Margarita Cota-Cárdenas

Puppet is often studied in Spanish in university Chicanx courses and has become an underground classic. In Cota-Cárdenas’ second novel, Sanctuaries of the Heart/Santuarios del corazón (2005), Petra Levya returns once more in a work that addresses social justice, the impact of culture on literature, and the complexities of Chicana consciousness.

In 1985, Cota-Cárdenas published Puppet, her first extended fiction piece. The novella is based on some real-life events and is somewhat autobiographical in nature. In 2000, a bilingual translation of Puppet was published. She has published other poems, collections, and fictional works, and has been included in several anthologies such as Infinite Divisions: An Anthology of Chicana Literature (1993) edited by Tey Diana Rebolledo and Eliana Suárez Rivero. In 2003, Cota-Cárdenas retired from her teaching position at Arizona State University, but continues to write and publish more pieces.

Her first work of fiction and her most famous work, Puppet was published in Spanish in 1985, then reissued in a bilingual edition in 2000. The novella fuses fiction and reality, as Cota-Cárdenas explores ideas about social issues, activism, and race, gender, and ethnicity during the Chicano movement. Based on real-life events, the story follows a nineteen-year-old Chicano named Puppet, who is shot to death by the police. Puppet is silenced not only by linguistic barriers and by his speech impediment, but also by authority figures. In the story, Petra Levya, a Spanish professor, writes a novel in response to the death of Puppet, all while exploring her own values and identities through social and political lenses.

Cota-Cárdenas and Eliana Suárez Rivero founded the publishing company Scorpion Press, which was funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and designed to publish works by bilingual, bicultural women. In 1976, her collection of poems Noches despertando in conciencias was published by Scorpion Press in Spanish and was well-received. “Nostalgia,” published in Siete Poetas in 1978 under Scorpion Press, is one of her more popular poems, inspired by her childhood experience of viewing a drive-in movie starring María Félix as a heroic nun. As a girl, Cota-Cárdenas then enrolled in the Convent of Good Shepherd in New Mexico to become a nun and changed her mind shortly after, unsatisfied by the strict lifestyle and homesickness she experienced.

Cota-Cárdenas attended Modesto Junior College and California State University, Stanislaus, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1966. She earned a master’s degree from the University of California, Davis in 1968. The next year, she began writing poetry seriously. After teaching at her alma mater for two years, she earned her doctoral degree from the University of Arizona in 1980. During her time of education, Cota-Cárdenas was a divorced mother of three children and had little time to devote to the Chicano movement. Beginning in 1981, she taught courses in bilingual Spanish, Chicano and Chicana literature, and Mexican literature at Arizona State University.

Her interest in writing began at a young age, though she had other aspirations throughout her childhood as well. She first intended to become a nun, but promptly changed her mind. From 1955 to 1959, she attended Orestimba High School, where she wrote for the school newspaper and succeeded in several writing competitions. She was a top student and received many honors in high school. During these years, Cota-Cárdenas transitioned from pursuing medical school to pursuing acting. She eventually received a scholarship from the Department of Theatre Arts at the University of California, Los Angeles, which she turned down.

Margarita Cota-Cárdenas (born November 10, 1941) is an American poet and author. A voice for Chicano literature, Cota-Cárdenas is known for her 1985 novella Puppet: A Chicano Novella and her works of poetry. She is a professor emerita of Spanish at Arizona State University.