Native country of the heart: a memoir

Description

"As a young woman, Elvira left California to work as a cigarette girl in glamorous late-1920s Tijuana, where an ambiguous relationship with a wealthy white man taught her life lessons about power, sex, and opportunity. As Moraga charts her mother's journey--from impressionable young girl to battle-tested matriarch to, later on, an old woman suffering under the yoke of Alzheimer's--she traces her own self-discovery of her gender-queer body and Lesbian identity, as well as her passion for activism and the history of her pueblo. As her mother's memory fails, Moraga is driven to unearth forgotten remnants of a U.S. Mexican diaspora, its indigenous origins, and an American story of cultural loss."--Amazon.com.;Prologue: una salta pa'tras -- Coyote's daughter -- Something better -- Little rascals -- What ever happened to Normal Rockwell? -- The other side of the tracks -- Just eat your chicken -- Body memory -- Martin -- Mission girls -- Mind-field -- Don't ask, don't tell -- Nothing México couldn't cure -- Training ground -- Old school -- A rolling stone -- Like the heron -- The mother of the bride -- "A very nice man" -- Halloween shuffle 2003 -- A mother's dictum -- Elvira's country -- Sweet locura -- Send them flying home -- Sibangna -- Reunion -- Por costumbre -- Expressions -- Some place not home -- Now and zen -- When they lose their marbles -- The wisdom of dolphins -- Soft spots -- Sola con los dioses -- Coyote crossing -- Roundhouse -- For the record: an epilogue.