A Story of Stories: The Texas Border Barrio Life and Writings of Doña Ramona González

Please join me in congratulating Cristina D. Ramírez, our department head, for her publication of A Story of Stories: The Border Barrio Life and Writings of Doña Ramona González. It was released August 20th, through Trinity University Press, San Antonio, Texas. The book centers on the bilingual textual recovery and translation of her grandmother’s writings. Doña Ramona had published 5 short stories in Spanish in one of the most important Chicano literary journal of the Chicano Movement – El Grito. But, like many Mexican American women from that time, she never received her recognition. Sadly, she was unable to publish her other writings.

Background: In 2015, Cristina’s family found a box – a magic box - full of 750+ pages of her grandmother’s manuscript-ready writings. Doña Ramona wrote about the people of barrio Chihuahuita, the oldest barrio in El Paso, from a 1915 perspective and then about the people of her corner grocery store, González Grocery, which she opened in 1934. A Story of Stories recovers her history and these stories bilingually with “Por vida de estas santas cruces yo viví en estos barrios” (about Chihuahuita) and “Mi tiendita” (about the people from the Missouri / Ochoa neighborhood.) Her father, Neil Devereaux, a 50-year veteran translator and retired professor, translated all the writings. They edited them together.

KTSM Channel 9 conducted an interview with Cristina over the weekend in El Paso: - Uncovered writings document, describe historic Chihuahuita neighborhood | KTSM 9 News – Check it out!