"American Girls" is one of several stories published in the collection Fitting In. They all focus on young Cuban Americans learning to thrive in Florida. Bernardo has also published a novel, Jumping Off to Freedom (1996; see separate entry, Vol. 9), that tells of a harrowing sea-crossing between Cuba and Florida by people escaping the restrictive society of communist Cuba and hoping to find the freedom to build good lives for themselves in a new land.