Making Change

About the Book

This is Mariska Van Metta's life story, told in her own words, a story of breathtaking scope and intensity, spanning three continents and four remarkable decades of the twentieth century. From the muddy fields of Indonesian refugee camps to the glittering heights of the Hollywood Hills and beyond, one woman's struggle for survival and self-discovery leads her to unexpected depths of suffering and redemption. Mariska Van Metta, born in the Dutch East Indies, an infant refugee during the Japanese invasion of 1942, a concentration camp survivor at age six, forced into exile with hundreds of thousands of Dutch Indonesians who sought refuge in Europe following the founding of the modern Indonesian state, recounts her coming of age in post-war Amsterdam and the promise of a new life in southern California as an American immigrant in 1959. This is the story of how her personal American Dream was insidiously transformed into an inferno of wild Hollywood parties, swinging sex, topless bars, prostitution, drugs and violence which almost cost her her life.

A story of determination and pride, a story of the underside of California's Swinging Sixties, of unexpected friends in strange places, of the personal hell of a young woman who discovered the divine spark of hope and her own unexpected strength in the darkest hour. Mariska Van Metta's life story is a message of inspiration for women everywhere who are victims of violence and despair, a testimony of hope for refugees and new Americans, for Asian-Americans who have survived some of the most remarkable and devastating upheavals of the twentieth century. A surprising path of self-discovery through the dark forces of history and a unique story of spiritual metamorphosis: a lost child transformed into a woman with an unforgettable story to tell.

About the Author

Mariska Van Metta was a professional dancer in her younger years. In her fifties, she returned to college in a RN program. She now lives and works as a nurse in California where she assures home care for disabled and brain-damaged children.