Call Me Okaasan: A Book for Mamas Raising Bicultural Children

In honor of Día de las Madres, today’s book review should be of particular interest to the mothers of multicultural families. We have a number of readers who are either married to men of a different cultural tradition, or are trying to raise children in a culture that is different from the one in which they were raised.

Call Me Okaasan: Adventures in Multicultural Mothering is a compilation of essays by over 20 writers and mothers from around the world. I am especially happy to review this book as one of the LBBC’s bloggers, Violeta Garcia-Mendoza, is one of the writers who contributed to the book. Her essay, Two Names for Every Beautiful Thing, reveals the commitment that Violeta and her husband have made to giving their adopted children the beautiful gift of cultural identity. She recognizes that the power of our history runs through our blood and soul, and that to deny its existence is a tremendous loss. The essay emphasizes how language is a part of culture, not just a result of it. Indeed, language is culture. It also describes how difficult maintaining a language and culture can be: How anger, disbelief and prejudice in the culture that she lives in, can burden a mother who is trying her best to develop a child’s bilingual and bicultural identity. Overall, Two Names for Every Beautiful Thing is touching and written almost poetically through its use of imagery and language.

As a whole, Call Me Okaasan is a deeply moving and powerful book. I can tell you right up front that it is not a light read. The essays really focus on the challenges these 20 mothers have experienced in their roles as mothers. Some leave the reader feeling empowered and determined, while others make one wonder if it is worth the trouble. Compiled by Suzanne Kamata, Okaasan presents the stories of mothers from a variety of countries around the world. You can read about the experiences of mothers in Japan, Spain, South Africa, France, Turkey, even Kyrgyzstan, to name a few. But despite the diversity, it is incredibly clear that for all these women, it is their love for their children that pushes them to raise them as best they can despite opposition.

I would highly recommend Call me Okaasan to all of our readers. It is an affirmation and a tribute to the choice that you are making to raise bilingual and bicultural children. You can purchase your copy in our on-line store here.