Hill author to speak of Cuban childhood at signing

By Carole Verona

Even though it’s her first day at school, Amelia leaps up the steps, enters the classroom and sits in the very first row. Olive-skinned and curly-haired Amelia, wearing jeans, sneakers and carrying a back-pack, looks like thousands of other kids in classrooms all across America. She’s enthusiastic, curious, innocent and trusting. What’s different about Amelia? A child of the islands, her command of English is still a little shaky.

So when the students are told to bring in something special for show-and-tell, Amelia decides to wear her brightly colored fiesta dress, the one that reminds her of home. The other kids, who’ve participated in show-and-tell many times before, bring unusual, smaller items representing their various cultures. The other kids don’t laugh at Amelia’s gaffe, as she makes her way to the front of the room to talk about her beautiful dress. And then … well, you’ll have to read the book and see for yourself!

Amelia is the heroine of Chestnut Hill writer Mimi Chapra’s first picture book, Amelia’s Show-and-Tell Fiesta, recently published by Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of Harper Collins. You can meet the author at a book signing and bi-lingual reading on Saturday, September 18, from 2 to 4 p.m., at Artisans, too!, 8117 Germantown Avenue. The reading will begin promptly at 2:15.

Born in Havana, Cuba in 1945, Mimi came to the United States when she was five years old. A friendly, outgoing child, she’d often approach and speak to other children playing in a park near her home on the Upper West Side. Of course, she was speaking in Spanish. When the other kids would run away, Mimi was convinced that she’d done something wrong or that the other kids didn’t like her. But her mother would say, “No, they just don’t understand you.” It was a subtle distinction but it motivated Mimi to learn English. That experience and others like it simmered inside of her for many years.

Her second book, Sparky’s Bark, is in production now. It, too, was inspired by an incident from Mimi’s childhood. While visiting relatives on a farm in Ohio, Mimi encountered Sparky, the family dog. “Deja me,” she said, which means ‘get down.’ When the dog continued to jump on her, Mimi said to her mother, “Sparky’s bad.” Once again, her mother pointed out that Sparky wasn’t a bad dog, he just didn’t understand Spanish. This further motivated Mimi to learn English so she could boss Sparky around.

“Children live in an egocentric universe,” Mimi explained. “As I child, I didn’t realize that not everyone speaks Spanish. That was the first awakening and a gift!  It’s kind of wonderful because it makes you aware and respectful of differences.”

It wasn’t until 12 years ago when she was recuperating from a severe accident that Mimi’s childhood experiences, her love for literature and her desire to write all came together. “My first love was painting,” she said, “but after my accident, I couldn’t paint anymore. While recuperating, I had to lie still so I began listening to books on tape. I especially loved listening to Southern writers like Eudora Welty, Pat Conroy and William Faulkner. Their prose is very lyrical. When lying still and listening, I could tell when a sentence wasn’t well constructed. I’d rewind the tape and listen again. I developed an amazing ear for language.”

Trying to get around in a cast also made Mimi feel out of sync. “I was moving slowly, and the rest of the city was moving at a fast pace,” she said. “You learn to be watchful because the timing is different.” Then she saw the movie Buena Vista Social Club, which put her in touch with memories about Cuba. “When I heard the opening number, the floodgates opened up. I remembered what it felt like being a child out of sync…not knowing the language, making mistakes. I realized I had an opportunity to access and capture my childhood memories and to filter them through the hindsight and maturity of an adult.”

To Mimi, that’s what writing children’s books is about. “You can’t just be back in the past. You can’t just be childlike. You have to enlighten your audience in some way. Through my books, I hope I’m making the path smoother for other children who are assimilating to a culture.”

After graduating from Queens College, Mimi moved to California to pursue the arts. She wrote poems and stories, took photographs and acted. Her first story, “Origami Amy,” was published in Highlights. Six years later, she returned to New York, where she met her husband, Bob Chapra, a Feldenkrais movement teacher who works at Curtis Institute and is also in private practice with offices in New York, Center City Philadelphia and Chestnut Hill.

Mimi continued sending manuscripts to various publishers. “I’d get remarkable letters back,” she said. “They weren’t form letters; they were very supportive. I didn’t see them as rejection letters. One editor wrote, ‘Your rhythm is incredible. Send more stories.’ Another said, ‘I hear the song in your manuscripts.’ With feedback like that, I knew I couldn’t quit.” When Katherine Tegen at Harper Collins accepted my book for publication, she said she loved the character of Amelia. She believes that kids will be able to relate to Amelia because she’s spunky, yet sweet.

“I guess Amelia is a lot like me,” Mimi concluded. “She makes a mistake, and says ‘oh, oh.’ But then she comes through and applies a creative fix to the situation. Like in my life. After my accident, I couldn’t paint anymore. But I’ll write. I’ll figure it out through another one of the arts. And like Amelia, I’ll bring the story to life through music and dance.”