Carlos Nicolás Flores

Carlos Nicolás Flores is an American writer of novels, short stories, and essays. A lifelong resident of the Texas-Mexico border, he has spent many years studying and writing about the Mexican American experience. His literary work explores intersections of Western high-culture and La Raza and advances the tradition of Chicano literature. He began teaching English grammar, composition, and literature courses at Laredo Junior College (later Laredo Community College) in 1971, and after receiving a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship to Dartmouth College began teaching the first Chicano and Black literature course at Laredo Community College in 1974. He has taught creative writing at both Laredo College and Texas A&M International University. Flores retired from teaching in 2020 and lives and writes in the historic district of San Ygnacio, Texas on the northern bank of the Rio Grande River. 
==EARLY LIFE==
Flores, the son of a Puerto Rican father and a Mexican mother, was born and raised in El Paso, TexasRenteria, Ramon. "Culture Clash." El Paso Times, October 1, 2006, Page 66. via Newspapers.com (https://elpasotimes.newspapers.com/article/el-paso-times/129614605/). He studied briefly at the University of Dallas, then received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Texas at El Paso. An avid reader from a young age, Flores’ most important influences have been the works of Dostoevsky and FaulknerEllington, K. (2020, September 20). “Lone Star Listens: Carlos Nicolas Flores.” Lone Star Literary Life. https://www.lonestarliterary.com/node/383.His master’s thesis was a collection of short stories, A ganglion of seeds and other stories.
==CAREER== 
From his teaching post at Laredo Community College, in 1977, Flores and colleagues established the Chicano literary journal Revista Río Bravo that included authors such as Rudolfo Anaya, Rolando Hinojosa-Smith, Dr. Carlota Cárdenas de Dwyer, José Limón, and others. In 1996, Flores, his wife, and another colleague founded the South Texas Writing Project to help improve K-12 teaching of composition in English and to introduce minority writers to the Texas border communityRamos, Manuel. “La Bloga Interview: Carlos Nicolás Flores.” La Bloga Interview: Carlos Nicolás Flores, 1 Jan. 1970, https://labloga.blogspot.com/2015/11/la-bloga-interview-carlos-nicolas-flores.html. Between 1990 and 2003, Flores won numerous literary awards for short stories and novels“Author visiting Laredo for ‘Sex as a Political Condition’ reading, book-signing.” (2016, July 11). Lmtonline.com. Retrieved August 2, 2023, from https://www.lmtonline.com/entertainment/article/Author-visiting-Laredo-for-Sex-as-a-Political-10134460.phpFrom 2013 to 2019, Flores was the producing artistic director of the Teatro Chicano de Laredo highlighting the work of local playwrights and actors in . 
Flores’ novel Our House on Hueco was published in 2006 by Texas Tech University Press. The novel tells a story of growing up in El Paso and is a portrait of Mexican American family life among AnglosHommel, M. (2006). Our house on hueco. Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, 59(11), 496. Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/trade-journals/our-house-on-hueco/docview/223709509/se-2. In 2015, Sex as a Political Condition: A Border Novel was published also by Texas Tech University Press. It is a sprawling satire of culture wars amidst the political stirrings on the Mexican border at the end of the Cold WarThe Texas Observer. (2019, April 20). The Observer Review: Sex As a Political Condition, by Carlos Nicolás Flores. https://www.texasobserver.org/the-observer-review-sex-as-a-political-condition-by-carlos-nicolas-flores/.
==NOVELS== 
 
==SHORT STORIES==
 
 
 
“Smeltertown.” in 
“Black and White,” 2nd Place in Fiction Contest, Mesa Azul Review, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1990. 
“Cantina del Gusanito.” 1st Place in Fiction Contest. Sixteenth Chicano Literary Contest Anthology. University of California at Irvine, 1990. 
 
 
“Yellow Flowers.” in 
==ESSAYS==
“Preface,” in 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Category:People from El Paso, Texas
Category:American people
Category:Writers