12 Facts About Carmen Tafolla

Carmen Tafolla was born on July 29,1951 and is an internationally acclaimed Chicana writer from San Antonio, Texas, and a professor emerita of bicultural bilingual studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Carmen Tafolla has written more than thirty books, and won multiple literary awards.

Carmen Tafolla is one of the most highly anthologized Chicana authors in the United States, with her work appearing in more than 300 anthologies.

Carmen Tafolla was born in San Antonio, Texas, on July 29,1951.

Carmen Tafolla graduated from Austin College with a bachelor's degree in Spanish and French in 1972, and earned a master's degree in education from Austin College the following year.

Carmen Tafolla pursued further graduate work at the University of Texas at Austin, earning a PhD in bilingual and foreign education in 1981.

Carmen Tafolla served as the Director of the Mexican-American Studies Center at Texas Lutheran College, Seguin from 1973 to 1976, and from 1978 to 1979.

Carmen Tafolla has served as Associate Professor of Women's Studies at California State University, Fresno, as Special Assistant to the President for Cultural Diversity Programming at Northern Arizona University, has taught at numerous universities throughout the Southwest, and is currently Professor Emerita of Bicultural Bilingual Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Carmen Tafolla first drew the attention of the literary world as a poet, when she read some of her poetry at the Floricanto Festival in Austin, Texas in 1975.

Carmen Tafolla published her first collection of poetry, Get Your Tortillas Together, with Reyes Cardenas and Cecilio Garcia-Camarillo the following year.

Carmen Tafolla's poetry is heavily influenced by her ethnic background, and often focuses on Chicana characters, or on themes and images which are important to Chicano culture.

Carmen Tafolla's poetry began as one of the early feminist voices in the Chicano Movement, and often focuses on themes, characters, and images richly imbedded in a Chicanx cultural setting.