birth_date: 1945-04-13 00:00:00
avg_rating: 3.5
name: Lucha Corpi
about: Poet, novelist, and children's book writer Lucha Corpi was born in a small town in Mexico called Jaltipan in the state of Veracruz, in 1945. She came to Berkeley, California as a young wife and student at the age of 19. Along with having a child named Arthur, she continued her education and received degrees from UC-Berkeley and San Francisco State University. She currently lives in Oakland, California and has been a tenured teacher in the Oakland Public Schools Neighborhood Centers Program since 1977.Corpi is the recipient of numerous awards and citations, including a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Prize in fiction, and the Multicultural Publishers Exchange Book Award of Excellence in Ad Poet, novelist, and children's book writer Lucha Corpi was born in a small town in Mexico called Jaltipan in the state of Veracruz, in 1945. She came to Berkeley, California as a young wife and student at the age of 19. Along with having a child named Arthur, she continued her education and received degrees from UC-Berkeley and San Francisco State University. She currently lives in Oakland, California and has been a tenured teacher in the Oakland Public Schools Neighborhood Centers Program since 1977.Corpi is the recipient of numerous awards and citations, including a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Prize in fiction, and the Multicultural Publishers Exchange Book Award of Excellence in Adult Fiction. She was president of the Centro Chicano de Escritores (Chicano Writers Center), and she is also a member of the international feminist mystery novel circle, Sisters in Crime. Corpi's works include two books of poetry, Palabras de Mediodia/Noon Words and Variaciones Sobre una Tempsted/Variations on a Storm, a children's book, Where Fireflies Dance/Ahi, Donde Bailen los Luciernagas, the novel Delia's Song, and four mystery novels, Crimson Moon, Eulogy for a Brown Angel, Cactus Blood, and Black Widow's Wardrobe, from the Gloria Damasco series. She is also the editor of Mascaras, which contains works from 15 Latina writers.Corpi says she uses her books "to study all forms of racism, from the very blatant -- police harassing someone just because they're Mexican American -- to the more insidious racism inside our own families" (Beitiks). She follows the stories of women and poor people, immigrant struggles, and of historical/mythical figures. Corpi describes her reason for writing as, "I can remember my grandmother saying, 'There is no justice in this world. ' I think that's why I write--to bring justice into the world" (Beitiks). Corpi uses both Spanish and English in her works. When writing poetry, she uses Spanish, but when writing fiction, she primarily uses English.Originally published in 1980, Palabras de Medioda/Noon Words, helped to firmly establish Corpi as a Chicana poet. The poetry was written in Spanish, and Catherine Rodriguez-Nieto translated it into English. Reissued in 2001, this book explores personal feelings about the role of women, themes of death and love, and the myth of La Malinche, to name a few. In the preface of the novel, Tey Diana Rebolledo writes, "This book of poems is a clear lyrical narrative of a woman's struggle against silence and of the desire to express herself" (xviii). Within the poetry of the book, Corpi incorporates into her verse ideas of daily-life experiences, consciousness and feeling, and actors on the stage of history.Her second book of poetry, published in 1990, is entitled Variaciones Sobre una Tempsted/Variations on a Storm. This book proves that Corpi's greatest talent lies in verse. Unfiltered by the standards of a novel, Corpi's poetry is a composition of words that are arranged carefully enough to hide a ghost. At times, it seems that that is what Corpi does. Behind her poetry lies a history of passion and pain. Although it may be history, it is alive, and very much so in her writing. Corpi has the ability to project her own personal feelings as one woman onto a larger scale that encompasses her Mexican heritage. The poetry, written in Spanish and translated into English by Catherine Rodriguez-Nieto, is constructed in such a way that it will keep you walking through it in order to find its true depths.Lucha Corpi unites imagination with the memories of childhood in her charming children's book Where the Fireflies Dance/ Ahi, Donde Bailen los Luciernagas. In this book, she stresses the importance of music, storytelling, and family in her life, and how these things have helped her to find a path to her own destiny. Her story begins when, one night as a child, her main character and main character's brother venture ...more