If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I moved to Europe for love back in 1995. If you’re new to following me, I met my Swede back in 1992-1993, we fell head over heels, had a long distance relationship, and then – after dealing with mega phone bills, etc – in 1995, I finished my master’s degree and moved to Sweden since it was easier for me to move there than for him to move to the US.
So when I first heard about Tembi Locke‘s memoir, From Scratch, it spoke to me. A Black woman in a multicultural relationship, dealing with the ups and downs of it – the culture clash, the families who don’t get one another…. yeah, I was ready for it. And I loved it. I mirrored my experience – minus the parenthood and cancer.
Then I found out that it was going to become a series on Netflix. Of course I was ready for it. As an Italophile, it spoke to me. Yes, I love going to Italy. I go there at least 2-3 times/year. I grew up in a city in the US where the majority of the immigrant population was from Sicily and southern Italy. Much of From Scratch takes place in Sicily and this is the Italian culture that I grew up knowing in Philadelphia. Many of my friends from school had parents and grandparents who’d grown up in the hill towns of Sicily. When they invited me over, the food I ate was from these regions and I got used to hearing the Sicilian dialects without really understanding them. I even had Sicilian grandmothers telling me that one day I’d marry a Sicilian boy.
Well, that never happened.
I married a Swedish boy. But that’s another story.
If you haven’t watched Netflix’s From Scratch, starring Zoe Saldana as Amy and Eugenio Mastrandrea as Lino, then you need to do so ASAP. Yes, you will find yourself in tears. Yes, you will love it even as you find your heart being wrenched.
It’s worth it. Just watch it.