Gringa : a contradictory girlhood / by Melissa Hart.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hart, Melissa, 1970-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

California--History.

California.

California--Biography.

Hart, Melissa, 1970-.

Hart, Melissa.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (278 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : Seal Press, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Torn between the high socioeconomic status of her father and the bohemian lifestyle of her mother, Melissa Hart tells a compelling story of contradiction in this coming-of-age memoir. Set in 1970s Southern California, Gringa is the story of a young girl conflicted by two extremes. On the one hand there's life with her mother, who leaves her father to begin a lesbian relationship, taking Hart and her two siblings along. Hart tells of her mom's new life in a Hispanic neighborhood of Oxnard, California, and how these new surroundings begin to positively shape Hart herself. At the opposite extreme is her father's white-bread well-to-do security, which is predictable and stable and boring. Hart is made all the more fraught with frustration when a judge rules that being raised by two women is “unnatural" and grants her father primary custody. Hart weaves a powerful story of fleeting moments with her mother, of her unfolding adoration of Oxnard's Latino culture, and of the ways in which she's molded by the polarity of her parents' worldviews. Hart is faced with opposing ideals, caught between what she is “supposed" to want and what she actually desires. Gringa offers a touching, reflective look at one girl's struggle with the dichotomies of class, culture, and sexuality.

Contents:

Intro

c o n t e n t s

Salida

Impossible Dream

Chimichangas

The Acorn

Bluebird of Happiness

The Squeaky Animal Hat Club

The Match

Ethiopia

Trapped White Space

Young Americans

No Va

Cream of the Crop

6.9

Trials and Tribulations of Trailer Trash

O, Christmas Tree

Citizens of the World

About the Author

Acknowled gments.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

ISBN:

1-282-30881-5

9786612308819

1-58005-323-8

OCLC:

646831347