Born in East Los Angeles in 1954, Helena María Viramontes was inspired to
write by listening to the stories of the women in her community. She grew
up in a household of eleven where her mother always made sure that there
was room for one more relative to eat and tell his story. I listened to some of
these stories on a visit to her home in Ithaca, New York, in February 1998.
Over red wine she reminisced about the "old days " when Chicano/Latino
literature was unknown, about how she helped form writing groups, and, of
course, about going out with her comadres, her girlfriends. When I entered
her study, I encountered books, notes, and a nopal plant on her desk, an item
that gives her spiritual substance to accompany her long hours of writing.
Welcoming and open, she extended an invitation to her class on U.S.
Latino/a literature at Cornell University. As Viramontes lectured on an im-
portant Nuyorican writer, Jesús Colón, the students were captivated by the
power of her words, a frankness and poise she naturally conveys. While she
taught, she drew in her students so that they would share their ideas and feel
at ease. As a mother of two adolescents, a wife, a creative writing and liter-
ature professor, a mentor to undergraduate and graduate students, and, of
course, a writer, Viramontes still has time for a meditation class, a "prayer
to the world," that prepares her for the process of writing.

Viramontes has been writing and winning literary prizes since the 1970s.

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