Authentically Mexican Audiobook By John Paul Brammer cover art

Authentically Mexican

A Family History in Six Dishes

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Authentically Mexican

By: John Paul Brammer
Narrated by: John Paul Brammer
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About this listen

¡Hola Papi! columnist John Paul Brammer’s Authentically Mexican is the hilarious and heartfelt story of his Mexican American family in diaspora, exploring his heritage and identity through six meaningful meals.

Many Mexican American families bond over traditional foods and recipes: sweating over steaming tamales at Christmastime, chopping up vegetables for pozole, prepping tortillas with a splintery wooden block and roller. This was not the case for John Paul Brammer. His parents barely cooked, and when dinnertime rolled around, he could often find his mother and grandmother fighting over whether to dine at Pizza Hut or Golden Corral. Years later, when John Paul began to explore the role that food plays in his life, he soon realized that, while it may be unusual, he did have a culinary tradition all his own: No matter the circumstances, the story of a family can be told through the recipes and meals that have sustained it, the meals we come back to eating, time and again - for nostalgia, for comfort, for a deeper kind of sustenance.

The perfect next listen for fans of Samantha Irby and R. Eric Thomas, this unforgettable personal essay is full of both laugh-out-loud moments and poignant observations about what it means to celebrate your heritage and culture “authentically”, wherever you are - from Mexico City’s Día de Muertos parade to the Taco Bueno drive-through in Lawton, Oklahoma.

©2020 JP Brammer (P)2020 Audible Originals, LLC.
Cultural & Regional Funny Witty Heartfelt Feel-Good Inspiring
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About the Creator and Performer

John Paul Brammer is an author and illustrator whose food writing has appeared in Food & Wine, The Washington Post, and Kitchn. He runs the LGBTQ advice column ¡Hola Papi! which has been published at Conde Nast and Out Magazine, and currently runs on Substack. It has been adapted into a book for Simon & Schuster, to be published in 2021.

Dear Listener,

Why did I choose this format to tell my story?
"Sometimes we miss the big stories because they're hidden in the mundane and the everyday. That's what drew me to food writing. Every meal, every dish has so much to tell us about each other: where we come from, why we do the things we do, and how we connect with other people. In writing about the precious few dishes that run in my family, I'm also writing about Chicano culture, about the world as I knew it and the characters who made it colorful. Buen provecho!" – John Paul Brammer, creator and performer of Authentically Mexican
Relatable Cultural Experiences • Heartfelt Family Stories • Warm Personal Narration • Humorous Storytelling
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This was a really surprising lesson because I was anticipating it to talk about how to make specific foods. But instead what I got was a “fake Mexican,” as the author put it, describing what his view of being authentic meant. He didn’t know the Spanish language and he didn’t grow up eating a lot of the customary Mexican foods. So the majority of his life he felt like an absolute phony. He tried for so long to find ways to authenticate himself as a Mexican but he just kept failing. What he ends up realizing is that authenticity is who you are, at the time, with what you understand about the world and how you see it. And I really like that.

Decent listen

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I loved the gentle thoughts of this almost Mexican! I live in Mexico and recognise so much that he described, from the solemn abuela to the sweet conchas. My only criticism is that it was too short - I’d love to hear more about the author, his family and his food!

A salute to the author’s family

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I hope JP Brammer tells us more of his life. I look forward to the moving story.

Loved this!

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This was just wonderful memoir, structured around food but about so much more. Highly recommend

Aonderful

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I really liked the opened of JP, I could relate to his struggle. I am definitely going to have to try a concha!

enjoyable

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Grateful. We just want to belong. Selena forever! So many nuances captured in this book.

chicanita

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I have lost both my abuelita and my mamasita. I miss the smells of their kitchen and worry that I have become a “lost” Mexican. I love that my recipes are the family legacy I will leave my grandchildren- and just because this fourth generation is blonde, doesn’t change that they were weaned on tacitos and fijoles. Loved this book and I will listen often. Thank you

So very close to my heart

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Funny, how my upbringing was similar but the “what am I made of” version. Poor white family struggling to find a cultural background. All my life, I was told by my my junior high teacher mother that we are a large part Scandinavian- only to find in my 60’s that no, we are a large part Irish. I wanted my unknown culture to anchor me, to give me a sense of belonging. It seems we all struggle similarly but different.

A peek into a culture

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I've heard the author on NPR and enjoyed the segment. This was more of him done well. I highly recommend this little bit of modern American history.

Super interesting mini family history

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This is the third time ( over a couple of years ) that I’ve listened to this book and I don’t know why I like it so very very much. It written so very first person, without guile or artifices. It’s not fancy, it’s not Plato, but with with its simple somewhat seemingly unconnected parts, it leaves me with a belief that this gentleman has shared the experience of mixed cultures and mixed locations, often through food. I thank him for his sharing.

Uniquely, touching and insightful

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