In her heartfelt memoir, Native Country of the Heart, Cherríe Moraga explores her relationship with a larger-than-life mother, Elvira Isabel Moraga, an “unlettered” mestizo woman. The book takes us from the daughter’s own coming-of-age to Elvira’s decline. The author’s mother grew up picking cotton in Imperial Valley, and she felt ashamed about her lack of formal education—it remained an open wound for her entire life. Yet the author explains that while she was growing up, “I had only one romance—the love of an intractable Elvira, and this is what would shape my lesbianism and this is what would mark my road as a Mexican and this is what would require me to remember before and beyond my mother. I am a woman who knew myself daughter.” Midway through the book, Moraga recounts the trajectory of Elvira’s Alzheimer’s disease, a condition that painfully accentuates the distance between herself and her family, yet which also proves meaningful to Moraga’s quest to understand herself and her place in the world as a lesbian woman of mixed heritage. The book may begin “Elvira Isabel Moraga was not the stuff of literature,” but it proceeds to beautifully contradict itself.
AUTHOR CHERRÍE MORAGA IN CONVERSATION WITH JOHN FREEMAN
- When: Thursday, September 17, 2026, 5 p.m. Pacific time.
- Format: Freeman will lead a free hour-long conversation with Moraga, which will include a reading by her and questions from the audience. Produced by Alta Journal for streaming on Zoom.
