Episode 20, ”Voices of California” Event from October 2, 2020-Helena Maria Viramontes Reads ”The Moths”

Luis Rodriguez and Helena share some interesting stories about their writing groups from decades ago and their continued belief that community and the written word are transformative.

4:45-9:15: Helena Maria Viramontes reads "The Moths"

Helena Maria Viramontes was born in East Los Angeles, one of eight siblings in a working-class family. Her career began with her work for the avant-garde Chicano magazine ChismeArte. Assigned as literary editor, she began to develop a style that reflected her understanding and upbringing in the streets of East Los Angeles. 

She is the author of The Moths and Other Stories and two novels Under the Feet of Jesus and Their Dogs Came With Them.  She has also co-edited with Maria Herrera Sobek, two collections: Chicana (W) rites: On Word and Film and Chicana Creativity and Criticism. A recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the John Dos Passos Award for Literature, and a United States Artist Fellowship, her short stories and essays have been widely anthologized and her writings have been adopted for classroom use and university study. Her work is the subject of a critical reader titled Rebozos De Palabras edited by Gabrielle Gutierrez y Muhs and published by the University of Arizona Press.  A community organizer and former coordinator of the Los Angeles Latino Writers Association, she is a frequent reader and lecturer in the U.S. and internationally.  Currently she is completing a draft of her third novel, The Cemetery Boys.

Her works have been canonized in some of the most important textbooks and anthologies, including those used by academia. Viramontes is a professor of English at Cornell University. She received the Luis Leal Literary Award in 2006.

Reviewers have written of her: “Her groundbreaking narrative strategies, combined with her sociopolitical focus, situate her at the forefront of an emerging Chicana literary tradition that redefines Chicano literature and feminist theory.” 

AND “Viramontes’s stories convey the impact of repression on women’s lives and graphically depict the price paid by women who dare to challenge a misogynist social system that moves rapidly to squelch their every attempt toward self-definition… The result is a rich, challenging narrative that rewards the reader with insight to the passions and torments that drive the characters.”