Gabriella Garcia grew up a first-generation daughter of Mexican and Cuban immigrants,

raised by a solo mom and a family full of women.

That experience fuels her New York Times bestseller of Women and Salt,

which follows the lives of mothers and daughters across five generations

and multiple locales, including Cuba, Mexico, Miami, and Texas.

What's most striking to me about Gabriella's writing is how she takes a machete to tropes like the long-suffering, all-sacrificing immigrant mother, and instead leaves us to grapple with the often imperfect choices mothers must make and the legacies we are each-handed.

Gabriela, I feel like I have been spending so much time with you because I got trapped in the Las Vegas airport for 11 hours with your book as my only companion.

So thank you.

Well, that sounds terrible, but I'm glad the book kept you company.

You dedicate your book to your grandmother.

I want you to tell me a little bit about her.

Yes, my grandmother has been a really important figure in my life.

She's 102 now.

She's still alive.

And I grew up with a single mother, and my grandmother lived across the street from us.

So she was a huge part in helping to raise me, you know, picked me up from school every day.

It was just sort of the lynchpin of my family.

You don't just grow up with a single mom and with a grandmother who's largely raising me. I mean, you grow up in a family full of women.

I think that's part of my interest in writing so many women characters. I grew up in a very

matriarchal family. I grew up with a single mother and she had all sisters. My grandmother

had all sisters. I have all sisters. And so many of these women were involved in

helping to raise me and shape me. And I never felt a lack in that. I never felt like I was

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