Book - Signed copy - Daughter of Copper, A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Identity, Growing up on Borrowed Land.
$ 16.00
In the shadows of the Braden Copper Company deep in the Andes mountains, in the valleys and hills of Chile, a young child becomes a woman, who falls innocently in love for the first time, straddles two cultures seamlessly, and suddenly, loses it all.
This story is a memoir of a young North American girl who grew up in the carefully planned, isolated, and socially regulated life of the American Braden Copper Company towns in Chile from 1955 - 1970. This inspirational narrative, written through the eyes of a child, is at times playful and thoughtful, navigating cultural and political circumstances in a developing country. It reflects a deeply felt love of a land and its people, and not understanding what it all meant to be a foreigner on borrowed land. It is a first love story and a coming-of-age story that takes place at the wrong time and place in history.
An idyllic childhood ended suddenly due to political sea changes and was followed by being sent "home" to a country that was barely known and definitely not "home". The story navigates the complex identities of being part Chilean, part American, and part the Daughter of Copper, longing for a place that no longer exists, one that was intentionally erased.
Today, these memories remain very real in the hearts of those who lived the shared experience of growing up on borrowed land, the children of copper whose lives were forever shaped by the Braden Copper Company and its "camps" and compounds of Sewell, Caletones, Coya and Rancagua, Chile.
Extensive research and interviews with those who lived in the "camps" and compounds provides a vivid history and unique perspective of the Braden Copper Company in Chile and its impact on the lives of those who were part of this "copper" society, yet were forever foreigners living on borrowed land.
Author: Susan Bayless Herrera
Paperback
275 pages
Published: March 28, 2022
Intercultural Connections Press LLC
ISBN-13 979-8985855203
See CARDS in Gifts and Treasures for Daughter of Copper note cards.
