Reportero: It Was a Nightmare

Cheri Lindsay and her father Phillip both have a rare skin condition called vitiligo. They gradually lose pigment in their skin, often in patches that can grow over time. Cheri always remembers her dad having vitiligo. At StoryCorps, they talked about when it first showed up for her.

Growing up as the youngest in a tight-knit family, Barry Romo wasn’t much older than his niece and nephews. He was especially close with his nephew, Robert, who everyone called Bobby. They came of age during the Vietnam War. Barry remembers his nephew who served in his brigade and died in action.

The Taste of Mango unfolds as a hypnotic, urgently personal meditation on family, memory, identity, violence, and love. At its center are three women: the director’s mother, Rozana; her grandmother, Jean; and the director herself. Their stories, by turns difficult and jubilant, bear witness to the complex, evolving nature of inheritance and the hurt and protection entangled within familial bonds.