Identity & the Grace of Curiosity, with Annabelle Tometich

Lynn Borton

2 years ago

“It felt like a very comfortable place to hide” ~ Annabelle Tometich

Annabelle Tometich — writer, editor, former food critic and now author — joins me to explore the tricky, high-traffic intersection of identity and curiosity.

Who gets to decide identity? How do we determine our own, let alone someone else’s? How might we allow ourselves and others a little grace to figure these things out?

Annabelle spent 15 years writing as “Jean Le Beouf”, the (presumably) White, (presumably) French food critic for The News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla., and then outed herself as the half-Filipina, half-Yugoslavian Florida native behind the nom de plume. She’d come to realize that the privileges of that masquerade came with costs to her sense of self and identity.

Her identity journey took a high-profile turn as her mother — Filipina immigrant, widowed single-mom, nurse — made national news when she was charged as a felon for defending her mangoes.

I think for a long time I was very comfortable just dismissing my identity and being like “you are who you are” and not giving it much further thought. And then, over time, certain questions arise.