The Mixquiahuala Letters

Teresa and Alicia are in New York City, before Teresa leaves for California. In Washington Square a pimp approaches the women and tries to convince Teresa to go to dinner with him, telling her that she could make substantial money as a prostitute. She refuses his invitation and avoids the square during the rest of her trip.

Teresa relates what happened when she met Libra in California. He invests what little money they have into a body shop with two other men. The other two owners are an aspiring boxer and his manager, and Libra is soon the only one working at the shop while the other two pursue boxing goals. Despite this, the two men demand two-thirds of the shop’s profits and blame Libra when it is repeatedly vandalized and robbed. Libra tolerates this behavior, but Teresa complains on his behalf, and eventually Libra quits because of her pestering. The men sell the shop’s equipment, and Libra and Teresa buy an old MG car with the proceeds.

The other two men go back to the East Coast, and Libra soon falls in with a new business partner named Melvin. Melvin proposes that he and Libra become street fruit vendors and sets up a meeting with a farmer to buy his horse and wagon. Libra and Teresa drive out to the farm in the MG, while Melvin and his girlfriend hitchhike there. Libra and Melvin decide to buy the horse and wagon, and after making Libra pay for them, Melvin demands to ride in the car while the women hitchhike back to town. Teresa hitchhikes home and moves out the following day.

It’s 1976, and Alicia, Teresa, and Teresa’s childhood friend live together in San Francisco. Teresa recalls the city’s vibrant, energetic chaos at that time, as her artistic career begins to take off and social justice protests take place in the city. Teresa partners with a Mexican man named Alvaro Pérez Pérez to do social outreach among immigrant workers. The three women live in poverty and are eventually evicted from their apartment, but they are also involved in the protests.

Despite the independence exhibited by the three women, they are dependent on men for sexual fulfillment. Teresa relates a sexual encounter between Alicia and an unnamed man, which she overhears while napping across the room from them.

Teresa relates how Alicia has a premonition about her boyfriend Rodney’s infidelity after having a dream about it. Alicia returns to New York to find that she is correct, and that Rodney is living with another woman in her apartment. It seems that this incident leads to Alicia staying with Teresa, as related in Letter 7. The letter details other incidents when Rodney let Alicia down. Despite this, Alicia is stunned and devastated when he cheats on her.

Teresa reveals a prejudice against white people in this letter (including Alicia at times, she says). Of white women, she writes, “Society had made them above all possessions / the most desired. And they believed it” (49). She resents white women’s pursuit of minority-race men, believing that they do it because such conquests are more challenging than pursuing Anglo men “who are only good for / making money and marrying” (49). Teresa acknowledges that her resentment toward what she sees as Alicia’s privileged status is perhaps unfounded.

Teresa describes Alicia, calling her beauty “subliminal, momentary, a sunrise, a sunset, a cyclic experience for the one who bothers with infinite details” (52), and compares it to the moment just before an orchestra begins to play, as the musicians wait for the signal of the conductor’s baton. Alicia has long, uncut hair that she brushes every night and long, graceful fingers. She wears a single, simple ring on her hand.