The Mixquiahuala Letters

Teresa writes to Alicia after visiting New York to see her first solo art show. She comments on Alicia’s pieces, some of which are made up of papier-mâché dolls that depict scenes reminiscent of Teresa and Alicia’s time in Mexico. The art reveals some of Alicia’s emotions around that time and implies that she is angry about their experiences. The letter reveals that Teresa is married, has a young son, and lives in Mexico. She’s a teacher or professor and lives near her son’s grandparents. Alicia is going to Europe for a while, and Teresa wishes her luck in finding a place to call home.

When she was 17, Alicia got pregnant with Rodney’s baby. At first she wanted to keep the baby, but Rodney stopped visiting her and she didn’t want to raise it alone. She went to a clinic by herself, intending to have an abortion, but was mistakenly sterilized after filling out medical forms while sedated. She’d had to borrow a friend’s identification and pretend that she’d already had children to obtain an abortion, implying that the procedure took place before the passage of Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in 1973.