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Angelica Velez Degro

Professor Erickson

English 115

10 October 2023

Mommy Issues

“Gabi, a Girl in Pieces” by Isabel Quintero is a young adult novel that follows the

life of Gabi Hernandez, a Mexican-American teenager, as she navigates the challenges

of growing up, identity, family dynamics, body image, and societal expectations. One of

Gabi's main conflicts throughout her teenage life is her mother. As Gabi navigates the

complexities of her teenage years such as insecurities about her weight, mental health,

and disconnect from her culture; her evolving self-expression through writing enables a

deeper understanding of her mother's traditional values, challenges, and sacrifices,

which ultimately leads to more subtle and compassionate relationships between them.

Gabi’s relationship with her mother was a “light-switch relationship,” where her

mother would be great sometimes but not so much other times (Quintero, 25). Most of

the time it seems that Gabi talks about her mother being rude and creating her

insecurities, saying to Gabi how she is “getting fatter than a pregnant woman” (Quintero,

26) and needs to lose weight. However, within the novel, we see at many points Gabi’s

mother being proud of Gabi or there for Gabi. For example, Gabi was upset because

she caught her boyfriend kissing another girl and when she came home, her mother

knew she seemed upset. Instead of ignoring her, Gabi’s mother held onto Gabi until
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Gabi said what was wrong. Even though this may seem normal or unimportant to some,

it shows that Gabi’s mother cares for Gabi. In the book “New Directions for Child and

Adolescent”, Chapter 4 Mother-daughter Conflict and Adjustment in Mexican-origin

Families: Exploring the Role of Family and Sociocultural Context”, written by Kimberly

A. Updegraff, Adriana J. Umaña-Taylor, Norma J. Perez-Brena, and Jacqueline

Pflieager, they stated through research that “Mexican American culture is characterized

by a strong family orientation, reflected in the emphasis on family members as primary

sources of emotional and instrumental support (Cauce & Domenech-Rodríguez, 2002;

Marín & Marín, 1991)”. Gabi’s mother holds these values strong, supporting Gabi in

what she needs.

This leads to Gabi’s mother pushing Gabi to do what she thinks is best, which at

times contradicts Gabi because of her mother’s upbringing. “These differences between

parents and adolescents can add to the normative intergenerational conflict

experienced during adolescence.” This was stated in an article titled, “A

Developmental-Contextual Model of Depressive Symptoms in Mexican-Origin Female

Adolescents” written by Mayra Bamaca-Colbert, Adriana Umana-Taylor, and Jochebed

Gayles, showing how differences within generations with parents and adolescents

causes conflict. Within this novel, Gabi and her mother have a lot of conflict due to her

mother's old-fashioned ways. Gabi’s mother was raised in Mexico in a more traditional

household, where most women were expected to act a certain way to increase their

chances of marrying young. This idea stretches out through the novel about Gabi’s

body, or about the boys that Gabi talks to. While this seems old school for Gabi, she
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realizes that her mother wants her to be independent at times. For example, Gabi’s

mother asks Tia Bertha to start living with them because she knows Gabi wants to move

away for college. At this point she accepts Gabi moving away, even though in the future

her mother will get mad about her moving away again. Part of this “light-switching” is

due to the cultural influence of daughters sticking around to help their families. Gabi

even contemplates if she has to stay home now since her mother got pregnant and that

is what “good Mexican girls…” do (Quintero, 83). It is interesting to think about how

Gabi’s mother is very independent as she raised Gabi and Beto due to her husband’s

addiction but restricts Gabi to be a certain way. It feels as if her mother is somewhat

encouraging her to be independent but shows the fear of Gabi leaving and growing up.

In some of the novel, it was shown that it seemed that Gabi’s mother was a little

bit of a helicopter parent since she overheard Gabi’s phone calls, went through her

room searching for things, and her constant worry about Gabi going out. Gabi sees it as

annoying and disrespectful of her mother to do that. Throughout the novel though it

seems that Gabi sees her mother to be a more protective mother rather than a crazy

mother. While she is protective she can also be more trusting of Gabi due to her having

decent grades, behaving well, and not drinking. Gabi’s mother even tried to control who

she was friends with, especially when Cindy got pregnant since she didn't want Gabi to

end up like that. An article titled “Parenting Styles: A Closer Look at a Well-Known

Concept” shows the different parenting styles a person may have. Within the novel, it

seems as if Gabi’s mother is an authoritarian parent. Authoritarian parents set rigid rules

with no explanation, and expect their children to obey them without question or face
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severe punishment. Gabi's mother tends to act this way due to her strict, controlling,

and strong punishment system. The article states “An authoritarian parenting style has

consistently been associated with negative developmental outcomes, such as

aggression, delinquent behaviors, somatic complaints, depersonalization, and anxiety.”

Gabi does not have all of these traits from her mother's ways but she does have

depersonalization issues and somatic complaints. She is confused about who she is

and wonders if she is even a part of her own culture. She uses her journal to complain

about her daily life since she doesn't have anyone to talk to in real life it seems.

Even with the battles with her family Gabi still shows independence, love, and

perseverance. Gabi has overcome a lot and it seems at the end of the story she learned

to see her mother's point of view. She saw where her mother came from and now sees

what her mother wants from her. Even though she has a lot to go through she still has

her journal to keep her going.

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Works Cited

Bámaca-Colbert, Mayra Y., et al. “A Developmental-Contextual Model of Depressive Symptoms

in Mexican-Origin Female Adolescents.” Developmental Psychology, vol. 48, no. 2, Mar. 2012,

pp. 406–21. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.libproxy.csun.edu/10.1037/a0025666.

Kuppens, Sofie, and Eva Ceulemans. “Parenting Styles: A Closer Look at a Well-Known

Concept.” Journal of Child and Family Studies, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2019,

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6323136/.

Quintero, Isabel. Gabi, a Girl in Pieces. First edition., Cinco Puntos Press, 2014.

Updegraff, Kimberly A., et al. “Mother-Daughter Conflict and Adjustment in Mexican-Origin

Families: Exploring the Role of Family and Sociocultural Context.” New Directions for

Child & Adolescent Development, vol. 2012, no. 135, Spring 2012, pp. 59–81.

EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.libproxy.csun.edu/10.1002/cd.20004.