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Hi friend,

Alta chose A Place at the Nayarit for the October California Book Club. When they asked me to write an essay titled “Why I Write,” I thought about what it means to tell stories of underdocumented people and about the different ways I researched the life of my grandmother, whom I never met. I wrote:
"While I could re-create a lot about my grandmother’s life through research—using oral interviews as well as business permits, census records, genealogical searches, photographs, and restaurant reviews—getting at her interior life was more difficult. One approach that helped was to look at her possessions. While she didn’t leave a diary or letters, I do have her dishes given to me by my mother. They’re from the Franciscan Ceramics plant in Atwater, hand-painted with apples and leaves around the edges. In the book, I write, “Those dishes say a lot about my reserved grandmother. She wanted elegant tableware, and she got it for herself, piece by piece. I like to imagine her setting her place and enjoying the sheen and the color of those dishes, not just as a sign of aspiration, but also as a way of embracing the place where she lived and asserting her Belonging.”
 
I read this section over the summer when I did a book event at Boyle Heights Bar. The audience was composed of community members who don’t usually attend readings but were curious about this history. Many were in their 60s and 70s, Latinx, retired teachers, water and power employees, restaurant workers. Before we got started, they shared with me that they didn’t know a lot about Latinx history. And why should they have? They certainly were not taught it in their textbooks. So I read to encourage them to tell their stories. You don’t have to write a book to do that. I asked them, Do your partners, children, grandchildren, neighbors, coworkers, and fellow churchgoers know your story? Hands started to shoot up around the room. One woman remembered learning to sew at the age of seven on her grandmother’s Singer sewing machine with the push pedal. She made a dress for her mother that she has now inherited and still wears. Another woman recalled that both her mother and her husband’s mother collected Blue Chip Stamps, and each could buy one piece of dishware every week, which they viewed as a sign of their fortitude, a way of making a place in their new homeland. A third woman, Shirley, from Burma (Myanmar), sat proudly with her chin in the air as Dan, her husband of 50 years, described the dishes from her homeland, such as curries, that she still made for her extended family and friends. That was yet another way to keep place, memory, and history alive."
To read the full piece, plus the three other essays Alta generously commissioned about the book, click here.
And if you’d like to learn more about how to tell your story, you can listen to these recent interviews on the book:
 
I never thought I’d get to share the stage with Linda Ronstadt! Okay, it’s not exactly a stage, but it is a great podcast. Many thanks to Francis Lam and The Splendid Table for hosting a conversation about family and heritage. Listen to the podcast here!
 
On Episode #86 of Shared History, I discuss how you can look up how redlining affected your neighborhood and what keeps us from honoring our own little histories: “We think history is something that has to be told with a “big H,” that belongs in a book. It can’t be something that we’re doing. Although, what do we most want to hear about? We connect through the power of story, and yet we don’t tell our own stories.”

Telling our stories through our food
 
I go behind the scenes of Barragan’s in Burbank with USC Dornsife for Latinx Heritage Month – check it out!

Your moment of joy:
 

I had the pleasure and privilege of interviewing legendary sportscaster and Hall of Famer Jaime Jarrín for A Place at the Nayarit. Last month, I was honored to present his copy to him at Dodger Stadium (Pictured with my husband Ian, Señor Jarrín, me). Thank you, Señor Jarrín, for 64 beautiful years with the Dodgers!

I hope you will join me at an upcoming online book event: 
 
Eating, Drinking, and Working in LA | Conversation with Ced Moses, Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West | October 17, 12 pm Pacific Time (register here)

A Place at the Nayarit is Alta’s California Book Club’s October 2022 selection! I will be in conversation with John Freeman on Zoom | October 20, 5 pm Pacific Time (register here)

You can also read my interview with Gustavo Arellano and essays by David L. UlinElizabeth CasillasHoward RosierLisa Teasley and Anita Felicelli
All 2022 proceeds from the sale of my book, A Place at the Nayarit: How a Mexican Restaurant Nourished a Community, will go to No Us Without You, a 501c3 charity that provides food relief for the hospitality workers who have been disenfranchised in the pandemic. We share a goal of showing how immigrant workers have sustained the country, and I'm proud to support them. 
 
I have learned much from the good people who have attended A Place at the Nayarit book talks. And I'd love to hear from those whom I haven't met yet or heard from in a while. Please share your thoughts on the book on TwitterInstagram, or leave a review on the platform of your choice.

Until next time,

Natalia

P.S. 
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Natalia Molina
Department of American Studies and Ethnicity
3620 South Vermont Avenue, KAP 462
Los Angeles, CA 90089

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