Dagoberto Gilb is an American writer who writes extensively about the American Southwest.
Background
Dagoberto Gilb was born in 1950 in Los Angeles, California, United States. Gilb was born to a mother from Mexico who came across the border illegally, while his father was born in Kentucky. Gilb's parents were raised in Los Angeles from a young age - his mother in downtown Los Angeles, his father in Boyle Heights. Both spoke Spanish. The two divorced when he was very young, and he was raised by his mother. His father worked for 49 years in an industrial laundry, where he became the floor supervisor. His mother was a model in her early years, then became a dental assistant, until she remarried two more times.
Education
Dagoberto attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he earned both bachelor's and master's degrees.
Career
Gilb began working at thirteen as a sheet shaker, then found jobs as a janitor and a factory shipping clerk. After high school, he went to work full-time as a paper cutter and as a stockboy in a major department store. From 1976-1979 Gilb worked in many areas of the construction trades to make his living, as a laborer, stonemason, and carpenter. By 1979 he had joined the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, and he worked as a journeyman until 1992. Though he did all facets of carpentry work, his main employment was as class-A high-rise.
In 1977, while completing a never-published novel, Gilb was working on a three-story addition to the museum at the University of Texas at El Paso. Gilb turned to short stories, and he began publishing in 1982. His first full book of stories (35 had been published in magazines by then) was "The Magic of Blood", with the University of New Mexico Press. More books followed, all published in New York by Grove Press.
Gilb has also worked on a few movies and documentaries and spent several years writing commentaries which aired on the NPR show Fresh Air. In 1997, he accepted a job teaching in the MFA program at Texas State University. In September 2009, Gilb joined the faculty of the University of Houston–Victoria as a Writer-in-Residence and Executive Director of Centro Victoria: Center for Mexican American Literature and Culture.
Achievements
Dagoberto Gilb is famous mostly for his books "Winners on the Pass Line", "The Magic of Blood", and "The Last Known Residence of Mickey Acuna."
