1-892123-46-0
250 pp.
$26.95 HC
6 x 9

Robert Sanabria
Stewing in the Melting Pot
The Memoir of a Real American

This memoir of a Mexican-American who grew up in a Depression era orphanage reminds us why the great "melting pot" concept did not work.

  • Challenges the myth of America as "a melting pot" and explores many of the issues of America's growing diversity
  • Challenges ideas of how orphaned and disadvantaged children should be cared for in our society

Through the eyes of one of its own, Stewing in the Melting Pot will touch the hearts of all who have lived between two cultures and who have never felt completely accepted by the mainstream American culture. This is the story of a Mexican-American family struggling to survive in pre-and post-World War II America. Robert Sanabria was four years old when his mother took her four children and fled from an abusive husband in Texas to Los Angeles. There, unable to care for her children, she was forced to place them in a Methodist orphanage. In "The Home" Robert learned that his heritage as a Mexican was not welcome and he was required to abandon his language, his religion, and his culture to become a "real" American. Robert tells the powerful story of "The Home's," policy of assimilation and how it led to his own development as a confused and identity-starved adult.

Robert Sanabria is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel and decorated veteran of the Korean and Vietnam Wars. He has been a professional sculptor for the past 25 years. Mr. Sanabria founded the Touchstone Gallery and the Loudoun Arts Council. He lives and works in northern Virginia with his wife, painter Sherry Zvares Sanabria.

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