In this poetic memoir, Margarita Engle, the first Latina woman to receive a Newbery Honor, tells of growing up in two cultures during a time of hostility between nations. This almost-war shaped a sensitive young girl into an award-winning poet who enriches the world with words of a far more hopeful kind.

In early 1940s Los Angeles, Mexican Americans Marisela and Lorena work in canneries all day then jitterbug with sailors all night with their zoot suit wearing younger brother, Ray, as escort until the night racial violence leads to murder. Includes historical note.