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Ofelia “MexMama” Faz-Garza was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and raised in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas. She is the proud daughter of Mexican migrants who kept her grounded in the beauty of her ancestral heritage while giving her the courage to fly free and unbound. Nepantla, or the in-between space, is where she lives, loves, and finds inspiration.
She's also mother to three wild-haired, free-spirited young ones and a small band of four-legged babies and wife to a wild-haired Tejano who helped her fall in love with Spanglish and Tex-Mex.
A poet since childhood it wasn't until the 1990's that she got the courage to share her work and was published for the first time in the Texas State University (then Southwest Texas State) literary journal, Persona. Imposter syndrome settled in after all, thinking it was a fluke, and she didn't venture out into the writing world again until her 40's. Since then Ofelia's work has been published in a variety of publications including Women in Nature: An Anthology, Outrage: A Protest Anthology for Injustice in a Post 9/11 World, BASTA! 100+ Latinas Speak Out Against Violence Against Women, and the Voces Anthology as well as in the Dallas Morning News, Latino Rebels, CALÓ News, and numerous zines.
Her writing incorporates free-style poetry, personal reflections, and jumps back and forth from Spanish, English, and Spanglish. She enjoys ruminating on the role everyday rituals play in our lives and writes about the impact these mundane, seemingly insignificant acts have on our stories.
Ofelia worked professionally in the non-profit and social services field for almost 20 years before venturing out on her own to do cultural work. She is a bridge builder who develops programs and activities that use the arts as a way to bring the community together around social justice issues.
Some of her projects include:
Semillitas Literary Initiative: a literary arts initiative focused on planting the seeds of lifelong reading through monthly book chats, story-times, community book exchanges, and reading nooks.
Con Safos Initiative: an initiative to create multicultural and intergenerational spaces in the North Texas area that honor cultural experiences through the arts via community cultural art festivals, story-telling and book-making events, and a community-wide self-guided tour of community Day of the Dead ofrendas.
Señora Things: a personal and community creative exploration of aging and changing bodies through gatherings meant to hold space for women entering this new season of life. An accompanying visual art and literary project is in the works as part of this.
Libro Tianguis: a community market that focuses on books and the written word where authors and creatives can sell their work directly to the public.
En La Mesa: a writer's conference that brings established and emerging QBIPOC writers together to learn from each other and to network.
La MexMama
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