I was born and raised in the small west Texas community of Sonora, Texas where our schools were segregated until 1970. I graduated in 1977 and left home to enroll in summer classes at UT-Austin. During my four years there, I devoured everything Chicano: Chicano Politics, Chicano History, Chicano Literature, Latinos in the Media, to name a few, and ended with a minor in Chicano Studies.

After graduation, I ended up at Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, California where I completed one year. I returned to Texas and floundered here and there for a couple of years trying to find my calling. I moved back to Austin in 1985 and got involved with the Chicano cultural arts movement.

I eventually went on to publish some poetry in a chapbook entitled Merienda Tejana (1986) and a children’s book Icy Watermelon/Sandia Fria (2000). I have just completed my first novel and am psyching myself for the long and grueling publication process that awaits.

My credentials include: BA from UT Austin (1981), Teaching Certificate and Bilingual Education Endorsement from Laredo State University (1992), and a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Texas State University (2001).

I have been an instructor of English at LCC South since the fall of 2004 and have lived in Laredo with my husband, Manuel E. Juarez, and three children for 17 years. Andrea is a senior and Marcella is a freshman, both at LBJ High School, and Manuel is an eighth grader at Garcia Middle School.

La Llorona Chronicles