Native Country of the Heart by Cherrie Moraga (July 2019)
I’ve struggled over the past few weeks to find the right words to describe Cherrie Moraga’s deeply reflective memoir. This is surely due to my shortcomings when it comes to commenting on personal writing as well the challenge of summarizing a book I feel I failed to fully appreciate during my reading. Native Country of the Heart is unlikely to appear on any of my year-end lists but that doesn’t mean I discourage anyone interested in the author or her story from checking out this work.
The core of this book is about the reality of forgetting and the various ways we all push back against its relentless tide. Moraga’s relationship with her mother is the obvious way this theme comes through in the writing. Moraga traces their history up to her mother’s battle against the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease, the urgency of her writing suggesting that perhaps the illness has made clear how an untold story is always on the cusp of becoming a fleeing memory. She examines this idea through the much broader lens of cultural loss, using her Mexican-American origins to understand questions such as how groups selectively bury the facts of their past in order to move forward despite doubt and uncertainty. It is a question Moraga is prepared to answer given the many examples of her own courage and conviction in finding ways to move on from significant personal trauma.
Moraga notes at one point that the elderly suffer from deep losses that they cannot share for lack of words or confidence. This point resonated with me not just because I recognized its prophetic nature but also for the way I’ve felt the same in my own life. The inability to articulate our suffering is the mother we share, the simple act of observing and naming the things around us the first step to regaining a grip on a slipping world, and the heart always a final reminder that what the mind tries to forget is the most important story left to tell.
Book notes here.
