A Tale of Survival is more than a Memoir of an Hispanic Woman: it is an important, quintessential American story of adversity and perseverance. This is a brutally honest and provocative tale of not merely survival but success from one who came from a time and place where success and upward mobility by a Mexican-American was not likely. Unlike other Hispanic memoirs, Ms. Flores-Hughes chronicles her entire life, which unfolds against the backdrop of the modern Hispanic experience and parallels the turbulent time of the baby-boomer generation. She writes of assimilation, racial and ethnic injustice, championing the use of the term Hispanic, the lives of the disenfranchised before and after the civil rights movement and about her encounters and friendship with many of America's leaders as a public servant. When she says that "Hold the Salsa" is not her style, you can believe it as she reveals a fascinating journey of a child's identity and ultimate acceptance as an accomplished Hispanic woman.