Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
My kids are half Mexican, half an assortment of other nationalities. I'm half Russian, a whole bunch of Polish/Slav/Czech. And a smattering of Irish. We always had corned beef and cabbage on St. Patty's day (which I hate!), and green Jell-o.
Out of my four kids, one of them came out as Irish-looking as can be. She has the most Hispanic name--sounds like you would expect a dark, little Mexican girl to walk through the door. But she's fair, has freckles, and blue eyes. Somewhere on the Mexcian side there had to be a recessive gene somewhere. The boys look Mexican. Her sister looks like she should be named Svetlana of Russia (and has deep green eyes). But the nine-year-old . . . my little Irish girl.
All of this is an introduction to . . . something having to do with writing.
I would say at least half of my books have an obvious nationality about the characters. They are often Irish, Italian, Russian, Polish. I think I do this because, I suppose, I have warm memories of Polish Christmases, of all the little oddities about being part-Russian or part-Polish, the observations I made about my Russian grandmother, who still spoke with an accent and came to America as a teenager. She endured atrocities in Russia, had many stories of her escape, but also had oddities--like believing anything she read in the American press (vs. those Commies). But if the American press was the National Enquirer, that meant everything in it was true. Which led to some humorous situations. Did you know even the ADS in the National Enquirer are true? :-)
Anyway, I just realized that my heritage plays a part in my characters. And now that my children are Mexcian-Americans, and I have spent fifteen years around that . . . . it creeps into my writing, too.
So Happy St. Patrick's Day! And does your heritage creep into your writing?
posted by Erica Orloff at 8:41 AM
14 Comments:
Corn beef and cabbage. Eew! We always had it too and wasn't I a silly enough ass to marry an Irishman? Poor buggers at a conference with a bunch of buddies and has to catch a 7:10 flight tom. Can you just smell that plane??? :(
I'm a hodge-podge too. Scottish mother, so lots of 'auld country' superstitions creep into my writing. Father, Canadian--way back to first government (actually a city with my maiden name)but plenty of Irish in his heritage too and his mother was part N.A Indian, so I've used tidbits of that as well.
LMAO over the Enquirer Auntie M (80) is identical. When my uncle was diagnosed with Parkinson's, she insisted he should start smoking again, because she'd read in the Enquirer that Michael J. Fox had much less severe symptoms when he chain smoked. :0
lainey:
You never know what's in the Enquirer. She also believed the minister next door was a crack dealer, but we won't even go there.
I love slipping this stuff into my fiction though. Most of the food is tortured. We used to have to have communion wafers on Christmas Eve. Whole SHEETS of Communion wafers. Yours was collest if you got the Madonna on it. Not Madonna but THE Madonna. And for the record communion wafers are like eating cardboard, so we got to dunk them in honey, which only made them marginally taste better.
E
P.S. It's 10:17 a.m. I need some green beer.
Ooh! It's 10:43 now. Definitely time to break out the green beer.
CHEERS!
I had to laugh at your post this morning.
I am a first generation American. Both my parents were born in Russia. My dad..born Russian/Polish border..sometimes Russia sometimes Poland.
My mom when she would distrust or get pissed at someone would under her breath say..."Cossack! Bolshevik!" It does not translate in type..you would have to hear the spit on the roof of the mouth!
As it happens my children are all 100% Russian decent. Their dad also 100% Russian backround.
Interesting that two of them have the very high cheekbones and wide eyes and beautiful complexions. My eldest daughter..dark complexion very exotic and quite a stunner.
You see our family are "droppings" of the infamous Khan raping and piliging villages.
My eldest actually looks like an Israeli sabra.
My mom would be 96 if she were alive today. I have stories that she lived, branded in my memories.
Erica..if your grandmother was anything like my mother, you had a rich and amusing childhood. These were funny,funny people. They had to be to survive.
My youngest daughter (the writer) grew up on her families (ok my crazies)idiosyncracies. She can spout a "curse" with the best of the past generations of old. With the accent intact.
Funny how families evolve. Four of my grandchildren are half Mexican as well.
Well actually..you are most likely correct about the genes on the Mexican side.
My son-in-law (from Mexico)looks strictly Mexican..my daughter met him in Graduate school.
When we met his parents, I was stunned. His mother was as fair as any English Rose or German Frau..with bright blues eyes to match!
Couldn't speak an iota of English. It seems that there was a migration of Germans and English a 100 years ago ..to Mexico.
Same for Chinese. They have some of the best Chinese food in Mexico.
We truly are a very small world..no matter how much these crazy world leaders try to separate us.
Happy St.Patrick's Day!
I love corned beef and cabbage!
~Sandy
When I first started writing, I never intended for my heritage to creep into my writing. I was just writing. But lo and behold, my very first writing teacher - screenwriting - said, "It's a good story but you should think twice about having HIspanic characters because there aren't any actors in Hollywood to play them."
That was before Salma, Eva, etc. and I was puzzled because I didn't think of my characters as Hispanic. They were people.
I'm glad I stuck to my guns.
As for celebrating St Patty's Day, we're doing corned beef, cabbage and potatoes. My husband is half Irish and the Little Dude is half Mexican, 1/4 Irish, 1/8 German & 1/8 Hungarian. Like most Americans, he's a mutt.
Love,
Mary
lainey:
Cheers! I am going for my four-mile morning walk--though it's now 1:00 p.m. LAZY today. Then I will come home, shower, grab the kids and scout up a place for green beer. :-)
E
sandra:
My father's side is Russian, my mother's is Slavic. My oldest, as I blogged, is so exotic looking. Amazing how the threads run through.
And I loved, loved your comments. My grandmother could carry a grudge to her grave. A tough woman, and difficult to know, compared to the more touchy-feely loud and funny Polish side. But I know she was tough and strong . . . and I still have dead-on memories of her. She died just a few years ago at nearly 100.
E
Mary:
I am so glad you stuck to your guns.
I love the way heritage plays a part in writing. In The Roofer, the heroine was half Russian, half Irish. She said of her father, "He loved to brood, loved his vodka, and loved to celebrate St. Patrick's day." It was so much a part of the book that there was a darker brooding over it, but also this twinkle about some of the gangsters in it.
E
Like me my main character is American Indian- Cherokee, Apache and Irish.
la:
I love that . . . Lindsey McKenna writes a lot of Native American heritage--she's a Nocturne author.
E
Absolutely it has crept into my writing =)
My kids had a fight the other day and it devolved into, "You're a cracker."
"Well you're more of a cracker than I am."
Only in my house I swear could that be an insult! LOL (Btw my boys are half Irish and the oldest has his father's build and burn-in-the-sun skin). At least I assume that's where he gets it from since all I know is my bio father is white (and my bio mother is black).
It's been really fun for the kids. My husband is Irish. And this year the kids had to have green bagels. *g*
And yes, my heritage creeps into my writing. My characters are Mexican American, and often mixed like me. One of these days I'm going to write a Mexican-Filipino character, the two nationalities that really impacted me growing up. :) :)
I feel so unique! I'm a complete American mutt--English, Irish, German, Dutch, Scottish, Native American (Blackfoot and Mohawk), and French. My kids get some Cherokee from their father's side, which is also German and English. Of course, this is all "claimed" and I don't have actual evidence of any of it.
But my characters are all completely generic. I have no ethnic traditions or heritages that influenced my childhood, and so none find their way into my books, either.
I love hearing about people's backgrounds!
For me, I have enjoyed the traditions . . . I like seeing the thread move from grandparent to parent to me to my kids. Something magical there.
E
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