Santiago Vaquera-Vásquez is a writer, painter, academic, and unrepentant border crosser who has published stories in international literary journals and newspapers (Tinta, Los universitarios, El país, The Barcelona Review) as well as in major anthologies on contemporary literature in the Americas (1998, Líneas aéreas; 2000, Se habla español, voces latinas en USA; 2005, Pequeñas resistencias 4; 2008, En la frontera. I migliori racconti della narrativa chicana). He has been invited to give readings from his work at universities and conferences in Spain, Mexico, Colombia, and the United States. He is editing a novel, Esperando en el Lost and Found, and completing a collection of short stories.

As a painter, he has had gallery exhibitions in Chico and in Santa Barbara, California. During his graduate career, he was represented by the Santa Barbara Art Company. Paintings of his are currently in private holdings in Germany, New York, Texas, and California. In 2002, he was asked by Wiley & Company to design the cover for the 3rd edition of the Spanish textbook, Visión y voz.

Currently he is an Assistant Professor of Latino/a and Latin American studies, and Creative Writing in the Department of Spanish, and Portuguese at the University of Iowa. His doctoral degree was completed at the University of California, Santa Barbara with a dissertation on the representation of place in northern Mexican short stories. He has also taught at Texas A & M University, Penn State, and has been a visiting scholar at Dartmouth College. At the University of Iowa, he has offered courses in US Latino literature and culture, in US/Mexico border literatures, and creative writing. His academic work on US/Mexico border cultures has been published in journals and anthologies in Mexico and the United States. He has also presented this work at international conferences.

Cartas del Lost and Found