Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez
Encyclopedia
Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez is an American writer known for her novels in the Chick Lit
genre.
. Her father, Nelson Valdés, is a retired sociology
professor at the University of New Mexico
, and emigrated from Cuba
in the early 1960s. Her mother, Maxine Conant, is a seventh-generation New Mexican of Irish descent, and a poet and novelist.
Valdes spent her childhood primarily in New Mexico, but also lived briefly in Glasgow
, Scotland
and New Orleans. Upon her graduation from Del Norte High School in Albuquerque she attended Berklee College of Music
in Boston where she majored in jazz performance on the tenor saxophone.
. After graduating from Berklee in 1992, she took an unpaid internship at the Village Voice, before going back to school to earn a master's degree from Columbia University
's Graduate School of Journalism in 1994.
Valdes-Rodriguez joined the staff of The Boston Globe in 1994, where she wrote for the Living/Arts section. Her essay for The Boston Globe Magazine, "Daughter of Cuba," won first place in the 1998 SUNMAG essay contest. In 1999, Valdes-Rodriguez left Boston for a position as staff writer in the Calendar section of the Los Angeles Times
. Her articles have appeared in dozens of newspapers, and she has written cover stories for Glamour Magazine
and Redbook
.
In 2001, Valdes-Rodriguez emailed a 3400-word resignation letter to her superiors at the Los Angeles Times. The letter was widely circulated on the Internet and reprinted in the St. Petersburg Times
. In the letter she accused the newspaper of racism
and discrimination
, especially in its synonymous use of the word "latino
" with "Spanish-speaker", a practice she equated to genocide
.
?", Chicago Tribune
reporter Patrick T. Reardon wrote: "What made [the book] especially hot was the belief among publishers that Valdes-Rodriguez could be the long-sought 'Latina Terry McMillan' -- a writer whose work would jump-start Hispanic book buying in the U.S. and create a new profitable publishing niche..." The Dirty Girls Social Club garnered media attention and went on to become a New York Times bestseller and a Booksense 76 top pick.
Valdes-Rodriguez has since written six novels: Playing With Boys in 2004; Make Him Look Good in 2006; a Young Adult novel, Haters
, in 2006; Dirty Girls on Top, a sequel to The Dirty Girls Social Club, in 2008, The Husband Habit in 2009, and The Three Kings in 2010.
In 2005, Time dubbed Valdes-Rodriguez "The Godmother of Chica Lit" and named her one of the 25 most influential Hispanics in the United States
. Hispanic Business Magazine has twice named her among the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in America. In 2006, the Hispanic Congressional Caucus awarded Valdes-Rodriguez with a Latina Leadership award, and she participated in the National Book Festival
at the Library of Congress
. She also received the Theatre of Hearts "Youth First" award in Los Angeles in 2004.
with Jennifer Lopez
and Laura Ziskin
as producers, but the option expired without going into production. The Lifetime Television
network then began to develop the book as a television series, but the project did not progress beyond development. Valdes-Rodriguez then partnered with Nely Galán
's Cienfuegos Films company, to make an independent film based upon the novel, with Valdes-Rodriguez, Galan and Debra Martin Chase
as executive producers and Valdes-Rodriguez as creator and screenwriter, but the deal never came to pass.
Ann Lopez, ex-wife of comedian George Lopez
, optioned The Dirty Girls Social Club in 2009. NBC
was developing the novel with Lopez and her company Encanto Productions for the 2011-2012 television season. In December 2010, Valdes-Rodriguez publicly accused Ann Lopez and screenplay writer Luisa Leschin of racism and homophobia after reading a draft of their proposed pilot script. She later retracted some of her statements about Lopez and Leschin, while maintaining her displeasure with the script. NBC ultimately did not order a pilot of The Dirty Girls Social Club.
Chick lit
Chick lit is genre fiction which addresses issues of modern womanhood, often humorously and lightheartedly. The genre sold well during the 1990s and 2000s, with chick lit titles topping bestseller lists and the creation of imprints devoted entirely to chick lit...
genre.
Early life
Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez was born in Albuquerque, New MexicoNew Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
. Her father, Nelson Valdés, is a retired sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
professor at the University of New Mexico
University of New Mexico
The University of New Mexico at Albuquerque is a public research university located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States. It is the state's flagship research institution...
, and emigrated from Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
in the early 1960s. Her mother, Maxine Conant, is a seventh-generation New Mexican of Irish descent, and a poet and novelist.
Valdes spent her childhood primarily in New Mexico, but also lived briefly in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and New Orleans. Upon her graduation from Del Norte High School in Albuquerque she attended Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...
in Boston where she majored in jazz performance on the tenor saxophone.
Journalism career
While a student at Berklee, Valdes-Rodriguez began writing freelance music reviews for The Boston GlobeThe Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
. After graduating from Berklee in 1992, she took an unpaid internship at the Village Voice, before going back to school to earn a master's degree from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
's Graduate School of Journalism in 1994.
Valdes-Rodriguez joined the staff of The Boston Globe in 1994, where she wrote for the Living/Arts section. Her essay for The Boston Globe Magazine, "Daughter of Cuba," won first place in the 1998 SUNMAG essay contest. In 1999, Valdes-Rodriguez left Boston for a position as staff writer in the Calendar section of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
. Her articles have appeared in dozens of newspapers, and she has written cover stories for Glamour Magazine
Glamour magazine
Glamour magazine means:* Glamour magazine, a U.S. publication aimed at a predominantly female readership* a girlie magazine aimed at a male readership featuring photographs of women...
and Redbook
Redbook
Redbook is an American women's magazine published by the Hearst Corporation. It is one of the "Seven Sisters", a group of women's service magazines.-History:...
.
In 2001, Valdes-Rodriguez emailed a 3400-word resignation letter to her superiors at the Los Angeles Times. The letter was widely circulated on the Internet and reprinted in the St. Petersburg Times
St. Petersburg Times
The St. Petersburg Times is a United States newspaper. It is one of two major publications serving the Tampa Bay Area, the other being The Tampa Tribune, which the Times tops in both circulation and readership. Based in St...
. In the letter she accused the newspaper of racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
and discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
, especially in its synonymous use of the word "latino
Latino
The demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American descent."* "A Latin American."* "A person of Hispanic, especially Latin-American, descent, often one living in the United States."...
" with "Spanish-speaker", a practice she equated to genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
.
Literary career
Her first novel, The Dirty Girls Social Club, was purchased by St. Martin's Press a little more than a year after she left the Los Angeles Times. She was paid an advance of $475,000 after five publishing houses bid for the manuscript. In a profile of the writer, entitled "The Latina Terry McMillanTerry McMillan
Terry McMillan is an American author. Her interest in books comes from working at a library when she was sixteen. She received her BA in journalism in 1986 at University of California, Berkeley. Her work is characterized by strong female protagonists.Her first book, Mama, was published in 1987...
?", Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
reporter Patrick T. Reardon wrote: "What made [the book] especially hot was the belief among publishers that Valdes-Rodriguez could be the long-sought 'Latina Terry McMillan' -- a writer whose work would jump-start Hispanic book buying in the U.S. and create a new profitable publishing niche..." The Dirty Girls Social Club garnered media attention and went on to become a New York Times bestseller and a Booksense 76 top pick.
Valdes-Rodriguez has since written six novels: Playing With Boys in 2004; Make Him Look Good in 2006; a Young Adult novel, Haters
Haters (novel)
Haters is a 2006 young adult novel by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, who was named one of the 25 most influential Hispanics in the US by Time magazine in 2005...
, in 2006; Dirty Girls on Top, a sequel to The Dirty Girls Social Club, in 2008, The Husband Habit in 2009, and The Three Kings in 2010.
In 2005, Time dubbed Valdes-Rodriguez "The Godmother of Chica Lit" and named her one of the 25 most influential Hispanics in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Hispanic Business Magazine has twice named her among the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in America. In 2006, the Hispanic Congressional Caucus awarded Valdes-Rodriguez with a Latina Leadership award, and she participated in the National Book Festival
National Book Festival
The National Book Festival is an American event organized by the Library of Congress annually in Washington, D.C. Held in early autumn, the festival attracts tens of thousands of people each year . Over fifty nationally published authors, illustrators, and poets are invited for lectures,...
at the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
. She also received the Theatre of Hearts "Youth First" award in Los Angeles in 2004.
Film career
Before its publication in 2003, the film rights to The Dirty Girls Social Club were optioned by Columbia PicturesColumbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
with Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lynn Lopez is an American actress, singer, record producer, dancer, television personality, and fashion designer. Lopez began her career as a dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color. Subsequently venturing into acting, she gained recognition in the 1995 action-thriller...
and Laura Ziskin
Laura Ziskin
Laura Ellen Ziskin was an American film producer. In 1990, Ziskin was the sole executive producer of the hit comedy Pretty Woman...
as producers, but the option expired without going into production. The Lifetime Television
Lifetime Television
Lifetime Television, often referred to as Lifetime TV, or most commonly, Lifetime, is an American cable television specialty channel devoted to movies, sitcoms and dramas, all of which are either geared toward women or feature women in lead roles. The cable network is owned by A&E Television Networks...
network then began to develop the book as a television series, but the project did not progress beyond development. Valdes-Rodriguez then partnered with Nely Galán
Nely Galán
Nely Galán is an independent producer and a former President of Entertainment for Telemundo. She created and executively produced the FOX reality series The Swan....
's Cienfuegos Films company, to make an independent film based upon the novel, with Valdes-Rodriguez, Galan and Debra Martin Chase
Debra Martin Chase
Debra Martin Chase is a Hollywood producer and former lawyer who was named by Savoy magazine in August 2003 as one of the 100 most influential African Americans in the United States and by Black Enterprise magazine in 2007 as one of the Top 50 Powerbrokers in Hollywood. Chase is the first African...
as executive producers and Valdes-Rodriguez as creator and screenwriter, but the deal never came to pass.
Ann Lopez, ex-wife of comedian George Lopez
George Lopez
George Lopez is an American comedian, actor, and talk show host. He is mostly known for starring in his self-produced ABC sitcom George Lopez. His stand-up comedy examines race and ethnic relations, including the Mexican American culture...
, optioned The Dirty Girls Social Club in 2009. NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
was developing the novel with Lopez and her company Encanto Productions for the 2011-2012 television season. In December 2010, Valdes-Rodriguez publicly accused Ann Lopez and screenplay writer Luisa Leschin of racism and homophobia after reading a draft of their proposed pilot script. She later retracted some of her statements about Lopez and Leschin, while maintaining her displeasure with the script. NBC ultimately did not order a pilot of The Dirty Girls Social Club.