Tortillas & Peanut Butter: True Confessions of an American Mom Turned Mexican Smuggler (Print Book)

"Jaw-droppingly hilarious!" --Carol Romaine-Penn, Award Winning Author

Multicultural Nonfiction Finalist, 2017 National Indie Excellence Awards

An Erma Bombeck “Hot Tamale”

2017 BookLife Award, Memoir/Autobiography: "This book is well crafted and features a strong narrative engine....The plot hits the ground running, contains unexpected twists and turns, and is thoroughly immersive....The writing boasts a wonderful electricity and an engaging voice....An unfortunately common situation...quickly develops into a wonderfully uncommon and heartfelt adventure."

“Spot-on for expats, highly entertaining, and absolutely hilarious!” - Lynne Willard, Editor

An everyday suburban housewife liberates herself from her peanut-butter-and-jelly cage and flees to Mexico. While battling the cultural quirks that send less adventurous souls hightailing it back to the U.S., she struggles to learn Spanish, raise her kids, and run a school. She supplements her meager salary by smuggling, using her wily wit and gift for gab to outfox the customs officials. But not all of her border crossings go as planned.

- A Kindle Top 10 Bestseller in both humor and biography/memoir.

Contains discussion questions for book clubs and multicultural studies courses.

EMBEDDED MULTICULTURAL ISSUES

- The women’s movement

- The 1960s cultural revolution

- Culture shock

- Immigrant adjustment & adaptation

- Immigrant parenting

- Identity development in children of immigrants

- Intergenerational value clashes in immigrant families

- Diverse customs & mores

- Racism

- Sexism

- Prejudice

- Classism

- Ageism

- Cultural evolution

- Expatriate re-integration

- Individualist/Independent (e.g., North American) vs. Interdependent/Collectivist (e.g., Hispanic) orientation to:

° Time (past/present/future)

° Activity (being/becoming/doing)

° Social relations (hierarchical/collateral/egalitarian)

° Self-efficacy (fate/destiny vs. personal control)