Now, a Literary Moment...

Rudolfo Anaya: Becoming a writer is an evolutionary process

For author Rudolfo Anaya, that evolution began when he was growing up in Pastura, New Mexico. Anaya's father was a vaquero -- a cowboy. It was a hard way of life, without much of a future. Yet Anaya's memories of his father trading tales with other vaqueros inspires him still.

Rudolfo Anaya: "The ranchers that would come in and visit with my dad told fantastic stories, and I'd sit there and listen. We'd sit around the dinner table, or in the summers, we'd go out and make a little fire near the house and tell stories, and all of that. The whole idea of that oral tradition sparks the imagination."

Author Rudolfo Anaya … He drew from that oral tradition when he wrote his first novel, Bless Me, Ultima.

This Literary Moment was created by the National Endowment for the Arts.