Ángeles Mastretta is a Mexican

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 and journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

. She is well known for creating inspirational female characters and fictional pieces that reflect the social and political realities of Mexico in her life.

Background

Mastretta began writing as a journalist for a Mexican magazine, Siete and an afternoon newspaper

Newspaper

A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

, Ovaciones. She claims that her father — a journalist in her youth — inspired her to be a writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

.

In 1974, she received a scholarship

Scholarship

A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...

 from the Mexican Writers’ Center. She attended the center and was able to work on her writing abilities along with other authors such as Juan Rulfo

Juan Rulfo

Juan Rulfo was a Mexican author and photographer. One of Latin America's most esteemed authors, Rulfo's reputation rests on two slim books, the novel Pedro Páramo , and El Llano en llamas...

, Salvador Elizondo

Salvador Elizondo

Salvador Elizondo Alcalde was a Mexican writer of the 60s Generation of Mexican literature.Regarded as one of the creators of the most influential cult noirè, experimental, intelligent style literature in Latin America, he wrote as a novelist, poet, critic, playwright, and journalist...

, and Francisco Monterde

Francisco Monterde

Francisco de Asís Monterde García Icazbalceta was a prolific and multifaceted Mexican writer whose career spanned over fifty years...

. After a year of working at the Mexican Writers’ Center, a collection of Mastretta’s poetry

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...

 entitled La pájara pinta (The Colorful Bird) was published.

Mastretta really wanted to focus on a novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 that she had been thinking about for years. She finally got her chance to work on this novel when an editor offered to sponsor Mastretta on a six-month leave of absence

Leave of absence

Leave of absence is a term used to describe a period of time that one is to be away from his/her primary job, while maintaining the status of employee...

, allowing her to focus solely on writing. She took the offer and ended up embarking on a sabbatical

Sabbatical year

Sabbatical or a sabbatical is a rest from work, or a hiatus, often lasting from two months to a year. The concept of sabbatical has a source in shmita, described several places in the Bible...

 to complete Arráncame la vida (Tear This Heart Out). The novel (published in 1985) was an immediate success, and earned her the Mazatlán Prize for Literature for Best Book of the Year.

Arráncame la vida was a critical and popular success in Mexico and abroad. As a result, Mastretta was able to focus more on her fiction-writing passion. The novel based the film of the same name released in September 2008.

Mastretta won the Rómulo Gallegos Prize

Rómulo Gallegos Prize

The Rómulo Gallegos International Novel Prize was created on 6 August 1964 by a presidential decree enacted by Venezuelan President Raúl Leoni, in honor of the Venezuelan politician and President Rómulo Gallegos, the author of Doña Bárbara....

 for her 1996 novel, Mal de Amores (Lovesick).

When her infant daughter unexpectedly fell ill, Mastretta sat next to her child in the hospital and began to tell stories of interesting and different women in her family who were important to her in critical moments of her life. These stories of women who "decided their own destinies" became the inspiration for Mujeres de ojos grandes (Women with Big Eyes). The publication — autobiographical

Autobiography

An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...

 narrative

Narrative

A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...

s based on each of the women — was intended to preserve the stories for posterity.

Other works by Mastretta

• Puerto libre (Free port) (1993)
• Mal de Amores (Lovesick) (1996)
• El mundo iluminado (The Illuminated World) (1998)
• Ninguna eternidad como la mía (No Eternity Like Mine) (1999)
• Maridos (2007)
• Mujeres de Ojos Grandes (2009)