Jorge Tetl Argueta is a celebrated Salvadoran poet and writer whose bi-lingual children’s books have received numerous awards. His poetry has appeared in anthologies and textbooks. He won the America’s Book Award, among other awards for his first collection of poems for children, A Movie in My Pillow. He was the Gold Medal Award winner in the 2005 National Parenting Publications Awards (NAPPA) for Moony Luna/Luna, Lunita Lunera. His other works for children include Xochitl and the Flowers, 2003 America’s Award Commended Title, Trees are Hanging from the Sky, Zipitio, Talking with Mother Earth, The Little Hen in the City and The Fiesta of the Tortillas.
A Message from the Author,
My name is Jorge Argueta. I was born in El Salvador. My family owned a tiny restaurant known for its delicious food. The restaurant was located in front of a bus terminal where the drivers used to bring people from the capital, San Salvador and from all over. While eating they would tell fantastic stories. I grew up listening to them. Little did I know that later in my life, hearing these stories would influence my life as a writer.
One of my first memories of writing comes from middle school. I remember my very dear teacher, Julio Garcia, asked us one day for a piece of writing as homework. When I turned mine in, he was very impressed with both the writing and with the fact that I had turned it in so quickly, because up until then I had been known for being lazy and a really bad student. I remember Mr. Garcia going around the school sharing what I had written with the other teachers. "This boy is a writer!" he would say.
In 1980, I left El Salvador to come to the United States. San Francisco, California. I left because the political situation in my country was a disaster; even my own teacher Mr. Garcia was killed. The military government was terrorizing and killing workers, teachers, peasants and students -- anybody who opposed them and spoke out against their regime was in danger. In my neighborhood many of my close friends were killed. Afraid for my life, I left.
I landed in a city of poets where quickly I made friends with Chicano writers who introduced me to readings in coffee houses, bookstores and later, radio stations. I wrote and read poems about the situation in El Salvador. These poems started to appear in local city papers, magazines, then anthologies and later, in my first chapbooks Del Ocaso a la Alborada / From Sundown to Dawn, and La Puerta Del Diablo / The Devil's Gate, among others. These chapbooks led me to schools, where I began teaching poetry workshops.
In 2001, I published my first children's book with Children's Book Press, Una Pelicula En Mi Almohada / A Movie in My Pillow. This book was well received, and won several awards, including The America's Book Award, a national award. In 2003, I published three titles: Los Arboles Estan Colgando El Cielo / Trees are Hanging from the Sky; El Zipitio / Zipitio, (Groundwood Books, Canada), and Xochitl la nina de las Flores / Xochitl and the Flowers, (Children's Book Press). These two publishers will soon publish three more of my books:Hablando con Madre Tierra / Talking with Mother Earth, and Alfredito, (Groundwood Books). Children's Book Press will publish Luna, Lunita Lunera/ Moony Luna. Alfredto regresa volando a su casa/ Alfredito Flies Home. Grounwood Books, Canada.
I am currently working on a memoir about growing up in El Salvador. I continue writing children's books, and I love doing presentations where I have the opportunity to talk to children about my experience as a writer. I enjoy doing workshops in which I use fun and engaging exercise to awaken in a child the poetry that already nests in their heart.
INFLUENCES- -My grandmother, my mother and father, our beloved Mother Earth
A Message from the Author,
My name is Jorge Argueta. I was born in El Salvador. My family owned a tiny restaurant known for its delicious food. The restaurant was located in front of a bus terminal where the drivers used to bring people from the capital, San Salvador and from all over. While eating they would tell fantastic stories. I grew up listening to them. Little did I know that later in my life, hearing these stories would influence my life as a writer.
One of my first memories of writing comes from middle school. I remember my very dear teacher, Julio Garcia, asked us one day for a piece of writing as homework. When I turned mine in, he was very impressed with both the writing and with the fact that I had turned it in so quickly, because up until then I had been known for being lazy and a really bad student. I remember Mr. Garcia going around the school sharing what I had written with the other teachers. "This boy is a writer!" he would say.
In 1980, I left El Salvador to come to the United States. San Francisco, California. I left because the political situation in my country was a disaster; even my own teacher Mr. Garcia was killed. The military government was terrorizing and killing workers, teachers, peasants and students -- anybody who opposed them and spoke out against their regime was in danger. In my neighborhood many of my close friends were killed. Afraid for my life, I left.
I landed in a city of poets where quickly I made friends with Chicano writers who introduced me to readings in coffee houses, bookstores and later, radio stations. I wrote and read poems about the situation in El Salvador. These poems started to appear in local city papers, magazines, then anthologies and later, in my first chapbooks Del Ocaso a la Alborada / From Sundown to Dawn, and La Puerta Del Diablo / The Devil's Gate, among others. These chapbooks led me to schools, where I began teaching poetry workshops.
In 2001, I published my first children's book with Children's Book Press, Una Pelicula En Mi Almohada / A Movie in My Pillow. This book was well received, and won several awards, including The America's Book Award, a national award. In 2003, I published three titles: Los Arboles Estan Colgando El Cielo / Trees are Hanging from the Sky; El Zipitio / Zipitio, (Groundwood Books, Canada), and Xochitl la nina de las Flores / Xochitl and the Flowers, (Children's Book Press). These two publishers will soon publish three more of my books:Hablando con Madre Tierra / Talking with Mother Earth, and Alfredito, (Groundwood Books). Children's Book Press will publish Luna, Lunita Lunera/ Moony Luna. Alfredto regresa volando a su casa/ Alfredito Flies Home. Grounwood Books, Canada.
I am currently working on a memoir about growing up in El Salvador. I continue writing children's books, and I love doing presentations where I have the opportunity to talk to children about my experience as a writer. I enjoy doing workshops in which I use fun and engaging exercise to awaken in a child the poetry that already nests in their heart.
INFLUENCES- -My grandmother, my mother and father, our beloved Mother Earth