ABSTRACT
Michele Pistone grew up in a middle-class family in the suburbs of New York. She often was looked after by Colombian housekeepers who aroused her curiosity by talking with her about their country. When they returned to Colombia, she asked whether she could visit with them, but her parents did not take the idea seriously. When she was twelve, however, her grandfather, an Italian immigrant, died, and her grandmother took her to Europe for the summer, a trip that reinforced her interest in other cultures. Her parents did not encourage this interest. “My father had a friend who was Chinese and I asked him if I could live with them so I could learn Chinese,” she recalls. “My whole family thought I was crazy. I was never able to do it.”
