THE ORACLES

In this expanded second edition of a memoir, a woman reflects on the years when her mother and father brought her four grandparents from the Philippines to California to care for her and her brother.

Navalta’s parents met at a university in Manila. They married directly after graduation and moved to San Francisco, where the author was born. Living in America was her parents’ dream. BeingAmerican, as she defined it, was Navalta’s goal. She was a creative, self-sufficient latchkey kid. Embarrassed by being the only minority student in her class, she spent hours with her imaginary friends from TV’s The Brady Bunch. But when she was 8 years old, after the birth of her brother, Christopher, her parents promised her a big surprise. Her mom, ready to return to work, had sent for her own mother, Grandma Fausta, to watch over the two children. “I didn’t expect the surprise to be a 140-pound, five-foot-three old woman,” the author writes in this account, which features family photographs. Life with Grandma Fausta, a strong-willed woman steeped in Philippine values and customs, got off to a rocky start for Navalta. Her grandmother, it seemed, was determined to bring the first-generation American adolescent back to her Philippine roots. Two years later, in 1979, the author’s paternal grandfather joined them. Grandpa Paterno brought joy and warmth into the house. Even her grandmother began smiling and laughing. Eventually, the two remaining grandparents arrived, Grandpa Sunday and Grandma Patricia, each adding a different temperament to the burgeoning household. Navalta poignantly captures the personalities and culture clashes that disrupted her young life—her Grandma Fausta’s frustration and sense of displacement in a strange land and her own anger at having to follow new rules and traditions, eat peculiar foods, and even wear different clothing. Although the author now appreciates and cherishes her cultural heritage, she pulls no punches in describing the difficulties she experienced, especially in middle school, “symbolically stuck between two generations and customs.” Still, she looks back with compassion and love for these four “oracles” who remained in this country for over a decade to help their children and grandkids.

A wealth of information about Philippine life and conventions, with vibrant portraits of the oracles.