Part One: Family
The Key to the House
Learning English with Shotaro
El Beso
A Shepardi Air
The Book
The Day I Cried at Starbucks on Lincoln Road
A Tango for Gabriel
A Degree in Hard Work
La Silla
Part Two: The Kindness of Strangers
From Those Who Don't Forget You
A Gift from the Women of Mexquitic
The First World Summit of Behars
Unexpected Happiness in Poland
Part Three: Cuban Goodbyes
The Freedom to Travel Anywhere in the World
Cristy Always Prays for My Safe Return
An Old Little Girl
Acknowledgments
Ruth Behar was born in Havana, Cuba. She and her family moved to New York City when she was five. In the years since, she has become an internationally acclaimed writer and the Victor Haim Perera Collegiate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. She is the author of many books, including An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba; The Vulnerable Observer: Anthropology That Breaks Your Heart; and Translated Woman: Crossing the Border with Esperanza's Story, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. In addition to her work as an anthropologist, Behar is a poet, a fiction writer, and a documentary filmmaker. She wrote, directed, and produced Adio Kerida (Goodbye Dear Love), a film that has been shown at film festivals around the world. Behar has been honored with many prizes, including a MacArthur "Genius" Award.
"A heartfelt witness to the changing political and emotional landscape of the Cuban-American experience." - Kirkus Reviews "All those intrigued by their ancestral story will be moved by the personal quest and also by how - with the help of computers as well as the kindness of strangers - the lost can find their way home." - Hazel Rochman, Booklist "'Travelers are those who go elsewhere because they want to ... Immigrants are those who go elsewhere because they have to.' Ruth Behar's own story is one of being both the reluctant immigrant and the enthusiastic traveler, and finally, perhaps to appease both legacies, 'an anthropologist who specializes in homesickness.' Behar admits Spanish is her mother tongue, and yet she is a master craftsperson in her father tongue, English. As always, her exquisite stories leave me astonished, amused, exhilarated, illuminated, and forever transformed." - Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street "Traveling Heavy speaks to issues - the impact of religion on social identity, the cultural and linguistic discomforts of immigration, the social tensions found in multicultural and multigenerational families, the texture of relations between parents and children - that define our humanity. What's more, Ruth Behar skillfully weaves these complex issues into a gripping story of personal challenge and growth. Her artful memoir is filled with grace." - Paul Stoller, author of The Power of the Between: An Anthropological Odyssey "Ruth Behar graces us with her provocative and enchanting memoir of travel and self discovery: as a mother, as a writer, as an anthropologist, and as a child of exile and homecomings. Traveling Heavy is a memoir of wonder from one of the leading Latina artists of the U.S.A." - Marjorie Agosin, author of At the Threshold of Memory: New & Selected Poems "Ruth Behar takes us deep into geographies she has charted, transcending anthropological reportage and finding the poetry that is there not only in the places she has mapped but also in history. She has written an observant and surprisingly compassionate book, full of warmth. I enjoyed reading every page; it is full of wisdom and devastating sincerity." - Nilo Cruz, author of Anna in the Tropics, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama
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