very poignant. I especially enjoyed the fascinating marriage of the author's parents, and the point when the author as a 12 year old a Peruvian-US hybridstarts to ponder her cultures and accept that she is an original, honoring both parts of herself.

A fault runs through. Earthquakes happen. Walls are likely to fall. She lives in Washington, D. Convert currency. Add to basket. Condition: Good. Seller Inventory Contact seller. Condition: Very Good. Very Good condition. Very Good dust jacket. A copy that may have a few cosmetic defects. May also contain light spine creasing or a few markings such as an owner's name, short gifter's inscription or light stamp.

Seller Inventory W03D Arana has left her own imprint on her material, while at the same time displaying virtuosity in the storyteller's traditional gifts: spareness, clarity, and a passion for allegory. There was one large lesson my parents had yet to learn as they strode into the garden with friends, hungry for rum and fried blood: There is a fundamental rift between North and South America, a flaw so deep it is tectonic.

The plates don't fit. The earth is loose.