Ana Castillo is one of a few Mexican American writers who have attracted the attention of the mainstream reading public. From her earliest writing she has tried to unite those segments of the American population often separated by class, economics, gender, and sexual orientation. Her success is a tribute to her self-discipline, her courage, and her considerable literary ability.

Castillo was born in Chicago on 15 June 1953 to Raymond Castillo and Raquel Rocha Castillo, struggling working-class people. In a 1997 interview Castillo told Elsa Saeta that she attended a "secretarial high school," studying to become a file clerk, which her parents considered a good job. Castillo, however, had other ideas. She said that she was "a lousy typist" and had an "aversion to authority," so she abandoned secretarial training. After attending Chicago City College for two years, she transferred to Northeastern Illinois University, where she majored in secondary education, planning...