Nonfiction / Memoir
Date Published: September 18, 2022
Publisher:
Mindstir Media
Wrenched at the age of five from his Mexican family in Baja California,
Robert lives with his unconventional birth mother who works as a traveling
Tupperware salesman in 1950s Southern California. Their many adventures
include living with a World War II veteran suffering from PTSD, reciting
poetry to the rhythm of bongo drums in a Beatnik Commune, and extended
periods of homelessness.
Robert, a former professor at an Ivy League college and founder of a
successful nationwide software company, emerges as a scholar searching for a
feeling of belonging and a family. His journey takes him to both coasts of
the US, to Europe, and finally, to a remote, mountainous region in Mexico.
There, he rediscovers love where he least expects it, and finds a place to
call home.
Beatniks, Tupperware and Chiles en Nogada is written with humor, heart, and
an understanding of how complex humanity can be. It is a celebration of the
human spirit that will captivate the reader with unforgettable characters
and exotic locales.
EXCERPT
No American would recognize comida poblana as Mexican food. Yes, as everywhere in Mexico, tacos and tamales are prized street foods. In Puebla, however, the food put on the family dinner table consists of spicy stews, similar to Indian food. Pick your sauce—say vindaloo, curry, or saag. Then pick your meat—I would opt for lamb. Like Indian cuisine, comida poblana also offers various sauces—adobo, chilate, pasilla, tinga, or mole. Each can be prepared with the protein at hand. But homemakers from Puebla must be artists as well as cooks. The colors of their palettes are created with the distinctive mixture of multicolored chiles employed to make each sauce—the rusty yellow of chilate, the rich coffee color of adobo, the deep maroon of pasilla, or the chestnut shade of mole poblano, that famous dish flavored with a hint of chocolate powder.
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Rosie’s family held frequent feasts. The most elaborate were the barbacoas. Forget the passing resemblance to the English word barbecues. For barbacoas, one must think ahead. First, dig a three-foot square pit, two-foot deep, in your backyard. Fill it with wood and other flammables. Light the fire the afternoon before the event. After the fire expends itself and is reduced to a mass of burn- ing embers, add an enormous metal pot filled with garbanzo beans and carrots. Top it off with a whole dressed goat or a cow’s head spiced with big gobs of oregano, thyme, and laurel. Cover the pit with a thick layer of avocado leaves. Fill with earth and wait until noon the next day to uncover the cooked meat. Eat the flesh with freshly cooked tortillas slathered with salsa mocha, a sauce made from chiles and peanuts ground in a traditional stone molcajete. Accompany with copious quantities of beer and mezcal, and a good time is had by all.
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Karla had invested the entire day preparing Puebla’s culinary specialty, chiles en nogada, an exotically complex traditional dish of Puebla that consisted of poblano chiles stuffed with shredded beef cooked with fruits and covered with a walnut cream sauce sprinkled with pomegranates.
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It was a challenge to find food fit for [Sasha]. Street tacos were messy; mole was too spicy. When Eric ordered a cemita, a Mexican sandwich famous for its toppings, she stripped it down to the bones before eating it, leaving a waste pile of avocado slices, pickled jalapeños, sliced onions, fresh cheese, and shredded lettuce carefully scraped from the sandwich. She had converted a favorite taste treat into a bland ham sandwich. She ate a few bites before leaving the rest on the plate.
About the Author
Robert spent his childhood in Ensenada, Mexico, and Southern California.
After serving in Vietnam he relocated to New York. He attended graduate
school at UPENN where he joined the staff as an Assistant Professor in the
School of Medicine after earning his Pd.D. in Physics. Robert left his
academic position to found PyraMed, Inc., a nationwide software
company serving academic medical clinics. Robert lived and traveled in
Mexico extensively after stepping down from his executive position at
PyraMed. He presently lives in Florida with his wife, Rosie, and his two
daughters, Danna and Sophie.
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