Gabriela Garcia Remembers the Women Who Helped Make Her a Best Seller “I am incredibly hard on myself, so my approach has always been to expect the least and allow myself to be surprised if good things happen,” said Gabriela Garcia, whose debut novel became a best seller.Credit...Andria Lo By Elisabeth Egan April 15, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET MUJER POWER Gabriela Garcia dedicated her debut novel, “Of Women and Salt,” to Iraida Rosa López, her 101-year-old grandmother who emigrated to the United States from Cuba in 1968. In a photograph pinned at the top of Garcia’s Twitter feed, López is wearing jazzy sneakers and holding a Black Lives Matter sign; even without a neatly printed Spanish expletive, it would be clear that this is a woman with strong convictions.