Background
Gina was born on June 6, 1943 in Los Angeles, California, United States. She is the daughter of George Valdes and Mary Escobar.
University of California, San Diego, California, United States
Gina studied at the University of California in San Diego and received her Bachelor of Arts in 1981 and Master of Arts in 1982.
Palomar College, San Diego County, California, United States
Gina attended Palomar College between 1976 and 1978.
Palomar College, San Diego County, California, United States
Gina attended Palomar College between 1976 and 1978.
University of California, San Diego, California, United States
Gina studied at the University of California in San Diego and received her Bachelor of Arts in 1981 and Master of Arts in 1982.
https://www.amazon.com/There-are-no-madmen-here/dp/0939558017/?tag=2022091-20
1981
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0939558106/?tag=2022091-20
1986
(Using the simple copla, a Spanish verse from the oral tra...)
Using the simple copla, a Spanish verse from the oral tradition, Gina Valdes explores the barriers between people and countries, between the United States and Mexico, and between lovers and friends. This is the first English edition of this work.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0927534622/?tag=2022091-20
1996
https://www.amazon.com/Videojuego-Online-derechos-deberes-Spanish/dp/620210435X/?tag=2022091-20
2018
Gina was born on June 6, 1943 in Los Angeles, California, United States. She is the daughter of George Valdes and Mary Escobar.
Gina attended Palomar College between 1976 and 1978. She also studied at the University of California in San Diego and received her Bachelor of Arts in 1981 and Master of Arts in 1982.
Gina was a visiting lecturer at University California, Davis during 1987-1989. She also worked at University Washington, Seattle during 1990-1991 and at the University of California, Los Angeles during 1992-1993. Besides, she sweved at University California, San Diego in the years 1994, 96, 98-2001, 2003-2005.
Valdes’ first book, There Are No Madmen Here, contains the novella “Maria Portillo,” a work inspired by the time the author spent in Mexico. The larger issues in this story, wrote Sanchez, are “the socioeconomic dilemma of Mexican immigrants in the United States” and the “illusory support system (of the family), for the extended family provides more grief and despair than comfort.”
The novella is accompanied by several other short stories about the main character Maria and her family, also published in There Are No Madmen Here. These stories explore similar themes, Sanchez observed, as well as the author’s “concern with additional external forces that restrict and control the lives of the poor.”
Valdes’ subsequent work demonstrates a maturing commitment to social themes. Puentes y Fronteras: Coplas Chicanas is a collection of poems in the form of four line stanzas typical of Mexican folk poetry, with a distinctive difference: the traditional male point of view has been reversed to a female one, and the male has become an object of erotic desire. Many of the poems allude to the traditional wailing woman, represented here as “Mother Earth,” Sanchez explained, “wailing for her Mexican children who are forced to cross the border to work, even while facing beatings, death, and deportation at the hands of the ... Immigration and Naturalization officers.” Similar themes reappear in Comiendo Lumbre; Eating Fire and English Con Salsa.
Gina Valdes is mainly known as the author of popular poems and short stories in numerous journals and anthologies in the United States, Mexico, Europe, and Asia. Besides, she gives numerous readings from her works, including a reading recorded on the videotape Rasgado en Dos. Her most famous works are There Are No Madmen Here, Puentes y Fronteras: Coplas Chicanas, Eating Fire and others.
(Using the simple copla, a Spanish verse from the oral tra...)
1996Quotes from others about the person
It is “a tension between her social concerns and a strong metaphysical current” that place Gina Valdes “at an important crossroads within Chicano letters.” declared Rosaura Sanchez in the Dictionary of Literary Biography. “She is fusing trends that have been central to Chicano literature.”
Gina married Tadashi Hayakawa, they have a child, Rosalia Hayakawa.
