s Hokin Prize and the National Endowment of the Arts. Soto has also produces a film for ITVS called "Pool Party," which received the 1993 Andrew Carnegie Medal. He has also written a libretto for an opera called Nerdlandia. Combined Soto's works have sold over a million copies. He has taught at the University of California Berkeley in the Department of English and Chicano Studies since 1977. He is also a distinguished professor of writing at University of California Riverside. Soto married Carolyn Oda a Japanese-American, in 1775; the two have one daughter Mariko. The family resides in Berkeley, California. (Official Gary Soto Website 1-2)
             Poet's Influential Time Period 1952-1974
             The majority of Soto's writing focuses on his childhood years growing up as a Catholic Mexican-American in California's San Joaquin Valley, yet in some of his works such as pieces included in "Home Course in Religion" he steps back and evaluates his adult life. Since his poetry is most autobiographical,
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