Oscar Mancinas

Educator, Poet & Author

Oscar Mancinas is a Rarámuri-Chicano educator, poet, author, scholar, and organizer. He was born and raised in Mesa’s Washington-Escobedo neighborhood—where his family has resided since the 1950s. Oscar’s books, To Live and Die in El Valle and Des_____: Papeles, Palabras, & Poems from the Desert, have gained recognition from the Border Regional Library Association Southwest Book Awards, as well as the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards and the Mesa Book Festival. He recently completed his doctorate in Transborder Studies at Arizona State University; he teaches creative writing and literary studies at Northern Arizona University.