Of Two Minds

About the Book

What happens when a seventeen-year-old Chicana from South Texas is dropped into the rarefied ambience of an Ivy League institution?

Emily Díaz has spent her whole life in two worlds. As a child of Mexican parents in South Texas, she had to maneuver the unruly terrain of two cultures, two economic classes, and two languages. At Yale, the discovery that she is in love with a woman sends her into a vortex of self-doubt that fragments her worlds even further. In Boston, she must face the divide between her outward heterosexual world and her internal emotional desires. Finally, she must risk destroying her relationship with her devoutly Mexican mother by telling the truth about who she is. But can she?

A wry, irreverent, warmhearted tale of self-discovery, Of Two Minds is a coming-of-age story about profound cultural shock, about unrequited love finally requited, and about fighting to become whole after a lifetime of living in incompatible worlds.

"Lyrical poetic authentic precise lush vivid beautifully written a pleasure to read."
-Participants of Voices of our Nation Arts Foundation/Voices Writing Workshops

"A page-turner."
-The author's brother, Ricardo

About the Author

Sylvia Madrigal lives in Newport, Rhode Island, with her partner, her parrot, and her two cockatiels. She was born on the border between Texas and Mexico and educated at Yale. She is dead serious about her tennis and her writing.