Rudolfo Anaya

Rudolfo Anaya (born October 30, 1937) is a Mexican-American author. Best known for his 1972 novel Bless Me, Ultima, Anaya is considered one of the founders of the canon of contemporary Chicano literature.^[1]

Biography

Rudolfo Alfonso Anaya was born in the rural village of Pastura, New Mexico, to Martin and Rafaelita Anaya.^[2] His father came from a family of cattle workers and sheepherders, and his mother’s family were farmers.^[3] Anaya was the fifth of their seven children together; he also had three half-siblings from his parents’ previous marriages.^[4] When Anaya was a small child, his family moved to Santa Rosa, New Mexico.^[5] In 1952, they relocated to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where they lived in the Barelas neighborhood.^[3] Spanish was spoken at home, and Anaya did not learn English until he started school.^[6]

When he was a teenager, Anaya suffered a diving accident while swimming with friends in an irrigation ditch and broke two vertebrae in his neck.^[7] At first rendered paralyzed by the accident, he eventually made a substantial recovery, learning to walk again though never becoming entirely free of pain.^[8] In 1956, Anaya graduated from an Albuquerque high school.^[5] He then attended business school for two years, but he found it unfulfilling.^[9] He transferred to the University of New Mexico, where he graduated in 1963 with a degree in English.^[5] l Anaya worked as a public school teacher in Albuquerque from 1963 to 1970.^[10] In 1966, he married Patricia Lawless, who would serve as his editor over the years.^[11] She encouraged him to pursue his literary endeavors, and over a period of seven years, he completed his first novel, Bless Me, Ultima.^[9] Dozens of publishing houses rejected the novel.^[12] Finally, in 1972, a group of editors at El Grito, a Chicano quarterly, accepted the book.^[13] Bless Me, Ultima went on to win the prestigious Premio Quinto Sol award and is now considered a classic Chicano work.^[5] It was chosen as one of the books of The Big Read, a community-reading program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts.^[14] It is also one of the literary works in 2009 of the United States Academic Decathlon.^[15] Anaya followed Bless Me, Ultima with Heart of Aztlan (1978) and Tortuga (1979), forming a trilogy.

In 1974, Anaya accepted a position as an associate professor at the University of New Mexico.^[5] He became a full professor in the Department of English Language and Literature in 1988.^[16] Since retiring from the University in 1993 as a Professor Emeritus, Anaya has continued to write, completing—among other works—the novel Alburquerque and the Sonny Baca quartet of detective novels. He has recently published a number of books for children and young adults.

List of Books

Fiction

• Bless Me, Ultima (1972), ISBN 0-446-67536-9
• Heart of Aztlan (1976), ISBN 0-915808-18-8
• Tortuga (1979), ISBN 0-915808-34-X
• Silence of the Llano: Short Stories (1982), ISBN 0-89229-009-9
• The Legend of La Llorona: A Short Novel (1984), ISBN 0-89229-015-3
• Lord of the Dawn: the Legend of Quetzalcóatl (1987), ISBN 0-8263-1001-X
• Albuquerque (1992), ISBN 0-8263-1359-0
• Jalamanta: A Message from the Desert (1996), ISBN 0-446-52024-1
• Serafina's Stories (2004), ISBN 0-8263-3569-1
• The Man Who Could Fly and Other Stories (2006), ISBN 0-8061-3738-X

Sonny Baca series

• Zia Summer (1995), ISBN 0-446-51843-3
• Rio Grande Fall (1996), ISBN 0-446-51844-1
• Shaman Winter (1999), ISBN 0-446-52374-7
• Jemez Spring (2005), ISBN 0-8263-3684-1

Books for children

• The Farolitos of Christmas: A New Mexico Christmas Story (1987), ISBN 0-937206-05-9
• Maya's Children: The Story of La Llorana (1996), illustrated by Maria Baca, ISBN 0-7868-0152-2
• Farolitos for Abuelo (1998), illustrated by Edward Gonzalez, ISBN 0-7868-0237-5
• My Land Sings: Stories from the Rio Grande (1999), illustrated by Amy Córdova, ISBN 0-688-15078-0
• Elegy on the Death of César Chávez (2000), illustrated by Gaspar Enriquez, ISBN 0-938317-51-2
• Roadrunner's Dance (2000), illustrated by David Diaz, ISBN 0-7868-0254-5
• The Santero's Miracle: A Bilingual Story (2004), illustrated by Amy Córdova, Spanish translation by Enrique Lamadrid, ISBN 0-8263-2847-4
• The Curse of the ChupaCabra (2006), ISBN 0-8263-4114-4
• The First Tortilla (2007), illustrated by Amy Córdova, Spanish translation by Enrique Lamadrid, ISBN 0-8263-4214-0
• ChupaCabra and the Roswell UFO (2008), ISBN 0-8263-4469-0

Non-fiction and Anthologies

• Voices from the Rio Grande: Selections from the First Rio Grande Writers Conference (1976)
• Cuentos: Tales from the Hispanic Southwest (1980), with Jose Griego y Maestas, ISBN 0-89013-111-2
• A Ceremony of Brotherhood, 1680-1980 (1981), edited with Simon J. Ortiz
• Cuentos Chicanos: A Short Story Anthology (rev. ed. 1984), edited with Antonio Márquez, ISBN 0-8263-0772-8
• A Chicano in China (1986), ISBN 0-8263-0888-0
• Voces: An Anthology of Nuevo Mexicano Writers (1987, 1988), editor, ISBN 0-8263-1040-0
• Aztlán: Essays on the Chicano Homeland (1989), edited with Francisco A. Lamelí, ISBN 0-929820-01-0
• Tierra: Contemporary Short Fiction of New Mexico (1989), editor, ISBN 0-938317-09-1
• Flow of the River (2nd ed. 1992), ISBN 0-944725-00-7
• Descansos: An Interrupted Journey (1995), with Denise Chávez and Juan Estevan Arellano, ISBN 0-929820-06-1
• Muy Macho: Latino Men Confront Their Manhood, edited and introduction by Ray Gonzales, ISBN 0-385-47861-5
• Chicano/a Studies: Writing into the Future (1998), edited with Robert Con Davis-Undiano

Poetry

• Adventures of Juan Chicaspatas (1985), ISBN 0-934770-45-X

Published or Performed Plays

• The Season of La Llorona
• Ay, Compadre! (1994)
• The Farolitos of Christmas (1987)
• Matachines (1992)
• Billy the Kid (1995)
• Who Killed Don Jose? (1995)

Awards and honors

^[3]

• Premio Quinto Sol literary award, for Bless Me, Ultima, 1970
• NM Governor's Public Service Award, 1978, 1980
• Natl Chicano Council on Higher Education fellowship, 1978–79
• NEA fellowships, 1979, 1980
• American Book Award, Before Columbus Foundation, for Tortuga, 1980
• D.H.L., Univ. of Albuquerque, 1981
• Corporation for Public Broadcasting script development award, for "Rosa Linda," 1982
• Award for Achievement in Chicano Literature, Hispanic Caucus of Teachers of English, 1983
• Kellogg Foundation fellowship, 1983–85
• D.H.L., Marycrest Coll., 1984
• Mexican Medal of Friendship, Mexican Consulate of Albuquerque, 1986
• PEN-West Fiction Award, 1992, for Alburquerque.
• NEA National Medal of Arts Lifetime Honor, 2001 NEA National Medal of Arts webpage
• Outstanding Latino/a Cultural Award in Literary Arts or Publications, AAHHE, 2003
• People's Choice Award, 2007 New Mexico Book Awards
• Notable New Mexican 2007 (http://www.albuquerquemuseum.com/pages/nnm.html)
• Robert Kirsch Award 2011

References

1. ^ Cesar A. Gonzales-T., The Ritual and Myth of Experience in the Works of Rudolfo A. Anaya, published in A Sense of Place: Rudolfo A. Anaya: An Annotated Bio-Bibliography (2000).
2. ^ Gonzales-T, Morgan, Phyllis S., A Sense of Place: Rudolfo A. Anaya: An Annotated Bio-Bibliography (2000).
3. ^ ^{a b c} Author Bio at Gale
4. ^ Ibid.
5. ^ ^{a b c d e} A Sense of Place, supra.
6. ^ Rudolfo Anaya, Autobiography: As written in 1985, TOS Publications.
7. ^ Ibid.
8. ^ Ibid.
9. ^ ^{a b} Autobiography, supra.
10. ^ Ibid.
11. ^ Ibid.
12. ^ Ibid.
13. ^ Ibid.
14. ^ NEA The Big Read.
15. ^ [1] United States Academic Decathlon.
16. ^ Ibid.

External links

• Inventory of the Rudolfo A. Anaya Papers, 1960-2004, University of New Mexico, University Libraries, Center for Southwest Research