Focusing on the relationship between two fiercely independent women--Teresa, a writer, and Alicia, an artist--this epistolary novel was written as a tribute to Julio Cort&#225zar's <b>Hopscotch</b> and examines Latina forms of love, gender conflict, and female friendship. Ana Castillo's groundbreaking first novel, <b>The Mixquiahuala Letters</b>, received an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation and is widely studied as a feminist text on the nature of self-conflict.