Georgina Lázaro

Georgina Lázaro won’t forget how her writing career began. “During my first pregnancy I wrote a lullaby for my baby. That was the beginning,” she said. Lazaro has been trying to make her children enthusiastic readers like she was as a child.

“Many people in my life stimulated my love for stories, poetry, and books. My grandmother and one of my aunts told me lots of family folk stories. My mother read me children’s classics. My godmother took me to get my first library card as soon as I learned to read. My grandfather gave me poetry books for children. I think it was just the natural thing for me to want to give my children that passion for words, and then to become a writer trying.”

Lazaro began writing stories for her children--their own stories. She tried to make them good readers, and as a result they transformed her into a writer. “I like to write about children, their experiences, and their environment.”

Lazaro’s goal is to make it easier and more enjoyable for Latino kids to learn to read in Spanish, and for the teachers to be able to know how to help them. At the same time, she wants kids to relate to Latino poetry, culture, landscape, and flora and fauna.
“Most of all, I want to bring fun, music, and rhythm into their classrooms. [I want] to make children fond of reading while learning to read.”

Presently, Lazaro is writing the fifth book of a new series for Lectorum Publications entitled, Cuando Los Grandes Eran Pequeños (When The Great Ones Were Small). These books tell the childhoods of known Latin American writers. JULIA (Julia de Burgos-Puerto Rico) is already published. The illustrators are working on JUANA INÉS (Juana Inés de la Cruz-México), PABLO (Neruda-Chile), and JOSÉ (Martí-Cuba). Lazaro is presently working on Jorge Luis Borges.

Lazaro and her husband of 30 years live in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Her youngest child is 19 and studies in Spain. She also has a two-year-old grandson. Another will be born next February. Between writing every day, she goes to schools, libraries, museums and bookshops to read her books and talk to children about the fun of reading. She’s also a volunteer for Museo de Arte de Ponce in a special program, Cuéntame un cuento (Tell Me A Story), where some of her books relate to works of art. She also gives lectures to parents, college students, professors, and librarians about ways to make children fond of reading.