Rechy's long-awaited memoir, About My Life and the Kept Woman, is the author's first open treatment of his life and a testament to the power of pride and self-acceptance. Raised Mexican-American in El Paso, Texas, at a time when Latino children were routinely segregated, Rechy was often assumed to be Anglo because of his light skin, and had his name changed" for him by a teacher, from Juan to John. As he grew older and as his fascination with the memory of a notorious kept woman in his childhood deepened Rechy became aware that his differences lay not just in his heritage, but in his sexuality. A moving, powerful story of a life that bears witness to some of the most riotous changes of the past century, About My Life and the Kept Woman is as much a portrait of intolerance as of an individual who defied it to forge his own path.
