Quick Facts
Biography
Isabel Quintero was born in the Inland Empire of Southern California. Her parents are both from Mexico, her mother from Guanajuato and her father from Sinaloa. They met after they had both been living and working in the United States for a few years. Quintero was raised in the city of Corona, about forty minutes from the heart of Los Angeles and thirty minutes from the beach. She grew up surrounded by citrus orchards and the desert. Her parents worked long hours, often double shifts, to make ends meet. Her mother worked as a cleaner and caretaker of an older couple, and later in the kitchen of a hospital. Her father worked as an RV assembler and later as a cabinet installer. An elderly couple, Victor and Lucia Mejia, helped raise Isabel and her younger brother, and they became their abuelitos. As a young girl, Quintero's mother would walk her and her brother to the library a few miles from home, and Isabel would always check out more books than she could carry back home. Her mother greatly encouraged reading and schoolwork to her children.
Quintero attended Garretson Elementary School, Corona Fundamental Intermediate School, and Santiago High School. As an undergrad, she attended California State University, San Bernardino where she earned her B.A. in English. She also attended graduate school at CSUSB and studied in the M.A. in English Composition program.
In 2003, Quintero married her husband, Fernando Flores, and they reside in the Inland Empire of Southern California. Their wedding ceremony was held in a public library.
Career
Isabel Quintero writes young adult literature, poetry, and fiction. Until recently, she was teaching English at two community colleges in the Inland Empire, San Bernardino Valley College and Mt. San Jacinto College. Quintero also is a freelance writer for the Arts Council of San Bernardino and an active member of PoetrIE, an organization working to bring literary arts to Inland Empire communities. Today, she's reviewing drafts for her upcoming children's book from Scholastic Press, Ugly Cat & Pablo, and writing a young adult graphic novel for the Getty.
Works
Quintero has published one young adult fiction novel and a number of poems. Her complete publications are listed below:
Books
Gabi, A Girl in Pieces
Cinco Puntos Press
1 September 2014
This book is a coming of age story that touches hearts both young and old. The journal entries of Gabi, a young Mexican American teenage girl, display her raw and honest feelings as she works through the events that unfold throughout her senior year of high school. On top of applying to colleges and dreaming about her top school, Gabi struggles with body image, her best friend's teen pregnancy, another friend coming out, her father's meth addiction, and her mother's disapproval just to name a few. Her journal entries manifest Gabi's journey of grappling between the desire to go away to college and what she feels is expected of her as a young Mexican American woman. Through writing, Gabi finds her voice.
Awards
- Winner of the William C. Morris Award for YA Debut Novel
- Gold Medal Winner of the California Book Award for Young Adult 2015
- School Library Journal Best Books of 2014
- Booklist Best Books of 2014
- Amelia Bloomer List, part of the American Library Association, Social Responsibilities Round Table’s Feminist Task Force
- 2015 YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, Top 10 Selection
- 2015 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults
- 2015 Tomás Rivera Book Award, Works for Older Children
- 2015 Paterson Prize for Books for Young People, Grades 7-12
- 2015 Capitol Choices: Noteworthy Books for Children and Teens
Book trailer
Book Trailer: Gabi, A Girl in Pieces (YouTube)
Poetry
Stories Our Mother Told Us
Full poem and audio reading at As Us: A Space for Women of the World.
Moanin' the Blues
Full poem and audio reading at As Us: A Space for Women of the World.
Martha
Full poem at Xican@ Poetry Daily.
Mi Tía La Bruja
Full poem at Xican@ Poetry Daily.
Pig Pen
Full poem at Acentos Review.
Full Frontal
Published in Viscera, Vol. 1.
Themes
There are a few key themes that arise throughout Isabel Quintero's writing. In all but one of the published works above, the protagonists are women. Quintero unwraps sexism and prejudice through both young and adult characters, in both adolescent and middle-aged periods of life. Gabi is coming of age, whereas Martha concludes in her coffin. The male characters often demand submission, like in Moanin' the Blues, and in Stories Our Mother Told Us and Mi Tía La Bruja, an element of magical realism dances around witchcraft.
Another key theme is racial inequality, especially that of the Mexican American community in Southern California and the southwest region of the United States. Quintero writes about the immigrant experience, often through the eyes of a first-generation character. She highlights the struggles of a working-class family and the socioeconomic status that binds the Mexican American community. In an interview with Jackie Rhodes from the Los Angeles Review of Books in 2017, Quintero describes, "Whenever I drive on 91 going toward Orange County, and I see the homes on the hills, I think about how much my dad worked in homes we could never afford...That is a strange paradox in which to exist." Quintero takes experiences from her own life and the stories and legends of her Mexican heritage to sculpt her narratives and poetry works. In the same interview, Quintero discusses the power of writing and how it has changed her life as well as touched others'. She declares, "My writing is my activism."