Abstract
Sitting across the table from a woman affectionately referred to as Grandma by everyone around her, we began with one simple question, “Tell us about the trip you took with your granddaughters to New Mexico.” This seemingly mundane question evolved into a complex, emotional, and at times heartbreaking biographical account of Grandma’s life, spanning three states, a time period ranging from the Great Depression to the present day, and impacting three generations of her family. Juanita (“Jenny”) Herrera Carpio (Grandma), a Mexican and Native American1 woman, was born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and moved to San Pedro, California, as a young adult. World War II eventually brought her to Seattle, Washington, where she worked for Boeing and met her future husband, a young Filipino contract worker who spent time fishing and working for canneries in the Pacific Northwest. Grandma and her extended family have resided in the Seattle area since then.2
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© 2014 Diditi Mitra and Joyce Weil
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Hirst, Y.W., Lum, B.C. (2014). “I’m Not Indian”: Understanding Identity Construction through Grandma’s Life Story. In: Mitra, D., Weil, J. (eds) Race and the Lifecourse. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137463111_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137463111_8
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
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