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Son of Two Bloods (North American Indian Prose Award)

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Says the University of Nebraska Press:

When Vince Mendoza began to write his life story, he turned to his memory
of visiting the deathbed of his great-grandmother, a Creek Indian who
embodied the history and dauntless will of her people. The memory
inspired both sorrow and boundless pride.

Son of Two Bloods, Mendoza's vibrant and candid account of his life,
is full of such grief and rejoicing. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1947, Mendoza
was the child of a Creek mother and a Mexican father. In this book he vividly portrays
his Mexican and Indian relatives and his confusing, often painful, childhood interactions with
the dominant white society. He left childhood behind when he was sent to
Vietnam. There he found hatred, terror, and camraderie in equal measures.

On returning from Vietnam Mendoza faced a professional, economic, and personal
struggles but found consolidation in love, family, and friendship. His moving
account of his first wife's courageous, losing battle with cancer ends with
renewal as Mendoza remarries and decides to explore his past, and
his people, in writing. "Endure, then weep," he writes at last, "endure, and be rewarded,
endure and rejoice, endure and learn."

Son of Two Bloods is his first book