Native Country of the Heart Audiobook By Cherríe Moraga cover art

Native Country of the Heart

A Memoir

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Native Country of the Heart

By: Cherríe Moraga
Narrated by: Cherríe Moraga
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About this listen

Native Country of the Heart is the writer and activist Cherrie Moraga's love letter to her "unlettered" mother. It begins with her mother, Elvira Isabel Moraga, who as a child, along with her siblings, was hired out by her own father to pick cotton in California's Imperial Valley. The lives of Cherrie and her mother, and of their people, are woven together in a story of critical reflection and deep personal revelation as Moraga charts her own coming to consciousness alongside the heartbreaking story of her mother's decline.

As a young woman, Elvira left California to work as a cigarette girl in glamorous late-1920s Tijuana, where an ambiguous relationship with a wealthy white man taught her life lessons about power, sex, and opportunity. While Moraga reflects on her mother's journey - from impressionable young girl to battle-tested matriarch to, later on, old woman suffering under the yoke of Alzheimer's - she traces her own discovery of her queer body and lesbian identity, as well as her passion for activism and the history of her pueblo. As her mother's memory fails, Moraga unearths shards of what it means to be Mexican in the United States, of her diaspora's Indigenous origins, and of an American story of cultural loss.

©2019 Cherrie Moraga (P)2019 Tantor
Activists Americas Biographies & Memoirs Gender Studies Latin America Latin American Studies Politics & Activism Social Sciences Specific Demographics California
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Critic reviews

"A sympathetic portrait of Mexican-American feminism (both in mother and daughter)....Poignant [and] beautifully written." (Kirkus, starred review)

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There was so much of the author/narrator's experience to relate to as a first generation Mexican American woman. Her mother reminded me so much of my father and his experiences, struggles, and fighting(frequently warring) spiritedness.

Poweful

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The audiobook narration is amazing, but the chapters are mislabeled on the audibook. Example: the chapter "Mind-field" in the book is read under the "Mission Girls" chapter title for the audiobook. Definitely an issue to be fixed. (04/26/2022)

Mislabeled Chapters

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Beautiful and moving. A must read for Mexican Americans. I loved every moment of this heartfelt story. Painful, honest, and exquisitely written

Exquisite

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This is my second book from Cherrie Moraga. I love her writing style and how she honors her mother, Elvira, in this book. A must-read!

Chicano studies

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I knew with Cherrie Moraga's words and voice this would be a special experience. And it was. So honest and tender with struggle and pain. And so much beauty and comparable strength. I highly recommend it.

Beautiful daughter-mother memoir

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Her beautiful lyrical words touch me in so many ways. Her story will touch you with the sincerity and depth of her words

Beautifully written

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Native Country of the Heart vividly describes the realities of growing up bi-raciral in America. It was beautiful and cathartic at times. A must read

a must read for all chicanx

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Best book I’ve heard in a long time.

Open hearted
Insightful
Compassionate
Interesting

I’m looking for more books by this author.

Great writing

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Powerful, moving, and beautifully depicted. As someone who has watched a parent die slowly, this was so viscerally relatable. I also loved that Cherrie narrated this herself

Powerful

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