Co-Author Bios

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If you have a great story to submit for a future volume of Latino Soul, we would love to receive it. In soon we'll be adding an online story submission page.

Susan Sánchez-Casal

Co-Author

I am a U.S. Latina of Puerto Rican and Spanish descent who was born to a working-class family in Wilmington, California. I married young, had two sons, divorced, and went back to college as a single-mother at age 26. I got my college degree 3 years later and, with the support of my family, decided to continue toward a doctoral degree. For the last ten years I have lived in Central New York where I work as a writer, editor and professor of U.S. Latino Studies at a small liberal arts college. I am remarried, and now have three sons!

My mother was born in Puerto Rico but came to live in the South Bronx in New York City as a young girl; much of my work is inspired by my mother's memories of the difficulty that she experienced as a young Puerto Rican in New York, and by the empowering way that she and my grandparents met those challenges. I was also inspired by my abuelita, whom we called "Mama Bi," whose vivid storytelling, and sense of humor--even in the most difficult moments--made me feel like I had experienced for myself the stories that she told me about her life in Puerto Rico and New York.

My desire to devote myself to U.S. Latino Studies came directly from my own realization as a child that ample and accurate information about Latinos was mostly absent from educational curricula, and from society in general. I was always searching for something that would tell the stories of "my people," but I rarely found it. I wanted to contribute to changing that. My desire to co-edit this edition of Chicken Soup for the Soul comes from the same desire that led me to study about Latino history and cultures: to unearth, document, and share our collective and individual stories of struggle, courage, and inspiration, and to put them prominently on the American map. I am thrilled and honored to bring Latino Soul to both Latino and non-Latino readers, and to celebrate the rich, diverse, and vibrant Latino USA.

Muchos saludos,

Susan Sánchez-Casal