Publisher's Synopsis
LOOKING BACK AND MOVING FORWARD is a book that entertains, amuses, enlightens, and touches our hearts.
The author, Willie Gruenwald, son of German and Austrian Jews who were fortunate enough to escape Hitler's Europe, is both the son of immigrants, and himself an immigrant when he moved from Peru to the United States at the age of twenty.
Gruenwald tells us his experiences as a child of immigrants. It is his story and, at the same time, the story of many other sons and daughters of immigrants.
His parents, trying to escape the European hell to wherever they could, arrived in Peru, not by design but by accident, and were received by a generous people who opened their arms and hearts to them.
It was not easy for immigrants to adapt to different countries, different languages, customs, and food. But they did it and reciprocated gratefully by working hard, building up businesses that provided work and income to many Peruvian families.
Gruenwald's objective in this book is to remember, understand and appreciate the struggles and challenges faced by that first generation.
This book is not an attempt to answer all questions. On the contrary, the author raises more questions hoping that the reader, immigrant or not, will have a more profound understanding of the circumstances of our times.
