THE NIGHT BEFORE WE WERE heading out for our camping trip, the Quintanas invited me over for dinner. My mother baked an apple pie. “It’s not polite to arrive at someone’s house empty- handed.” My father grinned at her and said, “Your mother often engages in immigrant behavior. She can’t help herself.” I thought that was pretty funny. So did my mother, actually. “Sending over a pie isn’t immigrant behavior.” “Oh yes, it is, Lilly. Just because you’re not sending over tamales and roasted chiles doesn’t make it not immigrant behavior. You’re just wrapping it up in an American costume. Apple pie?
...more
