Helena Maria Viramontes
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Helena Maria Viramontes (born February 26, 1954) is an American fiction writer and professor of English.
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[edit] Childhood and education
Viramontes was born in East Los Angeles. Her parents met while working the fields as farm workers. Her father later became a construction worker and her mother was a housewife. Viramontes was one of nine children, with had five sisters and three brothers.
Viramontes graduated from Garfield High School, which was one of the high schools that participated in the 1968 Chicano Blowouts, a series of protests against unequal conditions in East Los Angeles public schools. The Chicano Movement would play a significant role in her development as a writer. She then worked part-time while attending Immaculate Heart College, whence she earned her Bachelor of Arts in English literature in 1975, one of only five Chicanas in her graduating class[citation needed].
Viramontes attended the graduate program in creative writing at the University of California, Irvine. In 1977, her short story "Requiem for the Poor" was awarded a prize from Statement Magazine. In 1979, she won a literary prize from the Spanish department at UC Irvine. In 1981, she left the MFA program. In 1985, Arte Público Press published The Moths, collection of short stories. During her hiatus from academia she published in many underground literary journals such as ChismeArte. In 1988, she co-edited Chicana Creativity and Criticism with María Herrera-Sobek, a volume dedicated to the literary output of Mexican-American women. She returned to UC Irvine to complete her MFA, which was awarded in 1994. As part of the program, she received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to attend a writing workshop with the Colombian Nobel Laureate Gabriel García Márquez. In 1995, her first novel Under the Feet of Jesus was published to critical acclaim.[citation needed]
[edit] Professional career
Her short stories have been published in a variety of literary journals. The major themes of her stories are informed by her childhood experiences in East Los Angeles, and the impact of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers on the life of her family. Many of her works feature strong female characters, and child protagonists figure prominently into her work. Other works have been deemed "democratic novels", in that no single protagonist dominates the storyline. Throughout all of her work, a love of life and of all of humanity pervades, despite poverty and the other challenges her characters face.
Viramontes is a currently a professor of English at Cornell University.
[edit] Publications
- Cuentos: Stories by Latinas (Contributor, 1983). ISBN 0-913175-01-3
- The Moths and Other Stories (1985). ISBN 1-55885-138-0
- Beyond Stereotypes: A Critical Analysis of Chicana Literature (Contributor, 1985). ISBN 0-916950-54-9
- Chicana Creativity and Criticism (Contributor and editor, 1988) ISBN 0-8263-1712-X
- Under the Feet of Jesus (1995) ISBN 0-452-27387-0
- Their Dogs Came with Them (forthcoming in 2007). ISBN 0-7432-8766-5
[edit] Reference and external links
| Topics related to Chicanos and Mexican-Americans | Image:Calendário Asteca.jpg |
|---|---|
| Terms: Chicano · La Raza · Latino · Mexican-American · Hispanic | |
| Pre-Chicano Movement: Mexican-American History · Mexican-American War · Sleepy Lagoon Trial · Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo · Zoot Suit Riots | |
| Chicano Movement: Aztlán · Catolicos Por La Raza · Chicanismo · Chicano Blowouts · Chicano Moratorium · El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán · El Plan de Santa Bárbara · Farm Worker Rights Campaign · Land Grant Struggle · Colegio César Chávez | |
| Supreme Court Cases: Hernandez v. Texas · Plyler v. Doe · Mendez v. Westminster | |
| Culture: Chicano Park · Chicano rap · Chicano rock · Cholo · Estrada Courts Murals · Lowrider · Pachuco · Teatro Campesino · Tortilla art · Zoot suit | |
| Lists and Categories: List of Caló words and expressions · List of Chicano poets · Majority Hispanic U.S. Cities · Notable Chicanos · Notable Hispanic Americans · Category:Mexican Americans · Category:Mexican-American organizations[edit this footer] | |
