La Americana: Two cultures. Two languages. One home.

STYLE MAVEN LIBBIE SUMMERS

6:36 AM La Americana 0 Comments Category : Libbie Summers , Thom Magazine

SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED: A BOOK DEAL!

9:23 AM La Americana 0 Comments Category : Cuba , La Americana , Memoir , Skyhorse Publishing , Spring 2016 , Tina Brown

Wedding Day - Havana, Cuba 2003

I am thrilled to report that after roughly nine years of writing and editing a memoir, La Americana, I recently scored a book deal with Skyhorse Publishing, a New York-based house with nine imprints and a stellar roster of authors, including best sellers and 2012 Nobel Prize winner for literature, Mo Yan.

My story begins in 2000, as a newbie University of Georgia journalism grad pressing to climb the editorial ranks of Talk Media, the joint venture between Tina Brown and Harvey Weinstein that produced Talk magazine and Talk Miramax Books. But when my mother was hit with an advanced stage of cancer that same year and died seven months later, it sent me head-on into a tailspin. I left New York in March 2001, devastated and lost, only to land in Havana’s José Martí airport weeks later. I was there in escape and never expected to meet my now husband, Luis, nor spend the better part of next three years on Castro’s isle as we waited for a visa that would allow him to move to the U.S.

The warmth of Cuban locals, the exotic locale and exposure to intimate cultural experiences like the raw and riveting power of Afro-Cuban ceremonies, were offset by my introduction to police harassment, the Cuban hustle to survive, mounting travel costs and growing bitter sentiment between President Bush and Castro. It was a very crazy, exciting and occasionally terrifying time.

Slated for a Spring 2016 release, La Americana: A Memoir/Love Story in Cuba (or something like that, as the subtitle is still yet TBD) intrigued my new editor, Julie, for its cross sections of travel, culture, politics, love and loss. When I got the offer via email, sitting poolside during one of my daughter’s swimming lessons, it felt like a quick sting, a slap to the face, and then my eyes welled.

It was a very emotional thing for me, having such a huge dream realized, especially during one of life’s everyday moments, but in the following week my nerves played somewhere between excitement and disbelief, so much so that I literally couldn’t eat for days. I had been, after all, plucked out of obscurity with no “platform” to ride on. I don’t have thousands of followers on Facebook and I just opened a Twitter account a couple of months ago.

While Cuba is a hot topic and I did the hard work, pushing that book out in the madness of babies, marriage, work and life, I also have to do a shout out to Savannah’s creative set. Specifically, Polly Powers Stramm, who edited my manuscript with a sharp, compassionate knife, and Janice Shay, who guided me over the course of a year and made the deal happen a couple of weeks ago.

Photo credit: Mayra Roubach

NATURE/NURTURE

9:29 AM La Americana 0 Comments Category : behavior , Cuba , Havana , Nature , nurture

Our seven-year-old son, Marcos, threw a question at me in the car the other day that I didn't quite know how to answer.

“Mom, do I like black beans and rice and my dad's music because I'm half-Cuban or is it just because he has all of that in the house?”

This was a second grader's simplified argument for nature versus nurture, as he begins to consider his place in the world. In response, I set out to do a bit of research on his behalf, but to also quell my own curiosity.

In a recent exchange with an editor at NPR, he told me Marcos touched on an incredibly complex and politically polarizing frontier of science at the moment.

With various angles, I found a piece on PBS.org, called “Are We Still Evolving?” which pulls arguments from evolutionary psychologists and behavior geneticists over the role of genes and their involvement in our psychological traits.

For a quick brush-up course (because I needed it, too), chromosomes containing DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, sit in the nucleus of a cell. Inside the DNA are genes, which are pliable segments that determine our development. These self-regulating genes that give organisms choices, based on the variables surrounding them, set up camp for our personalities and preferences.

A lot of the PBS conversation surrounds biological evolution, which, depending on who you decide to listen to, may or may not have stopped 40,000 or 50,000 years ago when Homo Sapiens took the place of Neanderthals in Europe. Archeological records show that at that time we made a huge leap in our species, no longer relying on natural selection, as we began creating art and infinitely better tools. Instead of growing more hair, we made clothes; instead of becoming stronger, we invented weapons; language created a new way to pass down behavior, instead of having to discover it alone, and so on. A number of scientists make the case that any evolution since then is purely cultural.

There are those, of course, who disagree emphatically. They say while genes evolve very slowly, it is impossible that we have not progressed, biologically speaking, at all.

What is known for sure is this: Purdue University's psychology teachings show that humans around the world share more similarities than differences in terms of language capacity, genetics and biological needs. Unquestionably, humans from all backgrounds have the same chromosomes, organs and body functions while genetics are responsible for the color of our eyes and skin, whether our hair is straight or curly and the passing of certain diseases. On the fringe of that are height, weight, male hair thinning and life expectancy, among other things, all of which are strongly linked to family lines. IQ, personality and temperament are deemed hereditary.

Most behavior geneticists agree that parenting does have an effect on biologically related and unrelated children, influencing ideas on strongholds like faith and politics, but not on everything.

Enter culture, an rapidly evolving group of behavior norms, or set of socially accepted rules quietly – or perhaps, not so quietly – encoded in us since birth. In much of the Middle East, for example, male friends hold hands, but not in the U.S. In parts of Asia, personal space is a non-concept. You may find yourself taking a step back only to have someone take a step closer. A New York Times piece on proxemics notes that Americans like a good two to four feet in distance from one other.

Ben Franklin coined the phrase, “Time is money,” and clock-bound Americans often don't understand Latin America's casual take on punctuality. Having spent extended periods of time in Cuba and Spain, I learned that, “I'm on my way,” really means, “I'll be there in the next few hours.” I found this exasperating at first, but eventually learned to go with it for the most part, as I was on vacation, after all.

In our one, Georgia-bound household alone, mere microcosms of the explosive cultural growth that has occurred across the globe over the last 40 years, we’re raising three unique individuals who absorb our blended environment in their own particular ways. Marcos is our sweet-toothed Southerner who physically looks like a cross between Luis and my father and understands, but rarely speaks Spanish. The kid who raps his best Eminem and Iggy Azalea in car rides home from school has learned to appreciate his Papi's black beans and rice, but prefers his mom's grilled chicken and rice, dark chocolate chip pancakes and peanut butter banana boats. Though, as he gets older and bonds with his father and brother in his big boy way, I see that side of influence take hold more firmly. Connecting with them through crazy fits of wrestling play and lots of laughter, drowned only by the heavy Latin beats of Gente de Zona, there’s also a lot of importance given to nature and organizational skills. For a boys night out he dabs himself with Adidas Sport cologne and throws a little hair gel on. In the kitchen, with a stool pulled up, he smashes garlic and a pinch of salt in the mortar and pestle to add to whatever Luis is cooking that night.

Our two-year-old, Ana, came into the world as a petite reflection of her father and his mother, showing a particular zest for life that is often associated with Cubans, chats often in Spanish and lights up at the sight of frijoles negros, as well as the rich, smoky flavors of lamb pops, yuca and smelly cheeses that her momma can't even get near. You can see glimpses of me in her gaze and her slightly parted two front teeth when she smiles, and she also has a thing for nut butters and chocolate, but I'm not sure at this point where else I reside in her. Though, her take-the-world-on walk is probably a by-product of two very strong-willed family lines.

The appearance of different influences in Luisito, our 16-year-old who split the first 11 years of his life between Cuba and Guatemala, then moved to Houston and finally here to Savannah three years ago, is distinct. He's Latin through and through, but is also incredibly open to all things new. He loves his dad's food and emulates that similar Simón resourcefulness and strength while curbing Cuban humor and cheek kiss greetings to fit American standards. I've watched not only his everyday teenager language evolve, conducting much of it in English, but also the way he thinks and speaks about his future. Just a year-and-a-half shy of college, his options are wide open and his ideas about what he can do reflect that.

Whatever the science is, nature or nurture or a muddled version of both, Luis and I work hard to give options to the kids and it's fascinating to watch all three of them discover life through their varied points of view.

TEA WITH TOM (STOPPARD)

12:33 PM La Americana 0 Comments Category : Harvey Weinstein , National Hot Tea Month , Tina Brown , Tom Stoppard

In 2001 I was an assistant to the vice president and special events coordinator at Talk Media, a hybrid magazine/book imprint run by Tina Brown and Harvey Weinstein. My job was a busy one with occasional perks. Usually it came in the form of backstage passes, special movie screenings or baskets of goodies that my boss or one of the editors handed off. For a young twenty-something new to New York sometimes a phone call or office sighting was enough. Indiana Jones himself or uber model Iman ringing in, Madeleine Albright quietly walking through to a meeting and ticking Diane von Furstenberg and Ralph Fiennes off a check-in list at parties could boost normal tasks to interesting for a millisecond anyway.

As such, it was a February morning when someone asked me to run a package to Tom Stoppard, the Czech-born, English-raised writer and producer who is known for clever plays, like the Tony winner, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and films like Brazil, Empire of the Sun and Shakespeare in Love. At that time he was on the heels of a 1999 Oscar as a co-writer for the latter.

The man is a genius in the way he plays with words and ideas and any other day of any other year I would have run full tilt to his apartment, but it was my second day back to work after a two-week hiatus. My mom had just died and in an upside down fog, I asked if someone else could go.

My friend, Nikki, who was Tina's second assistant, went in my place and when she got back she told me he was lovely. He had offered her tea.

I'm not typically one to regret, but I will forever kick myself for missing the chance to have Tea with Tom.

Photo credit: Кондрашкин Б. Е.

January is (unofficially) National Hot Tea Month.

In Mr. Stoppard's honor, I defer to Downton Abby Cooks Online Guide to Afternoon Tea for a quick tutorial on how to make a proper English tea:

Don’t get too stressed about making tea, particularly since much tea is now sold in tea bags. To distinguish yourself as a tea aficionado, however, just follow the time honored tradition of first warming the tea pot. Add a bit of boiling water to the pot, give it a swirl and pour it out before adding your tea. Steep 3 or 4 minutes and don’t let the tea steep too long or it will become bitter.

If you go with loose tea, the general guideline is to allow for 1 tsp per person, 1 tsp for the pot, and allow 10 ounces per person. Use a tea strainer and pour into cups. You may wish to fill your tea pot with tap water, pour into a measuring cup to determine how many cups your pot will hold. You can keep a heated pot of water nearby in case to help dilute tea if it is too strong.

Photo credit: Healthy You

Tea Lingo

Cream Tea: A simple tea service consisting of scones, clotted cream, marmalade or lemon curd and tea.

Elevensies: Morning coffee hour in England

Afternoon Tea: What we imagine all British teas to be. An afternoon meal, served typically from 4 – 6 pm, which includes the tiers of smart little crustless sandwiches, scones, clotted cream, curd, 2-3 sweets and heaps of tea.

Low Tea: This still an afternoon tea, but called “low tea” because guests are seated in low armchairs with low side-tables on which to place their cups and saucers.

Royale Tea: A social tea served with champagne at the beginning or sherry at the end of the tea.

Celebration Tea: Another variation of afternoon tea with a celebratory cake which is also served alongside the other sweets.

High Tea: High tea is eaten in “high chairs” at the dinner table. Afternoon Tea is traditionally served on lower couches and lounging chairs. It actually is a meal that the working class had at the end of the day with cold meats, potatoes, as well as other foods with tea and perhaps a beer. Americans confuse the two, and since some London tea houses use the terms interchangeable to keep tourists happy, it adds to the confusion.

THE PERFECT STORM

8:55 AM La Americana 0 Comments Category : Cuba policy , Dec 17 , Havana , Pope Francis , US embassy

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STYLE MAVEN LIBBIE SUMMERS

SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED: A BOOK DEAL!

NATURE/NURTURE

TEA WITH TOM (STOPPARD)

THE PERFECT STORM

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SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED: A BOOK DEAL!

NATURE/NURTURE

TEA WITH TOM (STOPPARD)

THE PERFECT STORM

About Me

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