Someday Mija, You'll Learn the Difference Between a Whore and a Working Woman: A Memoir

"Someday Mija, You'll Learn the Difference Between a Whore and a Working Woman is a memoir that turns time on its head, circling through terror and joy with eloquence and becoming its own sacrament of resistance." --Foreword Reviews, 5-star review

At eighteen, Yvonne Martinez flees brutal domestic violence and is taken in by her dying grandmother . . . who used to be a sex worker. Before she dies, her grandmother reveals family secrets and shares her uncommon wisdom. "Someday, Mija," she tells Yvonne, "you'll learn the difference between a whore and a working woman." She also shares disturbing facts about their family's history--eventually leading Yvonne to discover that her grandmother was trafficked as a child in Depression-era Utah by her own mother, Yvonne's great-grandmother, and that she was blamed for her own rape.

In the years that follow her grandmother's passing, Yvonne gets an education and starts a family. As she heals from her own abuse by her mother and stepfather, she becomes an advocate/labor activist. Grounded in her grandmother's dictum not to whore herself out, she learns to fight for herself and teaches others to do the same--exposing sexual harassment in the labor unions where she works and fighting corruption. Intense but ultimately uplifting, Someday Mija, You'll Learn the Difference Between a Whore and a Working Woman is a compelling memoir in essays of transforming transgenerational trauma into resilience and post-traumatic growth.


Author: Yvonne Martinez
Publisher: She Writes Press
Published: 10/18/2022
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.40w x 0.90d
ISBN13: 9781647421021
ISBN10: 1647421020
BISAC Categories:
- Biography & Autobiography | Personal Memoirs
- Family & Relationships | Abuse | Child Abuse
- Family & Relationships | Dysfunctional Families