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Viramontes (Helena Maria) papers
CEMA 18
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Contributing Institution:
UC Santa Barbara Library, Department of Special Research Collections
Title: Helena Maria Viramontes papers
Identifier/Call Number: CEMA 18
Creator:
Viramontes, Helena Maria, 1954-
Physical Description:
34 Linear Feet;
(1 carton, 73 document boxes, 2 half document boxes, 8 flat boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1930-2011
Date (bulk): 1980-1997
Abstract: The papers of Helena Maria Viramontes, a Chicana fiction writer and English professor at Cornell University.
Physical Location: Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library
Language of Material:
English, Spanish; Castilian.
Helena Maria Viramontes was born on February 26, 1954, in East Los Angeles. She grew up in a working class family with eight
siblings, three brothers (Gilbert, Frank, and Serafin) and five sisters (Mary Ann, Ruthie, Rebecca, Barbara and Francis).
Helena graduated from East Los Angeles' Garfield High School in 1972. She graduated from Immaculate Heart College with a B.A.
in English.
Considered one of Hispanic literature's most distinguished craftsperson, Helena Maria Viramontes career began with her work
for the avant-garde Chicano magazine "ChismeArte". Assigned as literary editor, she began to develop a style that reflected
her understanding and upbringing in the streets of East Los Angeles. Hip, yet polished, her approach imbued her work with
credibility and flare.
Her love of literature led her to study English and creative writing over the next two decades. Her work as a writer was put
on hiatus when she married and became the mother of two children, to whom she devoted most of her time. In 1994, almost a
decade after the publication of her first book, she finished her Masters of Fine Arts in creative writing. By the time she
had her M.F.A degree in hand, Viramontes was already a force on the Hispanic literary scene, and her works had been canonized
in important textbooks and anthologies used by academia.
Viramontes creates highly crafted tales of women struggling to make their lives in the barrios. However, her imagery, as in
"The Moths," is often classically based and her command of language reveals years of hard study and her works are the result
of numerous drafts. Viramontes's powerful writing is based in politics and are ground in the sociological reality of working-class
Latinas. In her conscious effort to give voice to women through her stories, she is personally battling and subverting patriarchal
practices. Sonia Saldivar-Hull wrote, "Her groundbreaking narrative strategies, combined with her sociopolitical focus, situate
her at the forefront of an emerging Chicana literary tradition that redefines Chicano literature and feminist theory." The
feminist journal, Belles Lettres, added: "Viramontes's stories convey the impact of repression on women's lives and graphically
depict the price paid by women who dare to challenge a misogynist social system that moves rapidly to squelch their every
attempt toward self-definition… The result is a rich, challenging narrative that rewards the reader with insight to the passions
and torments that drive the characters."
In 1995 Viramontes won the John Dos Passos literature prize. Martha E. Cook said she received this award, for "her use of
places and characters that are distinctly American, yet are not usual or stereotypical in American fiction; the amazing variety
and experimentalism of her individual works of fiction; and, above all, the stunning unity of each work, with word and idea,
image, symbol and theme all woven into a seamless whole." She incorporates the real stories of women struggling to survive
and raise their children in a world dominated by men and where women of color face double jeopardy of racism and sexism. Through
this evolutionary process, she has become a leading national Chicana fiction and non-fiction writer.
Under the Feet of Jesus (1996), Viramontes's first novel, is an apparently simple and direct narrative that follows the life of a thirteen-year-old
migrant worker girl, but soon becomes an indictment of corporate agriculture in California and its practices of child labor
and pesticide poisoning. The book is narrated from the point of view of the young girl, Estella, who also questions the limitations
placed on her as a female. Reviewers see Viramontes as working in the social realist vein of cultural companies which she
portrays in Under the Feet of Jesus. The Bloomsbury Review said that, "Her lush, precise prose lends beauty to this world
and shows us that the struggle for dignity is as vital a struggle as survival." Her novel
Their Dogs Came with Them: A Novel (2007) takes place in East Los Angeles in the 1960's. It continues her conversation regarding the harsh realities and social
conditions of the poor. Viramontes received the Luis Leal Award for Distinction in Chicano/Latino Literature in 2006. Writer,
Julia Alvarez, has called Viramontes "one of the important multicultural voices of American literature."
Scope and Content Note
This collection reflects the process Viramontes has gone through to find her own unique voice as a Chicana writer from East
Los Angeles. Her papers provide invaluable insight to her growth as a writer. The collection contains both biographical and
literary materials.
Materials may include school papers, correspondence, manuscripts, short stories, award presentations, press critiques, literary
reviews, teaching materials and presentations, photograph and slides, and audio and video recordings.
The collection is arranged by topic and medium, into 6 series:
- Series 1: Personal Biographical
- Series 2: Correspondence
- Series 3: Literary Work and Critical Writings
- Series 4: Subject Files
- Series 5: Photographs, slides, and ephemera
- Series 6: Audio and video materials
The collection is open for research.
Property rights to the collection and physical objects belong to the Regents of the University of California acting through
the Department of Special Research Collections at the UCSB Library. All applicable literary rights, including copyright to
the collection and physical objects, are protected under Chapter 17 of the U.S. Copyright Code and are retained by the creator
and the copyright owner, heir(s), or assigns.
All requests to reproduce, quote from, or otherwise reuse collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Department
of Special Research Collections at UCSB at special@ucsb.edu. Consent is given on behalf of the Regents of the University
of California acting through the Department of Special Research Collections at UCSB as the owner of the physical items and
is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright
owner, heir(s), or assigns. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the
copyright owner or their assigns for permission to publish where the UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
[Identification of Item], Helena Maria Viramontes Papers. CEMA 18. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara
Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Donated by Helena Viramontes, May 2002.
Processed by Callie Bowdish, Greg Simon, and Yolanda Alaniz, October 1, 2008. Additions processed by Rebecca Vasquez, 2024.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
American literature -- Hispanic American authors
Mexican American women
Mexican Americans -- California -- East Los Angeles
Mexican American neighborhoods -- Fiction
Mexican American women authors