Long Beach, California
Poetry
Being the progeny of a gringa and a chilango (a resident of Mexico City) means I’m half “white” and 100% “Mexican”, which means that sometimes strangers “have to ask”, in either English or Spanish, where I’m “from”, which means that no matter what I say both the stranger and I are often left disappointed and/or confused. This is a big reason why I started writing poems. Though I grew up in the foothills of the San Bernardino mountains, I have resided in Long Beach, CA since 2006. Mexico City is the other place I feel at home. For the past eleven years, I have worked as a high school English teacher in Lynwood, CA. A 2018 VONA fellow, I attended Willie Perdomo’s poetry workshop in Berkeley, CA in June. To MFA or not to MFA, that is the question.