Michelle Cruz Gonzales, a Xicana writer, writes memoir and fiction. Born in East LA in 1969, MCG grew up in Tuolumne, a tiny California Gold Rush town. She played drums and wrote lyrics for three bands during the 1980s and 1990s, Bitch Fight, Spitboy, and Instant Girl. Spitboy, not a riot grrl band, toured extensively in the US and overseas and released several albums.
The author of The Spitboy Rule: Tales of a Xicana in a Female Punk Band, PM Press, MCG earned degrees in 2001 and 2003, in English/Creative Writing from Mills College, where she also minored in Ethnic Studies. She has been a regular contributor to Hip Mama Magazine, published by Seal Press in Book Lovers Anthology: Sexy Stories from Under the Covers , in the Listen To Your Mother Anthology on Putnam, and her story “Juan, El Pájaro” one Honorable Mention in Riversedge Literary Journal contest.
Currently, MCG is at work on a satirical novel about forced intermarriage between whites and Mexicans for the purpose of creating a race of beautiful, hardworking people. She lives with her husband, son, and their three Mexican dogs in Oakland, California.
HI MIchelle, I stumbled across your page by accident…happen to see you on the cover of Hip Mamas- publication I was not familiar with but so happy to have found your blog….I so relate to your stories of growing up Chicana. You made me laugh out loud, beam with pride, tear up from your stories of wanting to be something other than brown skinned while growing up, a feeling of nostalgic happiness when you described the smile from your son after feeding him lechita from chicanana as I too hold those memories of my daughters so dear. Thank you for sharing your stories!!! from another chicana living in oakland aspiring to be writer :), Indelisa
Indelisa,
Thank you for the nice note! There are so many great reading series in the East Bay, and I’m start one up too in San Leandro. One my faves that has an open mic is Saturday Night Special at Nick’s Bar in Berkeley — the last Saturday of every month. I’m not sure if my series will be on a Saturday or Friday yet, but it will be at Zocalo in SL, and we’re hoping to get started before the end of the year. I sure hope you get out to read and listen to other writers — that helped me a lot. Oh, and the Stretch Marks piece is slated to be published in the next issue of Hip Mama!
Michelle, I just read your essay, “Does Your Mom Play Drums?” in the LTYM book, and also watched your YouTube video, and I just wanted to say how much I loved your words, both the reading and the listening. That line, “Luis locked eyes with me and smiled wide like he did when I nursed him as a baby” just killed me. I immediately teared up. I have a young son, who still, on occasion nurses, and smiles so big at me, and one day, in the not too distant future, he will drift off into adolescence, and though I don’t play the drums (always wanted to, though) I hope that we can share a moment like that at some point.
Thank you for writing such a fantastic essay.
Dana,
Thank you for the lovely comment! That locked-eyes line was so hard to read live without crying. I had to practice and practice it over and over. I did almost cry anyway. I still miss that closeness — we both gave up a lot when he weaned, but alas, that is in essence motherhood, isn’t it — letting go, every day, the letting go.