Meet the author ...

Ines Villafane-Leon

    Inés Villafañe-León was born in Santiago, but she spent her growing years in the port of Coquimbo in northern Chile surrounded by the Pacific waters, sea food and the festive mood of its town’s “porteños” who celebrated holidays by dancing, reading poems and enjoying the excellent wine produced by Chilean top vineyards.

     In time for college, she received a master’s degree as an English teacher at the University of Chile and later on she would get a master’s in Education at the University of northern California in Berkeley.

     Her life was like one in a spinning wheel; marrying young, having five children, she had to move her home many times due to earthquakes in Chile. However, she turned every opportunity to improve her natural linguistic skills by self-studying, to handle five languages. Lost of homes made her a survivor. Back to Santiago, she won a Fulbright Scholarship to visit USA; she could see the many opportunities for the best available jobs here and she moved her family to California. Her heart, always in teaching - she spent summers teaching foreign languages in Spain, Italy and France, bringing her children with her.

     Inés’ experience opened many doors in the fields of education and translation as she became one for UNESCO in Europe. At home in California, she created the first “Newcomer Center” 1992,offering immigrant children, an accelerated language-learning program for which she received a J.Russell Kent Award - Best MultiCultural Program, San Mateo County, California model adopted later by Institutos de Bachillerato in Spain and Gymnasiums in Germany.

     However, there was still another dream to realize: Inés wanted to write.

     She retired earlier as a teacher and wrote her first acclaimed autobiographical “Viento del Sur” (Wind from the South ), followed by a bilingual collection of 40 short universal stories, “A Story for All Seasons-Un cuento para cada estación.” Recently, she presented her latest book, ¡Ahí viene el Felnando! Conversaciones testimoniales del alma apasionada de Fernando Alegría! a very personal account of a Chilean outstanding master of letters and his relationship with great figures of his time such as Gabriela Mistral, Salvador Allende, Pablo Neruda, Orlando Letelier and sentimental memories of his own family.

     Inés lives in northen California, she has five children, ten grandchildren and three great grandchildren.