Araceli Esparza

Araceli Esparza is a published, award-winning bilingual Chicana poeta. Her work has appeared in multiple anthologies and journals, and her voice can be heard in the Wisconsin Life archives. She is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and a graduate of the MFA program at Hamline University.

Born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin, Araceli is the daughter of migrant farmworkers from Guanajuato, Mexico. A lineage that continues to ground her work in resilience, labor, and story.

Today, she is planting seeds as a social justice speaker, survivor, and founder of Midwest Mujeres, a Latina mentoring and storytelling collective where women transform their lived experiences into voice, healing, and power.

In her words: “To me, being a Chicana poeta means to catch fire—to bring forth something from labor and sweat, to have enough when there’s not a lot.”