Maya Chinchilla

Maya Chinchilla was born in Long Beach, California to an immigrant family with Guatemalan roots.{{Cite book|title=The Cha Cha Files: A Chapina Poética|last=Chinchilla|first=Maya|publisher=Kórima Press|year=2014|isbn=978-0988967380|location=San Francisco, CA|pages=cv}} Her mother, sociologist Dr. Norma Chinchilla and her father founded the Guatemala Information Center (GIC).{{Cite book|title=Seeking Community in a Global City: Guatemalans and Salvadorans in Los Angeles|last1=Chinchilla|first1=Norma|last2=Hamilton|first2=Nora|publisher=Temple University Press|year=2001|isbn=1566398681|pages=131}}{{Cite web|url=https://library.osu.edu/site/mujerestalk/2013/05/13/chapina-2-0-reflections-of-a-central-american-solidarity-baby/|title=Chapina 2.0: Reflections of A Central American Solidarity Baby|last=Chinchilla|first=Maya|date=May 13, 2013|website=Mujeres Talk}} Chinchilla received a Bachelor of Arts from University of California Santa Cruz, a Masters in Broadcasting and Electronic Communications Arts from San Francisco State University, and a Masters of Fine Arts in English and Creative Writing from Mills College.{{cite web|url=https://ciis.academia.edu/MayaChinchilla/CurriculumVitae |title=Curriculum Vitae |last=Maya |first=Chinchilla |archive-url=https://archive.today/20170309003703/http://ciis.academia.edu/MayaChinchilla/CurriculumVitae |archive-date=2017-03-09 |url-status=live |access-date=2017-03-08 }}

The literary collective, EpiCentroAmerica or epicentros, emerged in the 1990s as a space to give Central American American youth to explore their identity.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AP7QCteb0o0C&q=epicentroamerica&pg=PA972|title=Immigrants in American History: Arrival, Adaptation, and Integration|last=Barkan|first=Elliott Robert|date=2013-01-01|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9781598842197|language=en}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mK147fnLIrAC&q=epicentroamerica&pg=PA192|title=Art in the Lives of Immigrant Communities in the United States|last1=DiMaggio|first1=Paul|last2=Fernandez-Kelly|first2=Patricia|date=2010-10-13|publisher=Rutgers University Press|isbn=9780813550411|language=en}}{{Cite web|url=http://epicentroamerica.blogspot.com/|title=Welcome to EpicentroAmerica: "An Anthology of U.S. Central American Poetry and Art"|date=March 16, 2010|website=Welcome to EpicentroAmerica: Central American Diasporic Culture, Art and Rumblings.}} It has been described as fundamental to the movement to reimagine Central American and Central American American identity in the literary arts in the early 21st century.{{cite web|url=https://clacsnyublog.com/2015/08/30/sharing-tears-with-maya-chapina-maya-chinchilla/|title=Sharing Tears With Maya Chinchilla|last=willyr89|date=2015-08-31|website=CLACS @ NYU|access-date=2017-03-12}}{{Cite journal|last=Cárdenas|first=Maritza|date=2013-01-01|title=From Epicentros to Fault Lines: Rewriting Central America from the Diaspora|journal=Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature|language=en|volume=37|issue=2|doi=10.4148/2334-4415.1808|issn=2334-4415|doi-access=free}} An associated 2007 anthology, Desde el EpiCentro, which was edited by Chinchilla and Karina Oliva-Alvarado, has been described as critical in troubling traditional understandings of Latino identity.{{Cite journal|last=Arias|first=Arturo|date=2012-06-20|title=EpiCentro: The Emergence of a New Central American-American Literature|journal=Comparative Literature|language=en|volume=64|issue=3|pages=300–315|doi=10.1215/00104124-1672961|issn=0010-4124}}

She has had multiple publications in various journals and anthologies, including Mujeres de Maíz, Sinister Wisdom, Americas y Latinas: A Stanford Journal of Latin American Studies, Cipactli Journal, The Lunada Literary Anthology The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the U.S. Some of Chinchilla's research interests are Latin American/Latino Studies, Gender and sexuality, Latinx discourse and cultural production, creative writing and performance, Central American Studies, Latino/as in the media, Film production and Aesthetics, Media and Communications.

Chinchilla has directed two short documentaries, "The Last Word" and "Made in Brazil" both of which screened at different festivals in 2006. When she was a graduate student at San Francisco State University, she also won the STAND award in 2006 from the Film Arts Foundation.{{Cite web|url=https://www.sfsu.edu/~news/2006/fall/112.htm|title=SF State News|website=www.sfsu.edu|access-date=2018-09-26}}

The Cha Cha Files is a collection of poems that brings to light the Diaspora of the Central American in the United States. The book is a queer text that uses erotic language and writing, while using autobiographical references to emphasize the struggles of the Central American Woman. In addition she discusses gender performance while articulating and reclaiming her mestiza and indigenous roots.

Church at Night was written by Maya Chinchilla after the Orlando nightclub shooting. In 2018, the poem was published in A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies.{{Cite journal|last=Chinchilla|first=Maya|date=2018-01-01|title=Church at Night|journal=GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies|volume=24|issue=1|pages=3–8|doi=10.1215/10642684-4254387|s2cid=148576338|issn=1064-2684}}

Femme on Purpose appears in The Jota Anthology.{{Cite web|url=http://ucdavis.academia.edu/MayaChinchilla/CurriculumVitae|title=Maya Chinchilla {{!}} University of California, Davis - Academia.edu|website=ucdavis.academia.edu|access-date=2019-03-02}}

In her poem "Central Americanamerican" she "diffracts the construction of Central American identity beyond a geographic notion and along the multiple coordinates of migrations, generations, heritages, languages, ethnicities, races, sexualities, cultures, and discourses magnified in the Central American diasporas."{{Book| "Literatures of Central Americans in the United States", Ana Patricia Rodriguez, in The Routledge Companion to Latino/a Literature (2012)

Besides her literary work, Maya Chinchilla directed various video projects including "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsaqW4eqZUs Solidarity Baby]," "The Last Word".{{Cite news|url=https://mayachapina.com/video/|title=Video|date=2009-04-13|work=Chinchilla Like Tortilla|access-date=2017-03-08|language=en-US}} [https://mayachinchilla.com/2021/04/21/central-american-unicorns-in-space/ Central American Unicorns in Space] and is the host of [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qza2Xtk06PU&list=PLX0FtgHu4xzjSqssu0Jxro7w7k087V64J Live and Queer.]

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite web|url=https://ciis.academia.edu/MayaChinchilla/CurriculumVitae |title=Maya Chinchilla | California Institute of Integral Studies - Academia.edu |website=Ciis.academia.edu |date=1970-01-01 |access-date=2017-03-15}}
• {{cite web |url=https://mayachinchilla.com |title=Chinchilla Like Tortilla | cha-cha-chapina poetics |website=Mayachinchilla.com |access-date=2017-03-15}}
• {{cite web|url=https://mayachinchilla.com/about/|title=About Me | Chinchilla Like Tortilla|website=Mayachapina.com|date=13 March 2009 |access-date=2017-03-15}}
• {{cite web|url=http://korimapress.com/cha-cha-files/4585686399 |title=Cha Cha Files - Kórima Press |website=Korimapress.com |date=2014-06-04 |access-date=2017-03-15}}
• {{cite web|url=http://lals.ucsc.edu/faculty/singleton.php?&singleton=true&cruz_id=mchinchi |title=Maya M Chinchilla |website=Lals.ucsc.edu |date=2017-02-13 |access-date=2017-03-15}}
• "Chapina 2.0: Reflections of A Central American Solidarity Baby" Mujeres Talk 2013 https://library.osu.edu/site/mujerestalk/2013/05/13/chapina-2-0-reflections-of-a-central-american-solidarity-baby/

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Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century American poets

Category:21st-century American women writers

Category:American people of Guatemalan descent

Category:American women poets

Category:Mills College alumni

Category:Poets from California

Category:San Francisco State University alumni

Category:University of California, Santa Cruz alumni

Category:Writers from Long Beach, California