What’s My Heritage?

 

There is a lot of talk about heritage in THE PIZZA CHRONICLES.  RV, the main character, keeps getting pressure to honor his heritage. He’s even told that the Dalai Lama made a speech saying if you neglect your traditions, you are neglecting part of yourself.

 

“What is my heritage?” RV keeps asking himself.   It’s not the traditions of his immigrant parents.  He understands why they still cherish them, but they’re not fully his. While he feels a certain responsibility toward the life his parents have given him and the sacrifices they’ve made, he’s trying to make his own life in the U.S. and create his own heritage. But often he has no clue what that heritage will be.

 

I think a lot of first-generation Americans feel this conflict.  I know I did.  Growing up, I was fully immersed in the Old World Lithuanian traditions of my parents: church, holidays, festivals, foods, a special Lithuanian school on Saturdays, no talking English at home.  These traditions, this heritage, gave me comfort and grounded me.  And they were wrapped up in the love from and for my family.

 

And yet there was something else very important going on, too.  A need to fit into the American society I was growing up in.  I was so immersed in my heritage, I didn’t learn English until my mother took me to my first kindergarten class when I was five years old.  I still remember that day and I remember her talking to the teacher. Later she told me she informed the teacher to go easy on me because I didn’t know any English.  Talk about being thrown into the pool and learning how to sink or swim!

 

Luckily, a five-year-old’s brain picks up language pretty easily, I’m told. Mine certainly did. I don’t remember any particular hardship making drawings and listening to instructions, except for one day a year later in first grade. The teacher asked us to name certain objects.  When my turn came, she pointed to herself.  “Ladybug,” I answered, having heard that word somewhere and associating it with women. The teacher made me stand up.  “You mean I’m a bug?” I remember her asking. I still remember the blush of embarrassment as I stood there in class, upset at myself that I somehow mildly insulted her and didn’t get the word right.  Luckily those moments were rare. My brain adapts to languages well.  And for that I have always been grateful.

 

As I think about it, there were many other occasions as I was growing up when I wrestled with that concept of heritage, even if I didn’t consciously know I was doing it. I just knew I wanted to fit into American society. And yet breaking away from those old traditions and finding my own path was sometimes difficult, if not impossible. When you’re a teenager, of course, those conflicts become even more intense. And that’s why I’m writing this series, I think.  Reliving the various issues RV is wrestling with, I am reliving some of my own and seeing them more clearly. And that makes me better appreciate both my heritage and the life I have carved out for myself.

The Pizza Chronicles Book 1

by Andy V. Roamer

Genre: YA LGBTQ Contemporary

RV is a good kid, starting his freshman year at the demanding Boston Latin School. Though his genes didn’t give him a lot of good things, they did give him a decent brain. So he’s doing his best to keep up in high school, despite all the additional pressures he’s facing: His immigrant parents, who don’t want him to forget his roots and insist on other rules. Some tough kids at school who bully teachers as well as students. His puny muscles. His mean gym teacher. The Guy Upstairs who doesn’t answer his prayers. And the most confusing fact of all—that he might be gay.Luckily, RV develops a friendship with Mr. Aniso, his Latin teacher, who is gay and always there to talk to. RV thinks his problems are solved when he starts going out with Carole. But things only get more complicated when RV develops a crush on Bobby, the football player in his class. And to RV’s surprise, Bobby admits he may have gay feelings, too.

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The Pizza Chronicles Book 2

RV, having successfully completed his freshman year at the demanding Boston Latin School, is hoping for a great summer. He’s now fifteen years old and looking forward to sharing many languid summer days with his friend Bobby, who’s told him he has gay feelings too. But life and family and duties for a son of immigrant parents makes it difficult to steal time away with Bobby.

Bobby, too, has pressures. He spends part of the summer away at football camp, and his father pushes him to work a summer job at a friend’s accounting firm. Bobby takes the job grudgingly, wanting to spend any extra time practicing the necessary skills to make Latin’s varsity football team.

On top of everything, RV’s best friend Carole goes away for the summer, jumping at an opportunity to spend it with her father in Paris. Luckily, there is always Mr. Aniso, RV’s Latin teacher, to talk to whenever RV is lonely. He’s also there for RV when he inadvertently spills one of Bobby’s secrets, and Bobby is so angry RV is afraid he is ready to cut off the friendship.

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Andy V. Roamer grew up in the Boston area and moved to New York City after college. He worked in book publishing for many years, starting out in the children’s and YA books division and then wearing many other hats. WHY CAN’T LIFE BE LIKE PIZZA? is the first novel in THE PIZZA CHRONICLES. The books follow the exploits of RV, the teenage son of immigrants from Lithuania in Eastern Europe, as RV tries to negotiate the four years of his demanding high school, his budding sexuality, and new relationships. To relax, Andy loves to ride his bike, read, watch foreign and independent movies, and travel.

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