Graciela M. Limón
Graciela Limón is a Latina/Chicana writer and a native of Los Angeles, California.
From 1965–2001, Limón was a professor at LMU and is now a professor emerita. Professor Limón began her career in the Modern Languages and Literatures Department and also chaired the Committee on Rank and Tenure for many years. She then transitioned into Chicana/o Studies where she made initial hires for the department, as well as African American Studies.
“I chaired CHLST (then called the Department of Chicana/o Studies) from 2001–09 and inherited a department prepared for growth, not having to make an argument for why it was needed,” said Deena J. González, professor, Chicano/a, Latina/o Studies. “Graciela had already done that work. Generations of students, but also generations of faculty, revere her.”
Professor Limón’s national and international reputation is well-known and she has continued to write novels, deliver lectures, and work with community organizations since her retirement in 2001. Professor Limón has written and published reviews and critical work on Mexican, Latin American and Caribbean Literature. She has now concentrated her writing efforts on creative fiction, including “In Search of Bernabé” (1993), which won the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award (1994). The novel has been released in Spanish under the title En busca de Bernabé (1997). Limón has also published “The Memories of Ana Calderón” (1994), “Song of the Hummingbird” (1996), which was published in Spanish under the title of La canción del colebri in April 2006. “The Day of the Moon” (1999) was also published in Spanish as El dia de la luna (2006). “Erased Faces,” which was awarded the 2002 Gustavus Myers Book Award, was published in 2001. Her latest novel, “Left Alive,” was released in September 2005. All of Limón's novels have been published by Arte Público Press, University of Houston, Texas.
Professor Limón's fiction has been anthologized in “In Other Words: Literature by Latina Writers of the United States,” (Arte Público Press, 1994), “Latinas: Borderland Voices” (Simon & Schuster, 1995), “The Hispanic Literary Companion” (Visible Ink Press, 1997), “American Mosaic: Multicultural Readings in Context” (Houghton, Mifflin, 2001), “Herencia” (Oxford Press, 2002), “Under the Fifth Sun: Latino Literature from California” (Heyday Books, Berkeley 2003), and “Chicanos, Latinos & Cultural Diversity” (Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., 2004).
She earned a bachelor of arts degree in Spanish literature from Marymount College, Los Angeles, a Master of Arts degree in the same field from the University of the Americas in Mexico City, followed by a Ph.D. in Latin American literature from UCLA.