Gloria Arjona

A native of El Paso, Texas, Gloria Arjona received her PhD in Spanish from the University of Southern California. She currently teaches Spanish at the California Institute of Technology. Gloria has published three books: Posadas Unknown Calaveras (Floricanto Press, 2020), where she addresses the connection of the work of Mexican artist José Guadalupe Posada with the European medieval The Dance of the Death, as well as the Day of the Dead narrative tradition known as “Literary Calaveras”; ¡Lotería! Origins and Uses of the Mexican Bingo (Floricanto Press, 2020), where she explores the European history of "la lotería", the most popular Mexican and Central American board game; and The Story of Selena Quintanilla. A Biography Book for New Readers (Rockridge Press, 2022), a biography of the late Tejana singer and role model intended for young children. Gloria is also an accomplished translator, having among her published work important authors, like Rosario Castellanos, Benito Pérez Galdós, Ricardo Rojas González, and Cristina Peri-Rossi. Gloria has a special passion music. She sings in a Brazilian jazz band called Along for the Ride, with whom she has two albums, Cromático (2008) and Jobim & Vinicius Across Languages, (2015), and a third one is on the way. Gloria also sings in libraries and museums as part of her multimedia lectures in which she includes live music and images, and with which she aims to educate on Mexican traditions as well as to empower the underrepresented communities. You may find more about Gloria at www.gloriaarjona.com