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Stories My Grandmother Told Me
A multicultural journey from Harlem to Tohono O'dham
Published by City Point Press
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
Table of Contents
About The Book
The illuminating and deeply personal debut from Gabriela Maya Bernadett, Stories My Grandmother Told Me explores culture, race, and chosen family, set against the backdrop of the twentieth-century American Southwest.
In a hilly Southern California suburb in the late twentieth century, Gabriela Maya Bernadett listens as her grandmother tells her a story.
It’s the true story of Esther Small, the great-granddaughter of slaves, who became one of the few Black students to graduate from NYU in the 1940s. Having grown up in Harlem, Esther couldn’t imagine a better place to live; especially not somewhere in the American Southwest.
But when she learns of a job teaching Native American children on a reservation, Esther decides to take a chance. She soon finds herself on a train to Fort Yuma, Arizona; unaware that each year, the Bureau of Indian Affairs kidnaps the native Tohono O’odham children from the reservation and forces them to be educated in the ‘ways of the White man.’ It doesn’t take long for Esther to notice how Fort Yuma parallels her own grandmother’s story as a slave in the South—the native children, constantly belittled by teachers and peers, are forced to perform manual labor for local farmers.
One of two Black people in Fort Yuma, Esther feels isolated, never sure where she belongs in a community deeply divided between the White people and the Tohono O’odhams. John, the school bus driver and Tohono O’odham tribe member, is one of the only people she connects with. Friendship slowly grows into love, and together, Esther and John navigate a changing America.
Seamlessly weaving in the present day with the past, Stories My Grandmother Told Me blends a woman’s memory of her life, and that woman’s granddaughter’s memories of how she heard these stories growing up. Bernadett’s captivating narrative explores themes of identity, tradition, and belonging, showing what it really means to exist in a multicultural America.
In a hilly Southern California suburb in the late twentieth century, Gabriela Maya Bernadett listens as her grandmother tells her a story.
It’s the true story of Esther Small, the great-granddaughter of slaves, who became one of the few Black students to graduate from NYU in the 1940s. Having grown up in Harlem, Esther couldn’t imagine a better place to live; especially not somewhere in the American Southwest.
But when she learns of a job teaching Native American children on a reservation, Esther decides to take a chance. She soon finds herself on a train to Fort Yuma, Arizona; unaware that each year, the Bureau of Indian Affairs kidnaps the native Tohono O’odham children from the reservation and forces them to be educated in the ‘ways of the White man.’ It doesn’t take long for Esther to notice how Fort Yuma parallels her own grandmother’s story as a slave in the South—the native children, constantly belittled by teachers and peers, are forced to perform manual labor for local farmers.
One of two Black people in Fort Yuma, Esther feels isolated, never sure where she belongs in a community deeply divided between the White people and the Tohono O’odhams. John, the school bus driver and Tohono O’odham tribe member, is one of the only people she connects with. Friendship slowly grows into love, and together, Esther and John navigate a changing America.
Seamlessly weaving in the present day with the past, Stories My Grandmother Told Me blends a woman’s memory of her life, and that woman’s granddaughter’s memories of how she heard these stories growing up. Bernadett’s captivating narrative explores themes of identity, tradition, and belonging, showing what it really means to exist in a multicultural America.
Excerpt
Prologue
THERE IS PERHAPS NO scene more timeless than an elder telling
a group of precocious youngsters about life “back in the day.”
Sometime in the late 20th century, in a sprawling, one-story house
nestled in a hilly Southern California suburb, two youngsters gather
on a white couch in the living room. The room is arranged so that
the couch is facing a gigantic window, with an armchair next to the
couch and a table in front. The couch itself, upon closer inspection,
has flowers embroidered on it in colorless thread. There is a plant in
the corner of the room, and family pictures line the walls. The two
youngsters have just eaten dinner, and the sun is setting outside. It
is a summer evening, and the colors of the sunset cast a beautiful
shadow, almost as if the golds, reds, and pinks of the sun are in the
room itself.
An elder comes in, takes a seat in the armchair next to the
couch, and begins not with a story, but with silence. She’s in her
70s, though the absence of wrinkles and a cane suggests someone
much younger. She is about 5 feet 9, with a broad nose, deep-set eyes
behind fashionable
glasses, and short, curly hair graying at the edges.
One of the youngsters, Maya, waits in rapt attention for her grandmother
to tell her the same story she has heard since she could first
?understand words. She sits there, on one side of the couch, a mass of
dark brown curls cinched to the nape of her neck with a black hair
tie. Another girl, Tina, about five years younger, sits next to her. Her
straight black hair is pulled high on her head into a sleek ponytail.
At first glance, the two girls could not look more different; Maya
with her curly brown hair and cinnamon-tinted skin, Tina with her
straight black hair and skin three to four shades lighter. On closer
inspection, however, the similarities become more evident: the small,
slender noses, thin lips, and crescent-shaped eyes. Sisters, for sure.
Tina breaks the silence.
“Do you need anything, Grammy?” she asks, getting up off the
couch to go to the kitchen.
“Just some water,” the elder replies and again waits in silence until
Tina comes back. Tina returns, setting the glass of water on the table
in front of her grandmother. Esther brings the cup to her lips and
takes a sip.
“So how did you end up on the reservation again?” Tina inquires,
as if she hasn’t heard the story a hundred times before. Esther sets the
cup down and takes a deep breath.
“There was a flyer,” she says, and Maya and Tina snuggle together
on the couch to get ready for a long night. They love it when the
story starts here, from the beginning.
THERE IS PERHAPS NO scene more timeless than an elder telling
a group of precocious youngsters about life “back in the day.”
Sometime in the late 20th century, in a sprawling, one-story house
nestled in a hilly Southern California suburb, two youngsters gather
on a white couch in the living room. The room is arranged so that
the couch is facing a gigantic window, with an armchair next to the
couch and a table in front. The couch itself, upon closer inspection,
has flowers embroidered on it in colorless thread. There is a plant in
the corner of the room, and family pictures line the walls. The two
youngsters have just eaten dinner, and the sun is setting outside. It
is a summer evening, and the colors of the sunset cast a beautiful
shadow, almost as if the golds, reds, and pinks of the sun are in the
room itself.
An elder comes in, takes a seat in the armchair next to the
couch, and begins not with a story, but with silence. She’s in her
70s, though the absence of wrinkles and a cane suggests someone
much younger. She is about 5 feet 9, with a broad nose, deep-set eyes
behind fashionable
glasses, and short, curly hair graying at the edges.
One of the youngsters, Maya, waits in rapt attention for her grandmother
to tell her the same story she has heard since she could first
?understand words. She sits there, on one side of the couch, a mass of
dark brown curls cinched to the nape of her neck with a black hair
tie. Another girl, Tina, about five years younger, sits next to her. Her
straight black hair is pulled high on her head into a sleek ponytail.
At first glance, the two girls could not look more different; Maya
with her curly brown hair and cinnamon-tinted skin, Tina with her
straight black hair and skin three to four shades lighter. On closer
inspection, however, the similarities become more evident: the small,
slender noses, thin lips, and crescent-shaped eyes. Sisters, for sure.
Tina breaks the silence.
“Do you need anything, Grammy?” she asks, getting up off the
couch to go to the kitchen.
“Just some water,” the elder replies and again waits in silence until
Tina comes back. Tina returns, setting the glass of water on the table
in front of her grandmother. Esther brings the cup to her lips and
takes a sip.
“So how did you end up on the reservation again?” Tina inquires,
as if she hasn’t heard the story a hundred times before. Esther sets the
cup down and takes a deep breath.
“There was a flyer,” she says, and Maya and Tina snuggle together
on the couch to get ready for a long night. They love it when the
story starts here, from the beginning.
Product Details
- Publisher: City Point Press (January 11, 2022)
- Length: 128 pages
- ISBN13: 9781947951433
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