My Broken Language

My Broken Language

Adult memoir
"...Draft by draft, I unveiled the Perezes, fitted us in
protagonists' clothes, recorded the hum of our music. My Perezes were
gorgeous, monstrous creatures whose flaws proved their humanity rather
than obscured it. We would hide no more..."
In her memoir, My Broken Language, Quira Alegria Hudes brings
readers into her growing up world, a realm most of us never dreamed
existed.
It's a rich world of spirituality that doesn't answer to
anything venerated by white patriarchy. Shrines in homes receive
regular offerings. Children are slowly initiated into rituals.
Linkeages backward in time are to tropical islands and African nations
rather than British kingdoms and cathedrals.
It's a world where family matters. Cooking is not learned from
books or videos, but from relatives showing how to measure rice by
hand. Gatherings include all out unselfconscious dancing. Joy exists
cheek to jowl with tragedy. Too many of Hudes' cousins die too young
from AIDS or drugs.
It's a world of systemic oppression. Hudes is surprised to
learn that a cousin is functionally illiterate. Because she sat in
the back of the room and was quiet she was passed from grade to grade
without the school system trying to actually educate her.
In My Broken Language Hudes shares her journey through her early
life in this environment and the culture shock of Yale to her
discovery of her ability to depict her family and their world as
glorious and deserving of respect rather than devient and needing to
be hidden. I believe this is a journey you will want to join her on.
On a purrrsonal note, my husband's birthday which is on Monday, has
been a challenge. The what to give him for a gift part that is. The
post illness isolation period meant I couldn't go out to the shops to
buy something. But that was ok. I was going to pay for his hunting
and fishing license. Only he did that himself even though it didn't
take a rocket scientist to figure out my intentions. So I could
bake. Only I was missing ingredients for every recipe he liked. Then
when I asked my friend Steffi to pick me up a bunch of books at the
library she asked wasn't there anything she could get me at the
store. And she packed the bag in such a way all that showed was
library books. We smuggled them in right under Eugene's nose. Now
Monday while he's at work I can bake his molasses cake and chocolate
chip cookies, both from his mother's recipes. (Jules)
So Steffi has talents I never imagined. Now Eugene will have his
favorite treats for his big day.
A great big shout out goes out to Steffi for books, recipe
ingredients, and subterfuge and to our chum Mazie who is blowing out
birthday candles today.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway


Sent from my iPod