This tender and funny memoir traces Mary Helen's childhood from the age of eight to the beginnings of young womanhood at age 13. Combining a child's freshness of vision with adult irony, she conveys the poverty and prejudice she faced without sacrificing the memories of the everyday joys she experienced.

The time is the 1940s. Mary Helen Ponce, a little girl with big eyes, lives in a Mexican-American neighborhood in Pacoima, California. She schemes to earn dimes for candy, wonders why Dale Evans's hair looks so funny in the movies, longs for shiny patent leather shoes instead of clunky oxfords to match her Confirmation dress, savors the summer sun on her face during walnut-picking expeditions, and basks in the love of her family. Combining a child's freshness of vision with adult irony, Hoyt Street depicts growing up Mexican American as the norm, not as a sociological phenomenon. It will touch your heart and make you laugh out loud.