Outskirts Press, INC.

MAMACITA

Shyla McGilvery didn’t know how to be a girl. She never knew her mother and grew upwith two wild brothers, and a sickly twin in the grip of deep poverty in the mountains of North Carolina. The center of Shyla’s life was her twin, Ronald, whom she fiercely defendedfrom the callousness of life. She took care of the whole family as best she could, fulfilling the duties ofa mother, dressed in boy’s hand-me-down clothing, and was more likely to wrestle you to the ground than to greet you with a formal curtsey. She also wrestled with blame for her mother’s death, Ronald’s debilitating sickness, and accusations from members of ignorant society regarding her gender. Follow the Mamacita’s journey as she comes torealize an innate sense of her identity.