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Gary Soto has written over twenty books of poetry and prose for adults and over thirty books for younger readers. He mainly focuses on the daily trials and tribulations of Spanish-speaking Americans but, through crisp, clear imagery and his true-to-life characters, Soto connects with readers of all ages and backgrounds. As a result, Soto is considered to be one of the most important contemporary authors in the United States.

Life in the barrio

Gary Soto was born on April 12, 1952, the second child of Manuel and Angie Soto. The family lived in Fresno, California, and like many Mexican Americans, Soto's parents and grandparents worked as labourers in the surrounding San Joaquin Valley, the agricultural centre of the state. Typical jobs included picking oranges, cotton, and grapes for very little pay, or working in the often dangerous packing houses of local businesses, such as the Sunmaid Raisin Company. When Soto was just five years old, his father was killed in an accident while working at Sunmaid. Manuel Soto's death had a devastating effect on his family, both emotionally and economically. Gary was hit particularly hard and spent years brooding over the accident. And Angie Soto was left with three small children to raise.

Following Manuel Soto's death, the family moved to a rough neighbourhood in an industrial area of Fresno. To make ends meet, Angie Soto and the children's grandparents took what jobs they could find. As Gary and his siblings grew older they, too, worked in the fields and factories of Fresno. Regardless, the family struggled. Working left little time for school, and when Soto did go, he made very poor marks. Soto received little encouragement from home to do better. As he explained in interviews, education was simply not part of their culture—the culture of poverty. "Our shelves were not lined with books," Soto told Quill editors. He was, however, exploring the world of books on his own at the school library. Some of his favourites were by American authors such as Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) and John Steinbeck (1902–1968). Soto was especially inspired by one book in particular, To Sir with Love, a novel written by E. R. Braithwaite (1920–) about a teacher who devotes himself to students at a school in the East End working-class district of London, England. Reading that novel prompted Soto to enroll at Fresno City College after graduation. 

"Of poetry or prose, I prefer poetry as part of my soul. I think like a poet, and behave like a poet."

United Farm Workers of America

Gary Soto is the Young People Ambassador for the United Farm Workers of America (UFWA), which means that during his many visits to libraries and schools, he introduces kids to the legacy of the United Farm Workers organization. The UFWA is the largest organization of farm workers in the United States. 

The beginnings of the UFWA can be traced to the 1950s when the bracero program was in effect in the United States. Following World War II (1939–45), there was a shortage of field labourers in California and Texas where agriculture was a key industry. As a result, an agreement was made between Mexico and the United States, where U.S. growers were allowed to offer short-term work contracts to Mexicans. Eventually, growers became dependent on these seasonal labourers, who were willing to take on back-breaking work for little pay, work that most Americans were not willing to do. Because they were not citizens of the United States, because they usually spoke little English, and because they were not organised under a union, conditions for Mexican labourers were poor. Their temporary housing often lacked indoor plumbing, and children were often forced to work in the fields in order to help their family survive. By the mid-1960s, there were hundreds of thousands of labourers living and working in such substandard conditions.

In 1966, the National Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC) was founded by two leaders in the Mexican American community who had been fighting for labor rights for years, Cesar Chávez (1927–1993) and Dolores Huerta (1930–). Their first combined effort involved organising Chicano and Filipino workers in the California grape-picker strike of 1965–66. After a bitter battle between growers and workers, the UFWOC secured contracts with two of the largest grape growers in California; the contracts included among other things, a promise to ban the use of harmful pesticides, access to washing facilities, and rest periods. This was first successful bargaining agreement between farm labourers and growers in the United States.

Poet of the people

But, once again, a chance encounter in the library would change Soto's course. When he was nineteen and in his second year at Fresno College, the young student discovered a collection of contemporary poetry. As Soto remarked to Quill, "I thought that poetry had to be about mountains and streams and birds and stuff." But one poet, Edward Field (1924–), was a native of New York and his poems, which were about "trash and smog," hit a chord. After Field, Soto stumbled upon the works of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (1904–1973). "I was bitten." he commented in a "Between the Lines" interview, "I wanted to do this thing called writing poetry."

Soto transferred to California State University, Fresno, and in 1972 he took his very first poetry-writing class. From 1972 until 1973 he studied with noted Detroit, Michigan, poet Philip Levine (1928–), who was known for his poems about working-class people. Levine taught Soto not only how to take apart and analyse poems, but also about the nuts and bolts of writing his own poetry. In 1974, Soto graduated from Cal State with a bachelor's degree in English. The following year he began working on a master's degree in creative writing at the University of California, Irvine. That same year he married Carolyn Oda, the daughter of Japanese American farmers. The couple has one daughter, Mariko Heidi Soto. In 1977, with master's degree in hand, Soto began teaching Chicano studies at the University of California at Berkeley. He remained at the university until 1993, as an associate professor of both Chicano studies and English.

While still a student, Soto began publishing poems and winning prizes, and in 1977 he released his first book of poetry, called The Elements of San Joaquin. Most of the poems paint a bleak picture of Mexican American life in central California, and Soto received widespread praise for his vivid descriptions, which were sometimes disturbing, but always truthful. In 1978, Soto released his second collection, The Tale of Sunlight, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, one of the highest honours in the United States given each year for achievement in journalism or literature. He was one of the first Mexican Americans to be so honoured.

Soto the master storyteller

By 1985 Soto had produced four books of poetry and been published in numerous poetry magazines. That same year he branched out and published his first book of prose, called Living Up the Street: Narrative Recollections. And, just as in his poetry, Soto mined his childhood memories of life in Fresno to fuel his work. Living Up the Street, was followed by three other collections of autobiographical essays: Small Faces (1986), Lesser Evils: Ten Quartets (1988), and A Summer Life (1990). In 2001, several of these essays, along with some new material, were compiled in a single volume called The Effects of Knut Hamsun on a Fresno Boy.

In the 1990s he turned to writing stories aimed specifically at young readers. Soto claimed that he began writing for children because he wanted to "start Chicanos reading." He also wanted to remedy the fact that there were very few books available to young people that featured Mexican Americans. As Rudolfo Anaya remarked in World Literature Today, "Entire generations of Mexican American schoolchildren went through elementary school without ever having read a story about their culture and their communities." Soto set out to change all that in his first collection of stories for children, called Baseball in April, published in 1990.

Although Soto writes the stories in English, he sprinkles Spanish expressions and phrases throughout, a trend he continued in future works. Sometimes he even includes a glossary of Spanish terms to help his non-Spanish speaking readers. And, although the stories have a distinct Latino flavour, they appeal to all types of children. As Diane Roback of Publisher's Weekly commented, "The conflicts and feelings expressed are universal."

Famous children's author

Soto was always a very prolific writer, but after he left teaching in 1993, his pace picked up even more. By the mid-1990s, he was producing as many as three children's books per year. In addition, he dabbled in all types of writing for young readers of all ages. There are books of poetry, including A Fire in My Hands (1991), Canto Familiar (1995), and Fearless Fernie (2002); picture books for very young children, such as Too Many Tamales (1992), If the Shoe Fits (2002), and the Chato the Cat tales; as well as chapter books for kids in middle school, which include The Skirt (1992), The Pool Party (1993), and Boys at Work (1995). Soto also writes young adult novels aimed at older teens. 

Connects with readers

By the mid-2000s, Soto gave no indication that he was slowing down. He continued to publish books for both adults and children, and when not pursuing other interests such as reading, traveling, or gardening, he was at his desk writing for at least four to five hours per day. Soto also spent a good deal of time on the road, visiting schools and libraries in order to connect with fans of his books and would-be readers.

In 2004 plans were in the works to make Buried Onions into a movie, with an expected release date of late 2005.

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