Patricia Preciado Martin
Birthday: 1939
Patricia Preciado Martin is a native Arizonanan and lifetime Tucsonan. She graduated Magnna Cum Laude from the University of Arizona in 1960. After teaching in Riverside, California she served in the Peace Corps in Belize Central America where she met and married fellow volunteer Jim Martin. They returned to Tucson in 1969 when her husband became part of the original faculty of Pima College. A homemaker and stay at home Mom Patricia had her first book a bilingual Childrens story titiled "The Legend of the Bellringer of San Agustin" published in 1979. She has spent the last 25 years documenting the history culture and traditions of Mexican American in Arizona through her non fiction and fiction books. She has had six books published by the University of Arizona Press including three oral histories and three collections of short fiction. Her three non fiction works include "Images and Conversations: Mexican Americans Recall A Southwestern Past"; Winner of the McCormick Scully Award the year of it's publication (Best history by a chicana/o author "Songs My Mother Sang to Me: An Oral History of Mexican American Women"; and "Beloved Land" which as published in 2004. Her short story collections all published by the University of Arizona Press are "Days of Plenty Days of Want"; "El Milagro and Other Stories"; and "Amor Eterno; Eleven Lessons of Love" winner of winner of the Southwest Book Award for fiction. Patricia served as a Arizona Humanities Council Speakers' Bureau for ten years. She has received many honors including U of A Hispanic Alumni Distinguished Service Award; Arizona Library Association Arizona Author of the Year; Arizona Humanities Council Distinguished Public Scholar; Salpointe Alumni Hall of Fame and the Sharlott Hall Museum Hall of Fame. Patricia is currently working on a new collection of fiction.