I was born the second child of three to my parents, Laurette Nana Kawasumi and John Lewis Montesanto, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Originally from Los Angeles, both my parents were the descendants of relatively recent immigrants to the United States — my mother being second generation, or nisei, Japanese American and my father being fourth generation Italian American. While we did not speak either Italian or Japanese much in our house growing up, the connection to both sides of my family’s culture is deeper than language.

My siblings and I got a lot of exposure to both Italian and Japanese cultures growing up. Some aspects were unique to each, and others were complimentary. One concept shared between the two that was instilled in us was discipline. We were raised very strictly, we did not talk back to our parents and only very lightly questioned when we were told to do something.