1960s
A01=Helen Madamba Mossman
Asian
Author_Helen Madamba Mossman
biracial
Category=DNC
Category=JBSF11
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Filipino
Helen Madamba
Japanese
jungles
mainstream culture
multicultural
multicultural heritage
northwestern Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Philippines
Woodward
World War II
Product details
- ISBN 9780806169156
- Weight: 333g
- Dimensions: 140 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 14 Oct 2021
- Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Going from the jungles of the wartime Philippines to the schoolyards of northwestern Oklahoma is no easy transition. For one twelve-year-old girl, it meant distance not only across the globe but also within her own family.
Born to a Filipino father and an American mother, Helen Madamba experienced terrifying circumstances at a young age. During World War II, her father, Jorge, fought as an American soldier in his native Philippines, and his family camped in jungles and slept in caves for more than two years to evade capture by the Japanese. But once the family relocated to Woodward, Oklahoma, young Helen faced a different kind of struggle.
Here Mossman tells of her efforts to repudiate her Asian roots so she could fit into American mainstream culture-and her later efforts to come to terms with her identity during the tumultuous 1960s. As she recounts her father’s wartime exploits and gains an appreciation of his life, she learns to rejoice in her biracial and multicultural heritage.
Written with the skill of a gifted storyteller and graced with photos that capture both of Helen’s worlds, A Letter to My Father is a poignant story that will resonate with anyone familiar with the struggle to reconcile past and present identities.
Born to a Filipino father and an American mother, Helen Madamba experienced terrifying circumstances at a young age. During World War II, her father, Jorge, fought as an American soldier in his native Philippines, and his family camped in jungles and slept in caves for more than two years to evade capture by the Japanese. But once the family relocated to Woodward, Oklahoma, young Helen faced a different kind of struggle.
Here Mossman tells of her efforts to repudiate her Asian roots so she could fit into American mainstream culture-and her later efforts to come to terms with her identity during the tumultuous 1960s. As she recounts her father’s wartime exploits and gains an appreciation of his life, she learns to rejoice in her biracial and multicultural heritage.
Written with the skill of a gifted storyteller and graced with photos that capture both of Helen’s worlds, A Letter to My Father is a poignant story that will resonate with anyone familiar with the struggle to reconcile past and present identities.
Helen Madamba Mossman is an award-winning journalist and former managing editor of the daily newspaper in Woodward.
