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Xinia Marie Estrada, Author.

Xinia Marie Estrada (San José, Costa Rica, June 20, 1964) is a poet and short story writer.

Early Life and Education

Xinia Estrada Mena, better known by her pen name Xinia Marie Estrada was born in the province of San José, Costa Rica. She is the ninth of the twelve children. . Daughter of Raul Estrada Granados and Higinia Mena Muñoz. Xinia learned how to read and write when she was 4 years old. She learned poems that she recited to family and friends. She started writing her own poems when she was twelve years old. She grew up in a rural area where parents were settled. An accused humanistic vocation and the family’s progressive ideas moved them to the city of Heredia, where Xinia pursued higher education. Indeed, in 1980, she began to study History at the National University of Heredia, the city in which she held the most diverse occupations in order to pay for her studies. Thus, she worked as a secretary, a dental assistant, a store clerk, and industrial laborer; activities she combined not only with dedication to her education, but also with strong political commitment, in order to defend, singularly and vigorously, the women’s movement of her time and place. In 1987, she founded the “Women” Newsletter, issued for the most progressive wing of the local feminism. Married and mother of two, Xinia Estrada moved to the United States of America in 1992, settling down in the city of Las Vegas. She studied History at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Career

As a writer, Xinia Estrada broke into the Costa Rican cultural landscape as a result of her association with feminist movements, and her desire to disseminate it through literary channels. Thus, in 1989, her story, presented under the title of "Portrait of a Lost Woman", was awarded the first prize in the contest CEFEMINA. Two years later, in 1991, she won two first prizes in the modalities of short story and poetry in the contest organized by the municipality of Guadalajara (Mexico). Finally, more consolidated as a short fiction writer and a poet worthy of consideration, Xinia was awarded a "poetry prize" by the National Magazine of Culture in Costa Rica in 1992 for her poems entitled Alma de piedra and Mi calle. In 1994, both poems Alma de Piedra and Mi calle were published as part of the Anthology Cuento y poesía, Volume 1 by the Costa Rican Universidad Estatal a Distancia . Xinia Estrada's narrative work has been mentioned in academic essays by the University of Alicante, Spain , and the University of Aguascalientes, Mexico.

As she settled in the United States in the 1990’s, Xinia Estrada was dedicated to collecting data and testimonies from Hispanic-American women who have migrated illegally, for a report on these hard experiences which, moreover, have been reflected in her own literary production. She has published three books in the United States.

Books

• Pluma en silencio,2003. Editorial El Salvaje refinado, USA. ISBN-10 : 1948114224
• Retrato de una mujer perdida, 2006 (Second Edition 2020). Obsidiana Press, USA. ISBN 13: 9781847285133.
• Dormir con aguacero, 2013. Obsidiana Press, USA. ISBN-10 : 1948114216