Annette Sandoval

Annette Sandoval's writing is tightly bound to her experiences as a Mexican-American. The youngest of five children, Annette began life in the barrio neighborhoods of Santa Ana, California. She was named after a Mouseketeer--her mother wanted one of her children to have an "American" name.

Her parents were both born in the Mexican state of Jalisco. Her father, Manuel, worked in the orange groves in Southern California and later as a janitor in a convent, where he was sponsored for green card status. After securing work and papers, he sent for his fifteen-year-old bride, Felicitas.

After moving to San Francisco at the age of twenty-one, Annette spent the next decade backpacking around the world, touring nearly every continent on her own.

She is the author of The Directory of Saints (Dutton/Penguin), which appeared in hardback in 1996. The book has subsequently been issued in paperback and in a Spanish language edition for the international market.

Her second book, Homegrown Healing: Traditional Home Remedies from Mexico (Putnam/Berkely), published in 1998, is one of the first modern works preserving this rich oral tradition.

She has also written two really good works of fiction: "Spitfire," a killer thriller and "Women Are Like Chickens," a novel that turns romance, magic surrealism and Latina predictability on it's ear.

Annette is also responsible for the lyrics to "Halloween Hangover" which was recently recorded by Brett Anderson (The Donnas) and Morgan Phalen (Diamond Nights).