Hoyt Street - by Mary Helen Ponce (Paperback)

About the Book

This tender and funny memoir traces Mary Helen's childhood from the age of eight to the beginnings of young womanhood at age 13. Combining a child's freshness of vision with adult irony, she conveys the poverty and prejudice she faced without sacrificing the memories of the everyday joys she experienced.

Book Synopsis

This story of a Mexican American childhood in the barrios of Southern California will touch your heart and make you laugh out loud.

Review Quotes

.,."its heartfelt picture of the meaning of place for immigrants in this city has not been surpassed."

." . . one of the first true autobiographies by a Chicana . . . a priceless portrait of how tradition builds and sustains all cultures."

"[Ponce] presents a fascinating slice of the life of a young girl growing up in the urban barrio of Pacoima, California...["Hoyt Street"] offers the reader a detailed and impressive window into the Southern California Mexican American experience."

"This book is very difficult to put down, one simultaneously wants to rush through it, and at the same time, savor the wealth of details that captures the feel and flavor of growing up in a large working-class family."

"ÝPonce¨ presents a fascinating slice of the life of a young girl growing up in the urban barrio of Pacoima, California...Ý"Hoyt Street"¨ offers the reader a detailed and impressive window into the Southern California Mexican American experience."

. . . one of the first true autobiographies by a Chicana . . . a priceless portrait of how tradition builds and sustains all cultures.

..."its heartfelt picture of the meaning of place for immigrants in this city has not been surpassed."

"Drawing on a child's freshness of vision, "Hoyt Street" depicts growing up Mexican-American as the norm, not as a sociological phenomenon. It will touch your heart; make you laugh out loud."

Here is a perfectly splendid autobiography that can also be classed as a fine ethnohistory about the Mexican American barrio of Pacoima, ÝCalif.¨ . . . recall of detail is impressive and readers will be enchanted by the characters who walk through the pages.

This book is very difficult to put down, one simultaneously wants to rush through it, and at the same time, savor the wealth of details that captures the feel and flavor of growing up in a large working-class family.

"Here is a perfectly splendid autobiography that can also be classed as a fine ethnohistory about the Mexican American barrio of Pacoima, [Calif.] . . . recall of detail is impressive and readers will be enchanted by the characters who walk through the pages."