PhD candidate draws on Arizona upbringing to tell Latinx and Indigenous stories

On an early Sunday morning, Oscar Mancinas sits at his desk working on his next book. For him, writing is a process that can take place over the course of a week, month or even several years.

Born and raised in Mesa, Arizona, Mancinas is a Mexican, Rarámuri writer, teacher and PhD candidate at ASU. His passion for writing began with a love for reading, which was supported and encouraged by his community, family and teachers.

Mancinas is pursuing a PhD in transborder studies at The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ School of Transborder Studies and aims to integrate his writing with his studies.

“I write to question and to understand the world around me — as well as the world before me,” Mancinas said. “Transborder studies offers helpful frameworks for how I can think of my writing, whether in fiction, poetry or scholarship, as connected to larger interrogations into how our society operates.”

Currently, he is the author of three books with a fourth in the works. The three books, “Roto: A Mex-Tape,” a micro-chapbook of poems, “Jaula,” also a chapbook of poems and “To Live and Die in El Valle,” a collection of short fiction, draw inspiration from Mancinas’ experience growing up in Arizona.

Mancinas aims to tell stories about Arizona that often go untold. He hopes his work will resonate with others, especially, Latinx and Indigenous readers.

“I hope, if nothing else, working-class, Latinx, and Indigenous readers take away that we don’t need to reduce ourselves for the acceptance and respectability of those most responsible for our marginalization,” Mancinas said. “We don’t need to be heroic nor pure of heart to be respected, acknowledged, celebrated or worthy of expression.”

Mancinas’ most recent book, “To Live and Die in El Valle,” received the Southwest Book Award from the Border Regional Library Association, a nonprofit organization that promotes library service and librarianship in the transborder metroplex of El Paso-Juárez. 

While in graduate school at ASU, Mancinas says he has been fortunate enough to work with Latinx and Indigenous scholars, including faculty members, graduate and undergraduate students. He plans to write his dissertation on Arizona’s twentieth century Indigenous and Latinx literary authors, works and communities. 

“As is the case with other parts of U.S. history, the history of Arizona in the twentieth century is relayed through mostly dominant political or social figures and movements, at the expense of everyone else’s histories,” Mancinas said. “Arizona’s Latinx and Indigenous intellectual, artistic, and social expressions haven’t necessarily been an area of focus, so I hope to highlight the work that’s been done and to build upon it.”

In the future, Mancinas plans to finish his PhD, write and share that writing with others. His fourth book, a full-length collection of poetry, will be published later this year. 

“Stay tuned,” Mancinas said.