Hello. My name is Marlena Sauceda.

I am a cis-woman. My pronouns are she/her/hers. I was born on stolen Ohlone land in the place currently known as San Jose, CA, and throughout my childhood lived there, Durango, MX, Las Vegas, NV, and Lodi, CA (stolen Tepehuan, Paiute, and Miwok land, respectively), before moving to stolen Onk-Akimel O’odham land currently known as Phoenix, AZ, where I live now with my husband and our dog.

I am a white-presenting, second and fourth-generation Mexican-American. My mother’s family migrated to California from rural Durango, MX. My father’s family migrated from the Rio Grande Valley, and Guadalajara, MX, before that. My ancestors were pottery makers, miners, braceros, seamstresses, migrant farm workers, handymen, and homemakers.

I am a writer; a classically-trained journalist, a notebook poet, and a budding novelist and screenplay writer. I am currently working on my debut novel and my first feature script. I have had my journalistic work published in several publications, which you can find elsewhere on this site.

In the past, I was an aspiring journalist and media critic. I graduated from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, where I participated in the Borderlands Initiative. I also earned a certificate in Entertainment and Technology through the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ Film and Media Studies program. These programs of study equipped me with knowledge of the history, management, and influence on society of the entire media industry, and skills in mass communication strategies, digital marketing, multimedia content creation, copywriting, and copyediting.