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Pat Mora
Pat Mora is a writer and activist who works to preserve
and celebrate Mexican American literature. Descended from four
grandparents who came to Texas from Mexico in the early twentieth century,
Mora's bilingual and bicultural experiences inform all her work. She was
born in El Paso in 1942, and is often called a regionalist for the way she
portrays the physical grandeur and cultural richness of the Southwest.
The author of over 20 books of poetry, non-fiction and children's stories, Mora has received numerous honors for her work, including an NEA poetry fellowship, the Civitella Ranieri fellowship, four Southwest Book Awards, the Premio Aztlán
Literature Award, the Ohioana Award, and the Pellicer-Frost 1999 Bi-national
Poetry Award. She has also served as a consultant on U.S.-Mexico youth exchanges,
a museum and university administrator, and a teacher of English at all levels.
Mora is known as well for her promotion of "El dia de los ninos/El dia de
los libros," a celebration of books and children, languages and cultures,
which takes place on April 30 each year. She has three grown children and
divides her time between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and northern Kentucky.
"Family, Mexican American culture, and the desert are all important
themes in my children's books as well as in my poetry and nonfiction for
adults," writes Mora. Several of her children's works bring to life
her personal family stories. In The Rainbow Tulip, Mora tells of
her mother's bicultural experiences: "At home I'm Estelita. At school my
name is Stella." In her memoirs and poetry, she introduces readers to her
extended family and ponders the nature of her relationships with her relatives
and ancestors.
The desert landscape provides a vibrant backdrop for much of Mora's work.
She writes that she loves "the open spaces, the wide sky, all that sun and
all those animals that scurry across the hot sand or fly high over the mountains."
In her poem "Desert Women," Mora writes that "Desert women know / about
survival," and, "like cactus," can hide behind thorns. But, she warns at
the end of the poem, "Don't be deceived. / When we bloom, we stun."
Works by the Author
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Work:
My Own True Name