-American-Mexican author-
Patricia Magdalena Redlin
Gringa Apestosa
"Gringa Apestosa" = "Stinky Gringa" - the silly but loving nickname given to me by my cousins when I lived in Mexico with them for a year as a young teen. The purpose of this website is currently to promote the memoir I wrote - Gringa Apestosa: Stinky Gringa - until it gets published. Then the focus of my website will change to marketing the book! Below is a brief look into what the memoir is about.
Come with me - a 13-year-old American-Mexican girl - as I arrive with my parents and siblings to spend a year living with my Mexican grandparents and relatives. Wave goodbye to my parents and siblings as they return to the USA. Start my first year of high school (secundaria) with me. Watch as I listen to Spanish and speak only English for several months, and then "burst out" in a miracle of Spanish fluency, startling everyone, including myself. Suffer and wonder and grow with me as I slowly change from a skinny, shy and dorky little girl to a slightly more confident, funny and happy young woman. Cry your eyeballs out with me when it's time to return home.
Gringa Apestosa - Excerpts:
We arrive in the warm darkness of a Mexican August evening. Abuelita is waiting up for us....
The factory is full of machines, all running full bore and making a huge racket as they spin and stomp and smash... I don't reall know what noise is supposed to smell like, but if it has a smell, it's the smell of this heaving, smoking, booming factory.
He lifts his hand to my cheek and pulls me toward him... I am wildly thinking, "My first kiss with a boy - wow!" But then my mind shuts up for a while...
MY SHORT STORY COLLECTION
