“Immigrant Daughter” is a Moving Tale of Family Healing and Hope
By Melissa Tejada
Book cover of Immigrant Daughter by Catherine Kapphahn. (Photo Credit: Amazon)
Published on Aug. 21, 2019, Catherine Kapphahn’s, “Immigrant Daughter: Stories You Never Told Me,” documents her powerful journey as a daughter uncovering the unknown life of her late mother, Marijana Kanjer, before the author’s birth.
Kapphahn, an English professor at Lehman, immerses readers in a cinematic experience full of emotions and intimacy by revealing and slowly assembling Marijana’s life-puzzle.
Throughout the story, Marijana strategically uses suppression to build layers of self-protection and strength that keep her traumas fresh wounds. This leaves holes in Kapphahn’s understanding of her genealogy, but eventually, she peels back the layers of her mother’s life with raw authenticity.
The memoir at first transports readers to a hunt in Oriovac, in the countryside of Croatia, where Marijana’s childhood memories lie. The engaging details and descriptions allow readers to practically bask in the landscape, while experiencing the author’s desperate hunger for truth.
The story then progresses from Marijana’s peaceful country life to wartime hardships and illness during her time dwelling in Zagreb. Kapphahn’s ability to capture this uncertain and disturbing time vividly depicts Marijana’s resilience. This part of the narrative powerfully connects with scenarios of current wars driven by extremist leaders and highlights the need to avoid repeating previous mistakes that contribute to inhumane consequences. In this context, the theme of loss stands out repeatedly throughout the memoir.
These events both show Marijana’s own struggles and represent the efforts of refugees to escape conflict in an attempt to secure their future generations. In Marijana’s case, she moves from Europe to different parts of Latin America, where she meets, falls in love with and marries Dave, the author’s father. Marijana’s personality grows stronger as she travels with Dave. The couple struggles with physical stability, but regardless of momentary distance, their love and familial devotion maintain their unity and keeps their hearts beating as one.
Through her narrative, Kapphahn also navigates her ancestral roots by connecting with family members she couldn’t meet before, which teaches the importance of lineage and how it ripples through generations and individuals’ identities. The different people Kapphahn encountered reveal how Marijana hopes for new life and the fear or excitement she felt about the future, all of which form part of immigration experiences. Through their accounts, Marijana’s character takes on multiple identities in a figurative sense.
Despite sacrifices taken to complete this memoir, Kapphahn details her own transformation through grief, and what began as a journey through loss becomes a journey to self-discovery.
