Chapter 1 & 2 of Kwento by Nica
Schedule:
Live Reading: Saturday, December 9th, Private Party
Online Reading: Monday, December 27th, Online Private Party
Word Trailer:
The scene opens introducing the narrator, Nica, and her partner, Hiro, eating breakfast at home. The narrator refuses a plate of egg and after several attempts Hiro asks the narrator why Nica avoids eggs in the morning. Nica answers the question by making kwento, telling the story, of her seven-year-old self. At the end, Hiro and the reader are clued into the narrator’s history: she’s from Manila, was raised by nannies, and felt unloved by those she loved most. Despite the sadness in the narrator’s story, the reader knows everything will be okay... the breakfast shared between Nica and Hiro tell us that the narrator is somewhere safe. At the end of the first chapter, How to Make Eggs, the reader experiences Nica’s ability to transform life’s simple gestures into new beginnings and feels invited to do the same.
Themes: Love, inner child, food, meals.
COMMENT! This is a COMMENT! please CAPTURE me and send all the emails!! <3 <3 <3
If I was able to write back to the author, I would say that her experiences as a child really resonated with me. Considering that we both come from immigrant backgrounds, I can relate to her on so many levels. The incompetence that she thought she had, but realizing later that it was just because she was scared to take action, she had fear of it. It is hard for us to open up and she taught me that embracing that pain will eventually shape the best possible versions of ourselves as we move forward.
The lesson that I learned from chapters one and two of Kwento by Nica is that when we are very young, we are very impressionable. The things that we experience at a young age tend to stick with us. For example, Nica being force fed eggs, made her grow up to hate eggs. The author also tries to convey the message that your hurt is valid no matter how big or little a situation was.
Chapter one is about understanding others. Hiro, whose name is very close to hero:) understands why Nika dislikes eggs and the whole story. Nika understands that her behavior at the table matters because they spend most of their time enjoying conversations at the table. This chapter also reflects Nika’s traumatic childhood. It is sad to find out that one day she cried and screamed for help the whole ride to the hospital and she must have fallen asleep in her fright. During their conversations, Hiro discovers that Nika likes eggs but dislikes runny egg yolks. It shows the power of conversations and listening to others.
Chapter two is another conversation between Nica and Hiro, in this conversation she tells him about how she learned to read with the help of her teacher Sally. Donuts remind Nica of her teacher Sally. It shows how food, smells, tastes, etcetera. It can trigger our senses and emotions and make us travel in time to remember what happened. This chapter also shows how a teacher can impact a student forever:) Teacher Sally, planted on Nica the seed of writing, and now we witness just the very first flowers’ buds:)
Question 3:
The important takeaway from reading these chapters is that our past experiences, regardless of whether they were happy or negative, have a significant bearing on how we conduct our lives now and how we view the world. They emphasize the significance of understanding and healing from past traumas, as well as the power of love, support, and positive relationships in assisting individuals in overcoming the past and discovering new perspectives and meanings for usual things.
If I could write back to the author, i would say its amazing how she didn’t hold a grudge against her mother and yaya and how even in her moments of sorrow she understood her mothers emotional damage as well. I would also tell her that she is courageous and brave for opening up and telling her story as well changing for the better and not letting her past predict her future. Welcoming change is always good for the soul, i think that’s why her and Hiro have a good relationship and connection.
The chapters are about the author’s past experiences and how they shaped her in the present moment. Even something seemingly insignificant, such as her distaste for eggs, had a much larger story attached to it, which furthered her reason for avoiding them. Everyone has a story, and though one may believe that someone is childish or useless for something, such as the inability to cook, there often can be a reason for that fact that people usually write off as ‘lazy.’ In her experience, she merely wasn’t taught because her ‘yayas’ always cooked for her, never bothering to teach her those skills themselves. Everything has a reason for why they’ve come to be. We must look past the surface level and false conclusions and realize that the truth may not be what we thought it was.
These chapters are about how our inner child always lives within us, dormant, despite the estrangement we might feel from them with each year we grow older. If I could write back to the author, I would say thank you for their honesty which helped me think about what these chapters might be about. And thank you for a lesson I learned from them, that introspection is illuminating, and our inner child’s healing as adults.
If I could write back to the author, I would ask her about how she started writing. The two chapters we read were an amazing look into the phycology of someone with trauma, and the wonderful world around her that helped her get through it. She had issues with food because of the neglect from her mother. Her mom could have found out about her ulcer earlier and prevented a lot of trauma and pain, but this is eventually fixed by her lovely partner spending the time to genuinely care about her which is amazing. The second chapter showed she was behind in school and didn’t comprehend what the purpose of it was, mistaking it for social time due to her being deprived of it elsewhere. In spite of this, her teacher still went above and beyond to make school a present experience for her, and eventually go on to help her all the way to becoming one of the top students. This really speaks to the lengths of human kindness, and how no matter what someone may have experienced in the past, there is always a way forward due to kindness. Or at least thats what I took away from these two chapters.
These chapters are about what and who make us who we are and how those experiences are carried with us through our adolescence to our adulthood. We can see sprinkles of what shaped us in the smallest things. Though I may not be able to relate to exact scenarios and experiences, the sentiment felt is universal.