Araceli Ardón

Biography

Araceli Ardon was born in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, in 1958, during a local holiday: on January 21, when the birthday of don Ignacio Allende is celebrated. He was a hero of the Independence, in whose honor this colonial city in Central Mexico was renamed. Araceli has lived most of her life in Santiago de Querétaro. She studied Communications at the Monterrey Institute of Technology, Querétaro Campus. There, she later taught Latin-American Literature, Spanish and Spanish as a Second Language, to High School and College students, from 1980 to 1999. She lived for two years (1984–1985) in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, where she attended Latin-American Literature courses with some of the best writers in the Spanish language. Araceli Ardon published the cultural magazine "Ventana de Querétaro" (1986–1989). Since 1986 she has taught courses to many US college students in Mexico. In 1988 she was invited to be a Spanish Instructor at the University of Oregon. Araceli was Director of the Querétaro Museum of Art, located in the Old Augustinian Convent in Querétaro, from 1999 to 2006. During those years, she was responsible for 200 temporary art shows and organized hundreds of events. In 2007 she was invited to the Modern Languages Department at Westmont College, in Santa Barbara, California, United States, as a Visiting Scholar and Artist in Residence. Since 2009, she is the director of the DRT Foundation in Querétaro.

Memberships

Awards

Published works

Araceli Ardón has published countless journalistic articles and interviews in newspapers and magazines. In 1998, her first novel, Historias íntimas de la casa de Don Eulogio, was published. It tells of the life and afterlife of Don Eulogio, poet and professor, who returns home several years after his death. The book chronicles the effect this event has on his descendants, in the midst of the twentieth century's changes in traditions and values in this provincial city of splendid mansions and convents that still guard unexpected secrets. Don Eulogio was presented at the International Book Fair (FIL) in Guadalajara in 1999. The Virtual University of the Monterrey Institute of Technology produced a special program about this book, that was transmitted by satellite television to all Latin-America. In 2001 she wrote the biography Semblanza of Querétaro's Philanthropist Roberto Ruiz Obregón. In 2002, the Electoral Institute of Querétaro published her children's book La pandilla de Miguel, in which the democratic values are highlighted, and in 2006 appeared her short stories El arzobispo del gorro azul, a series of tales about life in the Mexican Bajío during the Twentieth Century. One of these short stories, No es nada mío, was translated to be included in the compilation "Mexico: a Traveler's Literary Companion", edited by Catherine Mayo and published by Whereabouts Press, in California. This volume includes short stories by some of the best Mexican contemporary writers. Her short story, called in English It is Nothing of Mine received very good reviews by the media. The National Public Radio included it, in both languages, in its web page. Araceli Ardon has also edited some volumes about the history and art of her city. As an example, there is her work as compiler of the book Romance de Piedra y Canto (1998), about the history of Querétaro's drinking water and its famed aqueduct. She has also written texts and introductions to art catalogues. On March 8, 2008, within the VII Congreso Internacional de Literatura Hispánica in Cuzco, Perú a paper about Ardón's work was presented: Araceli Ardón: A New Voice from Mexico's Heartland by Mary Docter, from Westmont College, and Dinora Cardoso, from Pepperdine University.