Denise Chavez

Denise Chavez offers us the voice of a new generation ofHispanic Women: educated, articulate, bursting with energyand drive. A native of the New Mexican borderlands, shebrings to her writing a keen eye for social pretences andthe frailties of the human heart. Like Rudolfo Anaya, she is New Mexican; but where his New Mexico is the open range of the West Texas vorder and the bustle of Albuquerque, Chavez is rooted in the lowdesert of the southern border. The beauty and heat of thislandscape informs her work and her characters. She toodraws in the traditions of storytelling and folk dramas inthe Hispanic Southwest; like Rudolfo Anaya, she revels in a distinctly American magical realism.

"Anybody that has eaten chile in New Mexico knows why we love our chile and why we love our land so much, because our writing is spicy and pungent, it's of the earth and of the people; and when you eat the earth and eat the sweat of the people that have worked there, it's like my grandmother says, 'como chile colorado,' like red chile. It goes through your whole system and becomes part of you."

Click here to hear an excerpt on Denise Chavez from Writing the Southwest.