A novel in poems chronicles Lupita’s journey through high school, when her family faces the challenges of her mother’s cancer diagnoses and treatment At times, Lupita feels everything in her life is inconsequential compared to her mother’s illness, but when friends accuse her of being too white because of her academic achievements, her pain and anger are vivid. While her father cares for her mother, Lupita cares for her younger siblings. But after her mother’s death, she must choose between honoring her father’s wishes that she stay at home, and following her dream of going to college in a new place. Author Guadalupe Garcia McCall’s beautifully written novel in Lupita’s first-person voice captures the flow of life on both sides of the border as Lupita’s family, which lives in a Texas border town, regularly goes back and forth to visit relatives in Mexico. Deep love for her family grounds Lupita in both places, and that love is what sustains her, and also what challenges her as she thinks about moving beyond grief into a future of her own making. (Ages 12–16)

Pura Belpré Author Award Winner - American Library Association (ALA)

Lupita, a budding actor and poet in a close-knit Mexican American immigrant family, comes of age as she struggles with adult responsibilities during her mother's long illness.

As the oldest of eight siblings, Lupita is used to taking the lead-and staying busy behind the scenes to help keep everyone together. But when she discovers Mami has been diagnosed with cancer, Lupita is terrified by the possibility of losing her mother, the anchor of her close-knit Mexican American family. Suddenly Lupita must face a whole new set of challenges, with new roles to play, and no one is handing her the script.

In the midst of juggling life as a high school student, testing her wings as an actress, and dealing with friends who don't always understand, Lupita desperately wants to support Mami in whatever way she can. While her father stays with Mami at an out-of-town clinic, Lupita takes charge of her siblings. As Lupita struggles to keep the family afloat, she escapes the chaos of home by writing in the shade of a mesquite tree. Overwhelmed by change and loss, she takes refuge in the healing power of words.

Told with honest emotion in evocative free verse, Lupita's journey is both heart-wrenching and hopeful. Under the Mesquite is an empowering story about the testing of family bonds, the strength of a young woman navigating pain and hardship with surprising resilience, and the kind of love that cannot be uprooted.