Margins
Authentically Mexican book cover
Authentically Mexican
A Family History in Six Dishes
2021
First Published
4.08
Average Rating
60
Number of Pages

¡Hola Papi! columnist John Paul Brammer's Authentically Mexican is the hilarious and heartfelt story of his Mexican American family in diaspora, exploring his heritage and identity through six meaningful meals. Many Mexican American families bond over traditional foods and recipes: sweating over steaming tamales at Christmastime, chopping up vegetables for pozole, prepping tortillas with a splintery wooden block and roller. This was not the case for John Paul Brammer. His parents barely cooked, and when dinnertime rolled around, he could often find his mother and grandmother fighting over whether to dine at Pizza Hut or Golden Corral. Years later, when John Paul began to explore the role that food plays in his life, he soon realized that, while it may be unusual, he did have a culinary tradition all his own: No matter the circumstances, the story of a family can be told through the recipes and meals that have sustained it, the meals we come back to eating, time and again - for nostalgia, for comfort, for a deeper kind of sustenance. The perfect next listen for fans of Samantha Irby and R. Eric Thomas, this unforgettable personal essay is full of both laugh-out-loud moments and poignant observations about what it means to celebrate your heritage and culture “authentically”, wherever you are - from Mexico City's Día de Muertos parade to the Taco Bueno drive-through in Lawton, Oklahoma.

Avg Rating
4.08
Number of Ratings
24
5 STARS
38%
4 STARS
33%
3 STARS
29%
2 STARS
0%
1 STARS
0%
goodreads

Author

John Paul Brammer
Author · 3 books
John Paul Brammer is a writer, blogger, and activist from Oklahoma. His work has been featured in This Land Press and The Advocate. He frequently writes on the topics of LGBT activism and his Mexican American background.
548 Market St PMB 65688, San Francisco California 94104-5401 USA
© 2026 Paratext Inc. All rights reserved