Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Flora Grateron. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Flora, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?
My parents married at a very young age and left Mexico for a life in South Texas. My mother was only nineteen years old. They bought a small lot and built their home together through hard work and determination even using a gas lantern to light as they worked late in the night. We are nine offspring all still alive who followed our parents’ example of hard work and never giving up. My parents also had a strong religious foundation that impacted all of us as they practiced their Catholic faith and passed it along to all of us. Their examples were not lost on us as we grew up alongside them every day, having dinner together every night even as our father came home exhausted from working as a carpenter and our mother was busy caring for nine children. My decision to become a teacher was mainly to honor them and follow their example of always teaching through example. My father was always teaching others how to do things correctly at work and was called Maestro even though he only had an elementary education, while my mother taught us things at home as only a mother can and with so much patience. She preferred that we did our homework rather than sweep and help with dinner after our days at school. She was never sitting idle and rarely did I see her lose her patience with us. She is 98 years old and is still working to this day. Just last month she was sanding and staining our father’s bed. She is a strong woman with strong religious values and principles. She has never backed down from hard work and still amazes us to his day. Our father passed away in December 2023 at the age of 102. A few months before that, he was still working around the house even from his wheelchair. His hands always had to be busy, pulling weeds, painting, raking, etc. Our yard was always neat and clean because of his constant meticulous way of taking pride in the way his yard looked. Even in his wheelchair, he would pull the trash can up front without assistance from anyone. After years of working in carpentry in the heat and cold of South Texas never missing a day of work if he could help it, he wasn’t ready to retire and continued to get up early every morning to work on his next project. He created hundreds of pieces including bed frames, benches, tables and chairs, cabinets, all made from heavy white pine. He always had a hammer ready to work on anything that needed fixing and my mother always had a rolling pin in her hand as she rolled out hundreds of flour tortillas through the years for her large family, keeping everyone nurtured and nourished. My siblings and I lived with these hardworking parents as our first examples of what work and determination looked like. They were both positive role models and we all understood how difficult their lives must have been for them, starting at a very young age, yet they never complained or spoke of regrets. They were simply grateful for the rich lives bestowed on them and they always lived with optimism.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a retired middle school educator but I am also a published writer, author, and poet. I started writing for fun when I was in my 20’s when my first niece was born. Her cute comments made me want to write about her. As the years went by, I attended college along the way as I moved from city to city, but never finishing college. It wasn’t until I had four children that I realized the importance of setting an example if I wanted them to attend college, too. When my three youngest children were in elementary school, and my son in middle school, I made the decision to return to college. By then, I had attended five different universities in Texas and Wisconsin but had never finished my degree. My daughters would ride the shuttle to the university after school and wait for me to finish classes and we would drive back home together. It was a difficult goal to achieve especially with a husband who was constantly out of town. I finally achieved my goal of completing my studies with a Creative Writing Degree and returned for a post-baccalaureate teaching certificate. I taught Language Arts in middle school and enjoyed teaching in both the private and public sector. Our after school poetry club was one of the best parts of the day because the kids were creative and really enjoyed putting words on paper. I wrote my stories right along with them. My idea of writing a book that spoke to an audience of writers who were interested in journaling and telling their own stories after reading my stories and poems was what kept pushing me to write a book. My first book received a Silver Medal Award for Best First Book in the International Latino Book Awards in Los Angeles, California. All the work I had poured into my first book was recognized and I was proud of that moment. My second book has also been entered into that same contest and the results will come out this summer 2025. I wrote a corrido in Spanish for my father titled El Corrido de Don Gollito and it was one of the winners at the Tucson Meet Yourself in 2010. I recall how nervous I was going up to the microphone to read all by myself while others had groups with musical instruments to perform their beautiful ballads. I was one of several winners but I was able to capture my father’s essence in the poem which is also included in my first book. My books are somewhat different from other books in that they include prompts for anyone who is interested in writing and nudges them to start writing their own stories. I write my story or poem and then include a writing prompt so it’s a kind of “my turn and then it’s your turn” type of writing. It also includes Challenge Words to gently push the reader/writer to include those words in their stories or poems. It is a sort of interactive book that will encourage the reader to begin writing. As for my children, all four graduated from college and all were full time employees while attending classes. My son lectures at the same university I graduated from and he is also interested in writing a book some day.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
Growing up, I attended a school with a large population of Hispanics. We were not allowed to speak Spanish in class or on the school grounds. We lived across the tracks which divided us from the homes of the Anglo population who lived in pretty brick homes with lush green yards. Our homes were not as sturdy and there were no sidewalks on our side of town. There weren’t even any fire hydrants! I wrote a poem titled Doorbells that refers to growing up in homes that had no doorbells on our side of town. As my mother drove us to the grocery store in the evenings, those doorbells were fascinating to me because I longed to not only ring one but also have one at home which was an impossibility at the time. The difference in the way we grew up was stark as our parents worked hard and struggled to feed a large family. I was number seven. My father spoke English since he was born in Texas and attended an American elementary school before returning to Mexico and being raised there. He spoke without an accent. My mother was born and raised in Mexico and never learned English when she came to Texas because she was too busy raising us. Even though they offered English classes at our school, she never had even an hour to leave the house and do that much for herself. She couldn’t attend our teacher conferences because she didn’t understand what the teachers were saying. When she needed to communicate with a teacher, we wrote a note in English in our childish handwriting with what she wanted to say and she signed the note. I wondered if this made her feel inadequate always having to depend on us. If we were absent from school after being sick, we wrote the excuses and she signed them, as we returned to class. Before we went into public school, she was always involved in our education at the Catholic School since the nuns all spoke Spanish. She was a strong ally with the nuns but that ended when we moved to the public schools because the Catholic school closed. And her constant communication ended there. The langugage barrier was too much for her. After high school, I tried hard to lose my accent and refrained from speaking Spanish during my college years. When I married and had children, I felt like I was losing my identity and even made the conscious decision not to teach Spanish to my own children worried they might develop an accent and not “fit in” with the American culture. I realize now that was a mistake on my part. I shut doors for them through this error since Spanish was my first language and could have easily taught it to them. Now at my age, I realize the importance of our language, culture, heritage, and traditions. I want my children to embrace who they are and continue with traditions and not forget who they are. At a young age, my kids and I made and rolled out flour tortillas together. We made tamales and sat around chatting with each other. I made capirotada and spicy salsas in our molcajete and bunuelos on Christmas Eve. We even attended Midnight Mass, or Misa de Gallo, on Christmas Eve at times. For these reasons, I incorporated Spanish into both books that I published without explaining what each word means. I would prefer for the reader to use context clues to identify what the word means. One of my favorite authors is Thrity Umbrigar, an Indian author who uses words that I don’t understand but I do my best to define each word because I enjoy her books so much. The books I have published share some stories and poems of growing up in my Hispanic environment. I would like to someday see my books being used in a classroom lesson, my stories and poems read in class, and the writing prompts assisting them in telling their own stories. As an educator, I enjoyed using the curriculum stories read in the classroom written by people of color such as Gary Soto and Sandra Cisneros. Retired teacher friends, including my former principal, have mentioned to me that they would have used my books in their classrooms so that gives me motivation to continue writing.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an author is the authenticity of writing. No one else knows my story or can tell my story. When I first started writing, especially in my writers’ groups, I was always in awe of someone else’s stories and poems. I still am especially since I still share time and space with some of these writers. But I also know my stories are original. No two stories from two different people are ever alike since it’s written from one’s experience and perspective. For example, thousands of people have gone through divorce but no one else experienced it in the way I did because it was personal to me alone. In our writing group, we assign three writing prompts for our monthly gathering. We each choose the best prompt to write about. It’s fun to see what will emerge from the prompt and I have used many of these stories and poems in my two books. Members take turns coming up with prompts and I recall one member using One Word Prompts which meant we had to create a story by using one of the three words, for example, table, floor, family. The members in my writers’ group have no problem coming up with a complete story by using one word to trigger something creative. This is what makes writing exciting for me. My books will never become big sellers or be on the New York Best Seller list but I have achieved a goal I have been striving for. It took decades to get to this point and I hope my stories are relatable to my readers, whether the audience is a person of color or not. Maybe the reader is someone interested in my culture and traditions or is feeling nostalgic when they read certain pieces I’ve included in my book, including Kool-Aid and another is titled Fizzies. I hope that the universal themes in my books can make a connection with the reader and coerce them to begin writing their own stories or poems. And maybe even publish their first book.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.flowergamez.com
- Instagram: @flowerrgamezzz
- Facebook: Florascreativewritingpage
