From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Holly Smith
The table of contents gives three options as to the order in which the forty letters in this epistolary novel may be read: one for the conformist, one for the cynic, and one for the quixotic. With each option a different and powerful story emerges; a book group could have a fascinating discussion about this book if each person chooses her own option. The letters are written by an Indian/Mexican woman from Chicago to her Anglo friend. The two meet in Mexico when they are twenty years old and over the next ten years correspond, visit, and travel together. Through these letters, the stories of their lives emerge: with and without jobs, with and without husbands or boyfriends. These are stories of opposites: one is an artist who is always sketching and can't stand alcohol or cigarettes, the other a poet who likes to smoke and drink with the company at hand. One is distant and stand-offish, her world coming alive when she dances, the other a believer in spirits and intangible forces. Each letter can be a story in itself; each letter delivers to the reader the power of a woman's words of relationship and life: "We needled, stabbed, manipulated, cut, and through it all we loved, driven to see the other improved in her own reflection." -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14.

Review
"A wonderful, wonderful book." --Maxine Hong Kingston

"Like a disciplined athlete, Castillo makes even the most difficult moves look easy." --San Francisco Chronicle

From the Publisher
The first novel by the noted Chicana poet, this is an epistolary novel in the tradition of Cortozor's Hopscotch. It focuses on the friendship between two strong and fiercely independent Hispanic women and examines Mexican and Hispanic forms of love and gender conflict and the role thal female friendships play within it.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Focusing on the relationship between two fiercely independent women—Teresa, a writer, and Alicia, an artist—this epistolary novel was written as a tribute to Julio Cortázar's Hopscotch and examines Latina forms of love, gender conflict, and female friendship. Ana Castillo's groundbreaking first novel, The Mixquiahuala Letters, received an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation and is widely studied as a feminist text on the nature of self-conflict.

FROM THE CRITICS

Irene Carr - Belles Lettres

Every time I read The Mixquiahuala Letters I savor the beautiful prose, become absorbed in the inevitable conflicts, and find new insights in the reflections of a woman who is caught between her desire to be free of societal expectations and her own internalized constrictions.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING