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 girl conflicted by two extremes. On the one hand thereOCOs life with her mother, who leaves her father to begin a lesbian relationship, taking Hart and her two siblings along. Hart tells of her momOCOs 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 fatherOCOs 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 ?unnaturalOCO and grants her father primary custody.

Hart weaves a powerful story of fleeting moments with her mother, of her unfolding adoration of OxnardOCOs Latino culture, and of the ways in which sheOCOs molded by the polarity of her parentsOCO worldviews. Hart is faced with opposing ideals, caught between what she is ?supposedOCO to want and what she actually desires. "Gringa" offers a touching, reflective look at one girlOCOs struggle with the dichotomies of class, culture, and sexuality. "