Hungry Woman in Paris (34 page)

¡Ay, que vergüenza!
(S): How embarrassing!

Bain-marie
(F, cooking): a metal bowl that is placed over boiling water such as when heating eggs in hollandaise sauce

Banlieue
(F): outskirts, also a connotation for ’hood, projects

Batons
(F, cooking): sticks

BCBG, bon chic, bon genre
(F): well dresssed, stylish

Bienvenu
(F): Welcome

Blanc de barbue poêlé
(F): pan-fried brill fillet

Blanquette de veau à l’ancienne
(F): traditional veal stew

Bonjour
(F): Hello, good day

Botânica
(S): Latino shop offering cures for the spirit; sells herbs, candles, saints, and the like

Brunoise
(F, cooking): finely diced carrot, celery, leek, or zucchini

Bueno pues
(S): Well, then

Buñuelos
(S): Mexican pastry consisting of a fried flour tortilla with sugar and cinnamon

Caliente
(S): hot, horny

Callate
(S): Be quiet, shut up

Calle
(S): street

Canela
(S): cinnamon

Carte de séjour
(F): a residency card

Casa chica
(S): small house, the small house for the mistress

Ça va?
(F, slang): How’s it going? Are you all right?

Ce n’est pas mon problème
(F): It’s not my problem

C’est facile
(F): It’s easy

C’est fini
(F): It’s finished

C’est fou!
(F): It’s crazy!

C’est ma vie
(F): It’s my life

C’est parfait
(F): It’s perfect

C’est tout
(F): That’s all.

Chambre de bonne
(F): a nanny’s or servant’s room, usually a small room on the upper floor of an apartment building

Chérie, chéri
(F): dear, darling

Chicana
(S): A female of Mexican descent; also, a woman with a Chicana consciousness

Chismosa
(S): gossipper

Cochina
(S): pig, dirty girl

Confit
(F, cooking): a sieved purée or sauce, often made with tomatoes or fruits combined with a sweetener and a small amount of
lemon juice

Corranle
(S): run

Curandera
(S): a female healer

Crépine
(F, cooking): intestine lining from a pig used to wrap around meat or food to seal it in the oven

¿De dónde es usted?
(S): Where are you from?

Deux Magots
(F): a famous French restaurant where Hemingway and notable French people like Sartre hung out

Doña
(S): Madam

Donde el va, yo ya vine
(S): Where he is headed, I’ve already arrived

¿Eres tú?
(S): Is that you?

Escargot
(F): snail

Es una locura
(S): It’s insanity

Et voilà
(F): And here it is

Foie gras
(F): goose liver

Grenouille
(F): frog

Haricots verts
(F): green beans

Hola
(S): Hello

Je m’appelle Marina, et vous?
(F): My name is Marina, and you?

La Calaca Flaca
(S): The skinny skeleton

La Llorona
(S): The crying woman; a character from a ghost legend, she roams the rivers of Mexico looking for her children, whom she
drowned

Madame Bodé
(F): Mrs. Nosy

Macaron
(F): a French pastry, round with a sweet and creamy center made in just about any color and flavor

Magnifique
(F): magnificent

Mais de quoi tu parles?
(F): But what are you talking about?

Mais pourquoi?
(F): But why?

Mais, vous êtes mexicaine, n’est-ce pas?
(F): But you are Mexican, aren’t you?

Merci
(F): Thank you

Metiche
(S): nosy

Mexique
(F): Mexico

Migra
(S, slang): Immigration authorities

Mira
(S): look

Mirepoix
(F, cooking): vegetables cut into half-inch lengths and roughly diced (traditionally carrot, onion, celery, and leek), used
to flavor sauces, soups, and stews

N’est-ce pas?
(F): Don’t you think? or Isn’t it so?

¡No mas corta, corta!
(S): Just cut, cut!

No te creo
(S): I don’t believe you

Omelette à la crème de la Mère Poulard
(F): omelette made with Mother Poulard’s cream

Paleta
(S): icicle

Paysane
(F, cooking): mixture of vegetables cut into small squares, triangles, diamonds or rounds

Pendeja
(S, slang): idiot

Phyllo
(Greek, cooking): a special dough developed for Greek cuisine and also used in French pastries

Pinche, pinchi
(S, slang): damned, stupid

Planchette
(F): cutting board

Por favor
(S): Please

Pues
(S): well

Puta
(S): whore

Que milagro
(S): What a miracle

¿Qué no?
(S): Isn’t it so?

Qui?
(F): Who?

Qui sont les assistants?
(F): Who are the assistants?

Rapido
(S): Hurry, fast

Sans-gêne
(F): rude, overly forward

Sans papiers
(F): without papers, undocumented

Saumon farcie en feuille de chou vert
(F, cooking): stuffed salmon wrapped in green cabbage

S’il vous plaît
(F): Please; if you would like

Sí, Mama, soy yo
(S): Yes, mother, it is me

También
(S): also, as well

Terrine
(F, cooking): paté

T’es folle
(F) You are crazy

Tía Bonifacia
(S): Aunt Bonifacia (Goodface)

Travail
(F): work

Truite farcie aux morilles
(F, cooking): Trout with morel mushrooms

Tú de veras estás loca
(S): You are truly crazy

Une minute, s’il vous plaît!
(F): Just a minute, please.

Vámonos
(S): Let’s go

Viva México
(S): Long live Mexico

Voilà l’apéritif
(F): Here is the aperitif (the drink before the meal)

Voulez-vouz danser avec moi?
(F): Would you like to dance with me?

Ya ves
(S): you see

1. Compare and contrast Canela’s immigrant experiences in the United States and France. Have you ever lived in another country?
   If so, how did your experience compare with Canela’s?
   
2. Chart Canela’s romantic and sexual relationship with Henry. How does her relationship with him compare to her relationships
   with other men, like Armando or Yves?
   
3. Why is Canela so hungry and depressed? Do you think there is just one reason or many reasons? Do you think she knows why
   she is depressed, or could there be something outside of what she shares with the reader that is causing her pain?
   
4. What are the different types of hunger Canela experiences throughout the novel? How does she satisfy her hunger?
   
5. What is the significance placed by Canela—and many young women in the United States—on turning thirty?
   
6. When applying to school, Canela tells the admissions woman that she wants to open a French restaurant in the United States
   so that people can experience French culture. Do you agree that food communicates culture? Why or why not? If so, then how
   does food communicate culture?
   
7. Do you think Canela’s journey to France is an act of courage, fear, or both?
   
8. How does Canela’s experience in France fuel her to return to Los Angeles to continue fighting for what she believes in?
   What did she discover—or rediscover—while in Paris to enable her to do this?
   
9. What role does diabetes play in the lives of Canela, her mother, and Luna?
   
10. Compare and contrast Canela’s expatriate experience with that of other famous American writers, such as Ernest Hemingway,
    Gertrude Stein, or Mark Twain.
    

Guía de lector

1. Compare la experiencia de Canela de ser inmigrante en los Estados Unidos con su experiencia en Francia. ¿Ha vivido Ud.
en otro país? ¿Cómo compara su experiencia con la de Canela?

2. Siga la relación romántica y sexual de Henry y Canela. ¿Cómo es diferente la relación con Henry a las relaciones con otros
hombres como Armando e Yves?

3. ¿Por qué tiene tanta hambre Canela? ¿Y por qué está tan deprimida? ¿Cree Ud. que hay solo una razón o muchas razones?

4. ¿Cuáles son los tipos de hambres diferentes que Canela tiene en la novela? ¿Cómo las satisface?

5. ¿Qué es el significado a Canela—y a muchas señoritas en los Estados Unidos—en cumplir trienta años?

6. Cuando aplica a la escuela Le Coq Rouge, Canela le dice a la mujer de la admisión que ella quiere abrir un restaurante
frances en los Estados Unidos para que la gente allí pueda conocer la cultura frances. ¿Está Ud. de acuerdo que la comida
comunica la cultura? ¿Por qué o por qué no? ¿Y sí la comunica, en cual manera?

7. ¿Cree Ud. que el viaje de Canela a Francia es un acto de valor, de miedo o de los dos?

8. ¿Después de vivir en Paris, Canela tiene la fuerza para regresar a Los Angeles y luchar para lo que le importa a ella?
¿Cómo le auyda su experiencia en Francia regresar?

9. ¿Qué parte juega la diabetes en las vidas de Canela, su madre y Luna?

10. Compare la experiencia de Canela en Paris con otros escritores Americanos famosos, como Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein
y Mark Twain.

Josefina López
is best known for authoring the play and coauthoring the Sundance Audience Award–winning film
Real Women Have Curves
. Although
Real Women Have Curves
is López’s most recognized work, it is only one of many literary works she has created since she began her writing career,
at age seventeen. Born in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, in 1969, Josefina López was five years old when she and her family immigrated
to the United States and settled in the East Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights. She was undocumented for thirteen
years until she obtained amnesty in 1988 and in 1995 became a United States citizen

Josefina attended the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, graduating in 1987. She obtained her bachelor of arts degree
in film and screenwriting from Columbia College, in Chicago, in 1993. She then obtained her MFA in screenwriting from UCLA’s
School of Theater, Film, and Television. She is currently pursuing an MA in spiritual psychology.

Josefina is the recipient of a number of other awards and accolades, including a formal recognition from U.S. Senator Barbara
Boxer’s seventh annual Women Making History banquet in 1998 and a screenwriting fellowship from the California Arts Council
in 2001. She and
Real Women Have Curves
coauthor George LaVoo won the Humanitas Prize for Screenwriting in 2002, the Gabriel García Márquez Award from the Los Angeles
mayor in 2003, and an artist-in-residency grant from the NEA/TCG for 2007.

Even though she is best known for the success of
Real Women Have Curves
, Josefina has had more than eighty productions of her plays throughout the United States. Josefina is also a poet, performer,
designer, artist, and lecturer of women’s studies, and Chicano theater and film. She is the founder of the Casa 0101 Theater
Art Space in Boyle Heights, where she teaches screenwriting and playwriting and nurtures a new generation of Latino artists.
Josefina is presently workshopping the musical version of
Real Women Have Curves
, and writing her second novel,
You’ll Never Eat Tacos in This Town Again
, and a self-esteem book for women,
Real Women Love Themselves
.

Josefina lived in Paris for almost eighteen months and graduated with a diploma in cuisine from Le Cordon Bleu, Paris. She
lives in Silverlake, California, with her French-American husband, Emmanuel, and her two little Fren-chican (French-Chicano)
sons, Etienne and Sebastian.
Hungry Woman in Paris
is her first novel.