Irma Pineda

Irma Pineda is among the most prominent Indigenous-language poets of the Americas, as well as a leading activist on human rights issues. She is the author of ten bilingual Didxazá-Spanish books of poetry, three books of poetry in Spanish, and three trilingual books in Wendy Call’s English translation. Her poems are widely anthologized and have also been translated into Estonian, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Serbian. She writes a biweekly newsmagazine column for the national Mexican newspaper La Jornada and was the first woman to serve as president of Mexico’s National Organization of Writers in Indigenous Languages (ELIAC). She is currently a legislator in the Oaxacan State Congress and from 2020 through 2022 served as one of two representatives of Latin America’s Indigenous peoples at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. A long-time professor at the National Teachers University in Ixtepec, Oaxaca, Pineda is also a member of Mexico’s National Academy for Artists and Creators (SNCA). She lives in her hometown of Juchitán, Oaxaca.