Paul Cerda
From the 1998 Jack Straw Writers Anthology: “I am a twenty-seven year old Chicano, or Mexican-American. I was raised in mostly middle-class white suburban communities where the only other students with Spanish surnames were my siblings. I’m currently a full-time composition and literature professor at Shoreline Community College. I moved to Washington after living in or around San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Guadalajara Mexico, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. I have been writing as a hobby for many years and I have published a few of my stories. The prevailing theme of my work is about ‘life in the interstices.’ I have experienced two very different cultures, yet I feel as if neither is truly ‘my culture.’ As a young child I became very aware of my difference in middle class white suburbia. When I moved back to an area with a large Latino population I realized how different I was in that setting as well. My work exudes this sense of half-belonging and examines the multiple roles that every human must play in their social interactions.”
