Narrative Network

Drinking genes: Alcoholism in the family

Posted on September 1, 2014March 6, 2016 by Sylvia Wong Lewis

Your genes determine whether you get drunk after drinking.

I wonder about drinking genes. Alcoholism seems to run in my family. Several of my relatives died from cirrhosis, an illness related to alcoholism. Thank goodness, I’m not much of a drinker. But my mom told me she worried that I might be at risk because I was born drunk. Well, truthfully, she was drunk when I was born. She said her excuse was that I took too long to be born. She said that she drank a full bottle of wine during her ninth month of pregnancy with me. Finally, I popped out several weeks overdue! I have always limited my alcohol intake because it makes my face and neck flush and my heart race. Knowing your family’s health problems, especially with alcohol, proves why genealogy is good for your health.

Scientists have proven that there are several genes related to alcohol metabolism.

“Multiple genes play a role in a person’s risk for developing alcoholism. There are genes that increase a person’s risk, as well as those that may decrease that risk, directly or indirectly. For instance, some people of Asian descent carry a gene variant that alters their rate of alcohol metabolism, causing them to have symptoms like flushing, nausea, and rapid heartbeat when they drink. Many people who experience these effects avoid alcohol, which helps protect them from developing alcoholism.” Click here to read more.

Book cover about underage drinking and peer pressure. Go to:http://www.thecoolspot.gov/

How do you know if your child will become an alcoholic? Key genes play a role in alcohol dependence.

“Today, scientists at the Scripps Research Institute announced they’ve identified a key gene that appears to strongly influence the development of alcoholism and alcohol dependence. The research could prove key to zeroing in on how increased risk for alcoholism runs in families. The study, published in Biological Psychiatry, sheds considerable light on genetic variations and how they predict who becomes dependent on alcohol and the severity of the disease. (Yes, alcohol is a disease.)” To read more click here.

What about hangovers? Yes, there’s a gene for that too.

“Some people get hangovers after a night of drinking, while others don’t, and the reason may be in their genes, a new study of twins in Australia suggests. Researchers looked for links between the study participants’ genetic makeups and the number of hangovers the individuals reported experiencing in the past year. The results showed that genetic factors accounted for 45 percent of the difference in hangover frequency in women and 40 percent in men. Click here to learn more.

For a list of family illnesses caused by heavy drinking, click here.

Do you have drinking genes in your family?

Cooking Genes: Chino-Cubano food

Posted on August 25, 2014March 6, 2016 by Sylvia Wong Lewis

I miss Chino-Cubano food. Although my family’s cooking genes featured a range of old-school Caribbean-Asian fusion, I discovered Chino-Cubano food late in life. Right after college graduation, I ate this delicious, affordable food every day when I worked in NYC’s Hell’s Kitchen. There were two eateries on 9^th avenue owned by the same chef that I loved. I don’t recall the name. But the owner’s name was Mr. Yip. Both joints featured a huge melange of Chinese-Cuban food served on oval plates for just a few dollars.

Besides the delicious food, I loved eavesdropping on the Chinese workers speaking Cantonese to each other and Spanish to customers. This was an only-in-New York experience or an anthropologist’s dream. I think I loved listening to the workers talk as much as I loved hearing my own Chinese Trinidadian relatives speak with West Indian accents.

Back in the 70s, my first job as a teacher-counselor at the YMCA took me to this old West side neighborhood. Located next door to a police precinct on West 54^th between 9^th and 10^th avenues, it was my usual lunch time routine to explore 9th Avenue, NYC’s richest ethnic food world. Although both eateries offered basically the same menu, I took turns going to each one. I was raised eating Guyanese, Trinidadian and Jamaican-Chinese Caribbean food. Chino-Cubano food was a welcome change.

My usual meal was simple: Special Fried Rice, a side order of fried platanos and a café for $4. Today, this meal cost about $10! This is still a bargain. Cuban-Chinese cuisine is not really fusion. It features juxtaposition or a pairing of both Chinese and Cuban food on the same plate. Eg. black beans, with rice—either white, yellow or Chinese fried rice, platanos, bok choy, Chinese dumplings, broccoli, pork, chicken or seafood.

Sometimes my Trini-Chinese mother tried her hand at Chino-Cubano cooking. She would “Latina-fy” her menu with black beans, yellow rice and plantains. To “China-fy” Cuban food, my mother would insert ginger, Hoisin or oyster sauce, bean sprouts and bean curd to her dishes.

At one of NYC’s oldest Chino-Cubano restaurants, La Caridad78’s menu features wonderful contradictions: “Comida China y Criolla” lists the Cuban dishes as “Spanish Dishes.” “Platos Criollos” is the menu headline, but the word criollo is a contradiction too. It was originally used to distinguish Cubans from colonials. A Puerto Rican friend pointed out to me that the dishes listed are actually Cuban, not Spanish: vaca frita, chuletas en salsa soya, bisté de palomilla, rabo encendido and others. Listed on other menu pages were typical Chinese dishes such as bok choy, lo mein, beef with bean curd, and sweet and sour chicken. Tsingtao, a Chinese beer is also served along side regular ones.

There are very few Chino-Cubano recipes posted online. Here are a few that I found:

http://icuban.com/food/puerco_estilo_chino-cubano.html

http://icuban.com/food/platanos_maduros.html

Genealogy background: Chinese indentured male workers arrived in Cuba in 1847 to replace the African slaves. Since the Chinese women were not allowed to join them, many Chinese men intermarried with Afro-Cuban, Native and local island women creating a unique multicultural society. Another migration from 1919 to 1925 brought over 25,000 more Chinese immigrants. They took advantage of the island’s prosperity during those times, primarily in Havana. This long Chinese history on the island left an indelible mark especially in traditional Cuban food. After the Fidel Castro’s Cuban Revolution, many left for Miami and New York where the Chino-Cubano restaurants flourished in the 1960s and 1970s. Sadly, today, very few of these eateries exist. Many New Yorkers like me have fond memories of their favorite Chino-Cubano restaurants.

(Cooking Genes is an ongoing series)

Do you recall eating Chino-Cubano food? Do you have any recipes or menus?

Philanthropy is the new marketing

Posted on August 17, 2014March 6, 2016 by Sylvia Wong Lewis

squash plants growing at Charles Madison Nabrit Memorial Garden

Philanthropy is the new marketing. Take food activism. Our media team learned this lesson the hard way. This summer we launched a campaign to set up an urban garden, actually a mini-farm, called the Charles Madison Nabrit Memorial Garden on the indiegogo.com, a crowdsourcing platform.

Our team chose this particular project because we wanted to devote our efforts to an environmental or green cause for our social impact project. What could be better than helping to build a mini-farm or fixing a ‘food desert’ in Middle America (Columbus, OH.)?

A story from Paula Penn-Nabrit (Wellesley ’76), garden founder, food activist, and my seven-sister college sibling, made a compelling case as she outlined the importance of learning to grow and preserve our own food during these trying times of hunger and poverty in America.

“If growing your own food is like printing your own money, then preserving your own food is like saving your hard earned cash!” said Penn-Nabrit.

By now, the Charles Madison Nabrit Memorial Garden, named for Paula’s husband, has made great strides. They had raised $5000 of a $10,000 campaign. But they still need more money. They need fencing to keep deers and critters out. And, they are getting ready for a robust harvest, farmer’s market and community classes.

Quote from Paula Penn-Nabrit about her Columbus, Ohio community mini-farm in the works

‘Marketing’ your stories to your friends with the hope that they will participate and share with others unknown to you is a challenge. But it is a strategy that works. Like a garden, it takes time and constant tweaking.

A recent article in Philanthropy.com by Paul Van DeCarr explores how philanthropy is the new marketing and some tips to consider.

“How do we create or “market” stories so they’ll appeal to people other than those who already support us; so they’ll reach people who may be unfamiliar with our issue or even disagree with us? We’ve all been there before—with documentary-film screenings, story-sharing websites, or social-change plays that preach to the converted. To enlarge your audience, sometimes all you need to do is activate people who are sympathetic, but inactive. Or, you may sometimes want to engage people who aren’t already on board. As for engaging people who disagree with you, often times the best you can hope for is to neutralize their opposition.”

Consider the following principles to build your base through storytelling. Click on this link.

Want to solve hunger and poverty in Middle America? Contribute here to the Charles Madison Nabrit Memorial Garden.

Is philanthropy the new marketing in your life’s work?

Morning by Morning

Caribbean-Chinese Genealogy Tips

Posted on August 10, 2014March 6, 2016 by Sylvia Wong Lewis

Aunt Sybil, Agnes, Elaine in Trinidad — It took over a decade before my Chinese-Trinidadian maternal Aunts Sybil, Agnes, and Elaine were reunited with their mother (my grandmother) and siblings (my mother) in NYC.

Have you searched for your Caribbean Chinese Diaspora ancestors?

I did. I consulted the UK-National Archives. It was part of my research efforts to find Trinidad and Guyana immigrants with Chinese heritage for my film “From Shanghai to Harlem.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBHYtofVnh0)

The UK-National Archives offered some very helpful advice about Caribbean-Chinese diaspora genealogy search. Here is their reply to my recent inquiry:

“There aren’t a lot of records of Indentured labour. Most of the records relating to this subject are of an administrative nature and relate to the functioning of the indentured labour system. I don’t think you are going to find much relating to individuals, if anything.

“You would need to consult the Colonial Office Original Correspondence for the relevant colony. The correspondence consists of letters coming into London from the colonies. For example:

CO 111 Colonial Office Original Correspondence British Guiana

CO 345 Registers of Correspondence: British Guiana

CO 295 Colonial Office Original Correspondence: Trinidad

CO 372 Registers of Correspondence: Trinidad

As Venezuela was not a British Colony any relevant records will be in the records of the Foreign Office in:

FO 80 Foreign Office: Venezuela

FO 420 Foreign Office: Confidential Print: Venezuela

If grants of land were made at the end of the period of indentured labour then I think these would be in the Archives in Guyana or Trinidad: HoweverI have consulted our database of overseas archives and we don’t have details of these.

If you are new to this kind of research, please go to the Start your research here section of our website for help on where and how to begin your research.

Discovery, The National Archives’ catalogue, contains millions of record descriptions and references. You can search our catalogue specifying keywords and dates.

Searching for records in our catalogue will provide you with a document reference that then allows you to see the document onsite at Kew or to pay for copies to be sent to you using our record copying service. Some documents are available to download from home, but most are not.

To visit The National Archives to undertake research yourself please check our website for important information regarding our opening hours and closure dates, what to bring and ID requirements. This is especially important if you need to look at original documents as you must have the two valid and correct proofs of ID with you.

Making a personal visit is not convenient for everyone. To find out about employing an independent researcher to carry out research for you or about our paid search service please look on our website.

We wish you every success in your research, but please be aware that the records in our custody are not always complete: they were not created or kept for research purposes, but for use by the government or law courts of the day. We cannot guarantee that you will find what you are looking for.

I have not treated this as a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act. If you want us to treat it as a Freedom of Information request, please re-send your enquiry using the contact form but please note that we will charge for research.

If you need to respond to this email, please click on Reply to do so. It is very helpful for us for the text of the earlier emails to be included. For a new enquiry, please complete our contact form.

To avoid receiving our initial auto-response again please make sure you include the letters SART, with a space on either side, in your subject line.

Yours sincerely,

Neil G Cobbett

Reader Adviser

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

My Chinese-Caribbean Diaspora family — My Chinese-Trinidadian-Guyanese maternal family arrival in Harlem.

Dear The National Archives,

My name is Sylvia Wong-Lewis, and I am producing a film about my family. My Chinese great-grandparents signed indentured servant contracts with the British government in Hong Kong and were sent to Venezuela, Trinidad and Guyana. I want to find out more about my Chinese ancestors and tell a story about their migration from China to the Caribbean.

I am writing for advice about finding their contracts. If I cannot find their exact contracts, is it possible for me to take a look at other contracts of Chinese indentured servants sent to Venezuela, Trinidad or Guyana.

I greatly appreciate your time and help!

Thanks,

Sylvia”

Do you know anyone with Caribbean Chinese or Caribbean-Asian ancestors? Are they conducting family history searches?

A chapter, of displacement and indenture, re-visited

Vacation cooking items

Posted on August 4, 2014March 6, 2016 by Sylvia Wong Lewis

What top 8 cooking items are you taking on your vacation? Some of you may run from cooking in a vacation rental. Not me. I find it relaxing to explore local markets, head for the kitchen and cook interesting food finds while on a trip. Maybe the sea air does something to me! I avoid setting a menu to keep my soul open to the local food scene. Many vacation rentals offer lots of kitchen tools like tongs, corkscrews and grilling utensils. But why take a chance? The best way to cook in a vacation rental is to pack items that can guarantee some happiness. We are going on vacation with friends to a rental house on Martha’s Vineyard in September. Our travel companions share our love of fresh, healthy eating. No sandwich meats or canned soups for us!

Here’s my top 8 list:

Olive oil. Fresh local produce with pasta becomes a lovely meal when you add great olive oil. I usually pack 2 small bottles.
One all-purpose prep knife. Our last vacation condo was supplied with beautiful dishes, wine goblets, serving platters, the works. Sadly, prep knives were dull. Avoid using up valuable vacation time shopping for kitchen tools! Bring a sharp knife.
A favorite frying or casserole pan. I’m picky about my pots. Many vacation rentals skimp on quality pots and pans. So bring your go-to pan from home.
Spice blends, cinnamon, hot sauce, dry beans, chocolate and sea salt. What a difference your favorite seasonings and ingredients can make with barbecue sauce, a pot of chili, or crowd-pleasing potluck recipes.
Coffee, Tea, sweeteners. Sometimes I bring my own French press coffee pot, as I am particular about my coffee. Whole leaf tea is another must for me!
Flavor enhancers: Harissa paste, tomato paste, Parmesan cheese, olives, jams. Think of what you need to turn ordinary items into a gourmet meal. I always pack my husband’s favorite peach preserves. It makes his breakfast happy and enhances a variety of recipes.
Zip-lock plastic bags and wax paper for food finds, storage and picnics.
Pancake mix: buy a brand that can make piecrust. Remember to pack vanilla extract! If you are anything like me, you may get inspired to bake cobblers or whip up some pancakes on vacation.

What cooking items do you take to your vacation rental?

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