Mario Gonzales

I work with words which are slippery things. Meanings change over time and interpretations vary. But words also have a rhythm and a force behind that. At times I hear and feel this clearly and it moves me to play and love and find some depth to myself and the world I see. This is art. To use whatever we can, a stone, a sound, a color and reveal "the unseen world of passion and of thought."

These are a few of the journals where my short fiction has been published: Sonora Review (Univ of Arizona) New England Review (Middlebury College) Rio Grande Review(University of Texas, El Paso and Los Angeles Review(Red Hen Press) These include the works: Chisme, Malditos, El Mano Negra and Five Minutes to Nasrim. They were published between 2011-2020.

Mario J. Gonzales was born in Fresno, CA and raised in a rural community of Mexican immigrants and Chicanos. His mother and aunt both seasonal agricultural workers looked after him. They are buena gente. He is a first-generation college graduate who ultimately received his PhD in cultural anthropology at Washington State University. His fiction concerning campesinos, immigrants, the unlucky and the magical can be found in such lit journals as Quarterly West, Sonora Review, New England Review, Los Angeles Review and other fine periodicals. He is currently a professor of cultural anthropology at New Mexico Highlands University and a resident of the west side of Albuquerque.