The In-Betweens: Women of Mixed Heritage

A gift of literature is to show us ourselves, presenting characters to whom we can relate. But an even greater reward lies in the revelations it offers about people who seem so wildly different from us but who struggle with the same issues.

Growing up as the child of a mixed marriage, I had longed to see myself represented in fiction and nonfiction. Fortunately, today there is a new generation of talented writers who, in novels and memoirs, address the issues of the in-betweens—complex, multicultural women who defy easy pigeonholing, who are, most gloriously, uniquely themselves.

Two early masterpieces are Nella Larson's short novels Quicksand (1928) and Passing (1929), collected in THE COMPLETE FICTION OF NELLA LARSON (Anchor. 2001. ISBN 0-385-72100-5. pap. $13). A leading member of the Harlem Renaissance, Larson uses the theme of psychic dualism in these two powerful and disturbing tales about mulatto women.

Set in a racially tense 1970s Boston, Danzy Senna's CAUCASIA (Riverhead: Putnam. 1999. ISBN 1-57322-716-1. pap. $14) is the must-read of mixed-race contemporary fiction. While her black father and darker sister flee to Brazil in search of racial equality, light-skinned Birdy finds herself on the lam with her not entirely stable white mother, who instructs her daughter to pass herself off as Jewish.

In Olivia J. Boler's YEAR OF THE SMOKE GIRL (Dry Bones. 2000. ISBN 1-883938-78-3. pap. $14.95), Khatia, the daughter of a half-Chinese mother and Caucasian father, runs away from her unhappy family and a broken relationship. Traveling to Amsterdam and then San Francisco, she gradually learns more than she had bargained for about her parents' past, comes to an acceptance of her own sexuality as a lesbian, and slowly develops a sense of self-worth.

Oral history and journalistic sleuthing combine in Lisa See's dense memoir ON GOLD MOUNTAIN: THE ONE-HUNDRED- YEAR ODYSSEY OF MY CHINESE-AMERICAN FAMILY (Vintage. 1996. ISBN 0-679-76852-1.pap. $15), which traces the twists and turns of a sprawling immigrant Chinese/Caucasian West Coast family over several generations.

First published in 1884, Helen Hunt Jackson's RAMONA (Signet: NAL. 2002. ISBN 0-451-52842-5. pap. $6) is another classic. Set in old Spanish California, it is the tragic love story between Ramona, the beautiful adopted half-Indian daughter of an aristocratic Spanish family, and the handsome Indian, Alessandro. Jackson wrote the novel specifically to publicize the plight of Native Americans.

The wonderfully named Wilma Mankiller, daughter of a Cherokee father and white mother, recounts her journey to becoming the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation in MANKILLER: A CHIEF AND HER PEOPLE (Griffin: St. Martin's. 1999. ISBN 0-312-20662-3. pap. $14.95), coauthored with Michael Wallis.

Also of interest is Michael Dorris's A YELLOW RAFT IN BLUE WATER (Picador: St. Martin's. 2003. ISBN 0-312-42185-0. pap. $14), a chronicle of three generations of Montana Native American women. The youngest is 15-year-old runaway Rayona, half-Indian and half-black, who returns to the reservation as her mother is dying.

Mira Kamdar's grandmother was the last of her family to live a traditional Kathiawari (Gujarati Indian) lifestyle; her granddaughter is an American with a redheaded Danish mother. MOTIBA'S TATTOOS: A GRANDDAUGHTER'S JOURNEY INTO HER INDIAN FAMILY'S PAST (Plume: NAL. 2001. ISBN 0-452-28269-1. pap. $14) is a fascinating and well-documented history of the great Indian diaspora and the meaning of "Indianness" as experienced by one far-flung family.

Carmit Delman's family is descended from the ancient Indian Jewish community, and Delman herself is also half-Ashkenazic Jewish. In her poetic BURNT BREAD AND CHUTNEY: GROWING UP BETWEEN CULTURES—A MEMOIR OF AN INDIAN JEWISH GIRL (One World: Ballantine. 2003. ISBN 0-345-44594-5. pap. $13.95), Delman recalls how she often had a difficult time bringing these diverse aspects of her heritage together as well as dealing with the competing expectations of family and community.

AMERICAN CHICA: TWO WORLDS, ONE CHILDHOOD Delta: Dell. 2002. ISBN 0-385-31963-0. pap. $13) is Marie Arana's memoir of growing up in Peru with a strongly independent, American mother and a Peruvian father. Gabriella De Ferrari's GRINGA LATINA: A WOMAN OF TWO WORLDS (Kodansha. 1998. ISBN 1-56836-145-9. pap. $14) answers the question of what would happen if two Italians immigrated to Peru and then their daughter immigrated to the United States?

Finally, HALF + HALF: WRITERS ON GROWING UP BIRACIAL AND BICULTURAL (Pantheon. 1998. ISBN 0-375-70011-0. pap. $13), edited by Claudine C. O'Hearn, features essays by such authors as Danzy Senna and Gish Jen. In INTERSECTING CIRCLES: THE VOICES OF HAPA WOMEN IN POETRY AND PROSE (Bamboo Ridge. 2000. ISBN 0-910043-59-0. pap. $18), editors Marie Hara and Nora Okja Keller have collected an impressive though somewhat uneven array of hapa (Hawaian for "half") voices.