The Mixquiahuala Letters, Paperback/Ana Castillo

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.