BEATNIKS, TUPPERWARE, AND CHILES EN NOGADA

De Paola’s memoir recounts early memories of Mexico, travels in 1950s and '60s California with a hippie mother, and a career in academia.

The author remembers a time on the beach at Ensenada in Baja, Mexico, in 1954, being taken care of as a baby by Maria, his “first mother…Uncle Bob’s wife in Mexico,” and by her mother, whom he called “Abuelita,” before he was sent to live with the adoptive parents of his birth mother, Miki, in Encinitas, California. When he was 6 years old, Miki finally showed up, and his narrative delves into the times in the mid-1950s and early 1960s that he spent with her in California—where they lived both in a car and a commune and sold Tupperware—before she eventually returned him permanently to his grandparents. The author only saw her briefly again, with a baby half brother in tow, a decade later. De Paola also discusses his adult experiences, including his career in scientific research, handling his drug-addicted half brother upon Miki’s death, his return to Mexico later in life (where he met his wife, Rosa), and their current life in Texas, where they’re raising her grandchild. “It always seemed like life [with his grandparents] was all frozen up and that I would never have any stories to tell when I grew up,” recalls the author, reflecting on the appeal of traveling with Miki as a child. That freeze-up clearly never occurred—this memoir is full of lively and often pointed observances, not only about the charismatic-yet-flawed Miki but also about his career as an academic and entrepreneur, including a hilarious discussion of the incomprehensibility of a particular science research manuscript. This wide-ranging and impressionistic memoir does give rise to some questions (including what exactly happened to de Paolo’s father), but this skilled storyteller has crafted a compelling depiction of his life’s journey.

Captivating anecdotes of a colorful, expansive life, told through both a child’s and an adult’s perspective.