Gringa Latina tells the story of a life spent in two cultures, filtered through the veils of memory. Gabrielia De Ferrari, the author of the acclaimed novel A Cloud on Sand, grew up in Peru, the daughter of gringos, or foreigners: her parents had come from Italy as newlyweds to set down roots in an exotic and alluring country far from home.

De Ferrari recalls her privileged upbringing in the small desert town of Tacna, at the foothills of the silent Andes: the wonders of her mother's inventive cuisine, an inspired melding of Italian and Peruvian ingredients; her friendship with her Peruvian neighbor Senorita Luisa, doomed to be an old maid because her betrothed left her for someone else; her ties to Saturnina, the Indian maid who taught her about curses and miracles; and her admiration for her father, the trusted sage of their town.

Eventually De Ferrari attended college in the United States, where she is called a Latina. She married an American and raised her children, as her parents did, in an adopted country far from home. Today, as she contemplates her life in America, where she feels both estranged and accepted, she realizes how much Peru peoples the landscape of her memory and remains a lodestar. Gringa Latina, a book of recollections, celebration, and self-definition, is the enchanting result.