“You can’t grow up parented by two women. It’s unnatural.”
This is the rationale that tips the scales of justice in the 1970s, granting Melissa Hart’s father custody of his three young children. Hart tells an absorbing story of enforced separation from her mother and the comfort she takes in Latino culture as she attempts to establish her identity in two increasingly divergent worlds.
Set in Manhattan Beach and Oxnard, California—two backdrops as antithetical to one another as her parents—Hart’s coming-of-age memoir is a moving account of her struggle with the dichotomies of class, culture, and sexuality.
Gringa is one of The ALA Rainbow Project's 2010 recommended GLBTQ titles for youth.
Reviews
“In her refreshingly honest memoir, Hart lets us in on the desires, aspirations, and vulnerabilities of growing up as a queerspawn who’s straight and forcibly separated from her lesbian mom. Her courageous and engaging prose made me laugh, cry and, at times, empathically cringe. A wonderful story from a brave and endearing soul!”
—Rachel Epstein, editor of Who's Your Daddy? And Other Writings on Queer Parenting; coordinator, LGBTQ Parenting Network, Sherbourne Health Centre, Toronto
“In this age of identity, Gringa is a truly timely book. As a middle-class WASP child of divorce whose lesbian mother relocates to a Latino neighborhood, Hart longs for a ‘discernable culture’ of her own. But the truth is, she has one. It is complex and confusing—made of seemingly disparate traditions—but ultimately far more interesting than any of the individual elements that comprise it. This is a compelling story, lyrically written, from the new America.”
—Sue William Silverman, author, Fearless Confessions: A Writer's Guide to Memoir
About Melissa Hart
Melissa Hart teaches journalism at the University of Oregon and memoir writing for UC Berkeley’s online extension program. Her essays have appeared in The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Advocate, Fourth Genre, and High Country News. Hart is a contributing editor to The Writer Magazine. She lives in Oregon with her husband, photographer Jonathan B. Smith, and their daughter, Maia.
