Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood

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... Read more

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. " Less