About Andrea Surova

Andrea Surova, the matriarch of a multicultural family, has personal ties to the people of Ukraine. Although a native of Massachusetts, a significant part of her lineage comes from Slavic countries including Ukraine. Specifically, her late maternal grandfather lost his parents in the Holomodor, Stalin’s manmade famine, and her cousins in Ukraine and Belarus continue to navigate the devastating and ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. Andrea has a background in music, writing, and neonatal brain research, and has volunteered in orphanages in Russia.

As mother to six children—adopted, donor conceived, and biological—cultural identity has always fascinated her as she intentionally incorporates the languages, traditions, music, cuisine, literature, and history of every family member’s ancestral lands into everyday life. Her family garden, as she calls it, includes roots in El Salvador, Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Belarus, Croatia, Italy, Ireland, England, and Scotland! It is Andrea’s hope for all six of her children and others, that cross-cultural awareness will not only promote the development of a healthy cultural identity, but unity consciousness that underlies any real or perceived cultural, political, and ideological differences.