The Macondo Foundation

The Macondo Foundation works with dedicated and compassionate writers who view their work and talents as part of a larger task of community-building and non-violent social change. Macondo is a community of poets, novelists, journalists, performance artists, and creative writers of all genres whose work is socially-engaged. What unites us is a commitment to serve our under-served communities through our writing.

Officially incorporated in 2006, the Macondo Foundation has its roots in the Macondo Writing Workshop (named after the sleepy town in Gabriel García Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude), which began in 1995 in the kitchen of poet and writer Sandra Cisneros. The Workshop rapidly grew from 15 to more than 120 participants in less than nine years. During that time, the Macondo Workshop expanded its community involvement through annual events with the Our Lady of the Lake University, UT-San Antonio, Trinity University, Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, Jump-Start Performance Theatre, Casa de Maria y Marta and the Bexar County Juvenile Detention Center. Macondo currently makes its home at Our Lady of the Lake University.

Monetary contributions are accepted from those with better means to assist workshop participants who cannot fund their own airfare and lodging. In addition, workshop members are expected to review each other's work with rigor and vision. Time is viewed as a gift equal to that of money, so time given is as valuable as cash!

In addition to the annual Workshop, recent Macondo Foundation undertakings include the Gloria Anzaldua Milagro Award, meant to care for our community’s writers in a time of needed healing; health insurance coverage to our member writers; the Elvira Cordero Cisneros Award, and the Casa Azul Residency Program.

Macondo enjoys the ongoing support and participation of many internationally recognized writers, including Denise Chavez, John Phillip Santos, Luis Rodriguez, Dorothy Allison, Joy Harjo, Carmen Tafolla, and a large body of emerging writers who are publishing books, touring in the U.S. and abroad, and working in their communities.

For details, visit www.macondofoundation.org.