• Leave a Comment
• Send an Email
• Invite as Friend

Words and books have been a very important part of my life from very early on. I was born in Camaguey, Cuba, in a family where conversation was a constant practice.My maternal grandfather, Medardo Lafuente, was a poet, a professor, a speaker, and a journalist. My maternal grandmother, Dolores Salvador, an educator and extraordinary storyteller. My paternal grandfather, Modesto Ada Barral, the owner of a radio station and a newspaper. So my childhood was blessed with poetry and stories. My grandmother taought me to read as a very young child and books became the best friends.
I never dreamed I would be an author, though, and as most things in my life it developed organically. As a young high school teacher in Peru I was unhappy with the educational materials available, so I began writing my own lessons and they eventually got published. My daughter Rosalma Zubizarreta, constant inspiration in my life, complained my books were too ugly --indeed high school books would look ugly to a 4 year old. So I felt the need to create books for her... not believing I could write anything origibal I began by retelling old folktales and collecting the poems I had enjoyed as a child. It was only after having published many of these anthologies that one day I surprised myself by writing an original story, which then was followed by many more, until one day an original poem also appeared.... I have not stop writing ever since...
My primary occupation has been that of an educator, and I have taught at several universities. Striving to become a teacher has been the constant advocation of my life, which has taken the form of social activism in many instances. in particular to defend the rights of every child to be educated in their home language and of all children to have access to the best
possible education.
I have written extensively about my life as an author in the two volumes of Alma Flor Ada and You, in the series The Author and You from Libraries Unlimited and have recently published my Memoirs Vivir en dos idiomas. In two previous autobriographical books Under the Royal Palms and Where the Flametrees Bloom I have shared stories about my childhood.
Please, feel free to contact me.
All best wishes to everyone who visits this site.
Alma Flor

Words and books have been a very important part of my life from very early on. I was born in Camaguey, Cuba, in a family where conversation was a constant practice.My maternal grandfather, Medardo Lafuente, was a poet, a professor, a speaker, and a journalist. My maternal grandmother, Dolores Salvador, an educator and extraordinary storyteller. My paternal grandfather, Modesto Ada Barral, the own... More