Portrait Of: Carmen Rita Wong

Latino USA

My Cultura, Futuro and iHeartPodcasts

Society & Culture

4.9 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 4 November 2022

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Author and journalist, Carmen Rita Wong, grew up believing that her father was “Papi” Peter Wong, a Chinese American man. At least, that’s what her Dominican mother, Lupe, told her. But as Carmen's mom neared the end of her life, family secrets came to the surface, sending Carmen on a search for answers. In her memoir “Why Didn’t You Tell Me,” Carmen dives into her family’s story — picking apart how race, class, and gender shaped the often difficult decisions she and her family had to make. In this intimate conversation, Carmen shares some of the childhood memories that shaped her, and talks about how the act of memoir writing can feel like a radical practice of empathy.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just a quick warning, there is some explicit language in this conversation, so be aware.
0:13.8	So I'm investigating myself, I'm investigating her, and I learn how to see her as a separate
0:20.0	human being, not as my mother, as a person.
0:25.6	Why did she make these decisions?
0:27.3	What kind of world was she growing up in?
0:29.9	What was her home like?
0:32.0	All of these questions that shape us as people, I wanted to apply to her, to see her with
0:37.6	empathy enabled me to go to these scenes, to go to these memories, to feel as if she's
0:44.8	there.
0:49.4	From Futuro Miria and PRX, it's Latino USA, I'm Maria Inohosa.
0:53.7	Today, a conversation with journalist and author Carmen Puita Wong about her memoir,
0:59.9	Why didn't you tell me?
1:09.0	Over her 20-year-long career in the media, Carmen Puita Wong hasn't been afraid to ask
1:15.4	the hard questions.
1:18.2	Carmen began her career specializing in something that often can be difficult to talk about.
1:24.6	Money.
1:25.6	Money is about not just money.
1:28.0	It's also about how you live your life, how happy you want to be.
1:30.9	So here's the thing, with every decision you make in your life, there's a personal cost
1:34.6	and a financial cost.
1:36.7	As a personal finance expert, Carmen was named host of On The Money, on CNBC in 2005, making
1:45.5	her one of the few Latinas to host a show on national television.
	...

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