Ana Castillo, a leading voice in the Chicana/o movement, was born in 1953. Although her novels, nonfiction, and poetry are all set in the American Southwest, Castillo was raised and educated in her native Chicago, where she earned a B.A. degree in Studio Art and Secondary Education (1975) and an M.A. in Latin American and Caribbean Studies from the University of Chicago (1979). In the late 1970s, Castillo moved to southern California where she taught English as a second language and developed her style and distinctive voice. Always an activist, she uses her fiction, poetry, and nonfiction as tools to illuminate the plight of Hispanics, especially women, in contemporary American culture. She cofounded the journal Third Woman and also serves as a contributing editor to Humanizarte Magazine .

Her international fame, following the publication of The Mixquiahuala Letters (fiction; 1986), and poetry such as Otro Canto (1977), The Invitation...