This HBS series kicks off with the Linda Lindas exhorting someone to
tell me a story I don’t know,
In look and attitude and feel, they remind me a lot of the late 70s’ The Runaways, that same energy, that same feeling of “us against the world”.
And then Lisa Lings does just that, tells a story, through the history of the Filipinos in Louisiana, the Chinese in Northern California, the Vietnamese in Orange County’s Little Saigon, the Bangladeshis in New York, the Japanese in L.A’s Boyle Heights, and the Koreans in Fairfax County, Virginia and like the other series that also feel more rooted and real; they’re narrated by, and feature mainly the POC immigrants such as Roy Choi’s “Broken Bread”, Padma Lakshmi’s “Taste the Nation” or the very wonderful “High on the Hog“. Their food allows them to gain a foot-hold in their new country and then go on to help them (and us) to understand themselves and the people around them, native, immigrant and foreigner all.
From the first episode of her series, I learn that the first Asian American settlement in the US, St. Malo in Louisiana, was established as early as 1763; but by Manilamen, Filipinos brought over by their Spanish colonialist owners and they went on to pave the way for the region’s shrimp industry.
Oh, and here’s to kimchi-backs; like pickle-backs but with kimchi? <eyes lightly bubbling kimchi jars…>
This is a series I’d highly recommend to you; as you might have guessed.