Cordelia Chávez Candelaria was born in Deming, New Mexico, in 1943, the fifth of eight children of Ray Chávez and Addie Trujillo Chávez. Her father, who worked in road construction, had to travel frequently, and her family moved with him. She continues this pattern, commuting to her job as associate professor of English at the University of Colorado at Boulder from the working ranch she and her husband have in Ojo de la Cueva in northwestern New Mexico. She attended Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, graduating in 1970 with an honors degree in English and French. She received an M.A. in English from the University of Notre Dame in 1972 and a Ph.D. in American literature and structural linguistics in 1976, also from Notre Dame. She was married in 1961 to José Fidel Candelaria, and they have one son, Clifford.

Candelaria's fondest childhood...