Americans: What We Lost, Who We Are

Wucker, Michele, Tikkun

What We Lost Who We Are

When I was a little girl learning how to read in the Midwest, my mother taped note cards with French translations into my books. My favorite was Are You My Mother? (Etes-vous ma mere?) I loved how the teuf-teuf explained to the little oiseau that a steam shovel couldn't be a little bird's mother. I didn't come to understand until years later that the hand-lettered cards in my books represented my mother's own quiet rebellion; she was reclaiming the language that had been forced out of her childhood. Even though she was born near Brussels, Belgium, my mother had to go to the library to make sure the French in the notecards was correct. Since she was two, …

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Publication information: Article title: Americans: What We Lost, Who We Are. Contributors: Wucker, Michele - Author. Magazine title: Tikkun. Volume: 15. Issue: 1 Publication date: January/February 2000. Page number: 17+. © 2002 Tikkun. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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