I knew that Tony D'Souza is a Mangolearn. I had heard about Whiteman his first novel. After seeing the goanconvention site, where Tony's face is one among many of "celebrated Goans", I was keen to confirm my belief. A search confirmed what I believed. Here is what he says about himself. I haven't read the book but I learn that he has credited St. Francis Xavier with bringing Konkani to the Konkan coast, and that the saint also travelled with Vasco da Gama. Eugene -- "My mother was born in Detroit in 1939, and my father was born in Bajpi near Mangalore, in 1942. My mother escaped poverty and joined the Peace Corps in 1966, hoping to make a difference in the world. She was sent to India, where she lived in Chikmagulur, Karnataka, teaching low-caste women how to make smokeless ovens she and my father began a relationship that led to their elopement, and eventual relocation to Chicago At first, they kept close ties to the Indian community that began to blossom along Devon Avenue; as I and my sister grew, our status as a mixed-race family, as well as our being Catholic Konkans drew us away from the larger Sikh, Hindu and Muslim majorities "
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