Her Mexican grandfather edited a newspaper in Hermosillo, Mexico, and was a published poet. Her maternal grandmother, a Yaqui Indian curandera/healer (as was her mother) from Sonora, raised her in the Mission District of San Francisco.
She taught at University of California Santa Cruz, Cabrillo College, Naropa Institute, Mesa College, University of California San Diego, Stanford University, Pacific University.She teaches at Antioch University Los Angeles in the MFA in Creative Writing Program, for the past ten years.She lives in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.