Michele Marie Serros (born February 10, 1966) is an American author, poet and comedic social commentator. Hailed as “a Woman to Watch for in the New Century” by Newsweek, Serros has written several books and regularly contributes original commentaries to National Public Radio.
Born in Oxnard, California Serros is the second daughter to George R. Serros, a municipal court interpreter and Beatrice Ruiz Serros, a drafts person (deceased 1991). She has one sister, Yvonne, six years her senior. Growing up in the prominently Hispanic community of El Rio, a rural, unincorporated district outside of the Oxnard city limits, Serros was a latchkey child due to the extraneous work schedule endured by both parents. She spent her free time watching TV game shows, digging holes in the backyard, and skateboarding.
When Serros was 11 years old, her parents separated. Feeling overwhelmed with fear and confusion she wrote to the only person she felt would understand, young-adult author Judy Blume. Blume wrote back suggesting that she keep a diary as an outlet for her emotions, thus inspiring a foundation for Serros’ writing career.
Unlike the assertion made by many authors about their own time as a youth, Serros feels she wasn’t a "nerdy, withdrawn teen" that ate lunch alone in the school yard. As a student at Rio Mesa High School, Serros had many friends and love interests who often ditched 5th period class to continue socializing. However, such social enthusiasm eventually led to her academic downfall and by the end of her sophomore year at Rio Mesa High School, her mother transferred her to Santa Clara High School, a private Catholic high school in Oxnard. Upon her 1984 graduation, Serros attended Ventura College for two years before transferring to Santa Monica City College. After an additional six years of sporadic study, she graduated cum laude from UCLA with a degree in Chicano Studies in 1996. One week later she married musician Eugene Trautmann, a member of seminal rock bands Queens of the Stone Age and Eagles of Death Metal, and whom she had met 11 years earlier backstage at the Leave Your Mind at Home music festival in Antwerp, Belgium. Upon their separation two years later, Serros moved to the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. As of 2002, she lives in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood and Ventura, California.
In an interview with the Ventura County Star, Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, stated he picked up a copy of How to be a Chicana Role Model as reading material for a trip and “By the time I got to the end of the book, I was crying like a hypersensitive wimp. I love crying like a hypersensitive wimp, so I looked (her up) on the Internet. We ended up becoming friends. I love California and Michele’s writing is uniquely Californian-like Raymond Chandler or John Fante”. In addition, alternative rock band, Rage Against the Machine, features a photograph of Serros’ first book of poetry, Chicana Falsa, on the fold-out sleeve of their 1996 Grammy Award winning album, Evil Empire.
While a student at Santa Monica City College, Serros’s first book of poetry and short stories, Chicana Falsa and other stories of Death, Identity and Oxnard, was published in 1994. After Lalo Press, the original publisher ceased business, she continued to sell copies from her garage while maintaining a devoted following of fans as well as a place in academia where Chicana Falsa became required reading in many high schools and universities in Southern California.
With the success of Chicana Falsa, Serros was selected in 1994 as one of twelve poets to travel nationally with the touring music festival, Lollapalooza. In addition to reading her poetry in the festival’s second stage arena, she inspired Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins to accompany her on bass guitar as she read, ‘Mr. Boom Boom Man,’ from Chicana Falsa (.
In 1997, after learning of an extensive Life and Styles feature of Serros in The Los Angeles Times, Julie Grau (then an editor at Riverhead Books) phoned Serros to inquire about the rights to Chicana Falsa. The following year, Riverhead Books (Penguin/Putnam) reissued Chicana Falsa as well as published a book of short stories, Los Angeles Times Best Seller, How to be a Chicana Role Model in 2000.
In early 2001, Serros’ work caught the attention of Ann Lopez, wife of comedian George Lopez . Following an interview with George Lopez and Warner Brother Studios producers, Serros, who had yet to write a script or screenplay, was hired in 2002 to write for the ABC television sitcom, The George Lopez Show. She has stated, "An opportunity that hopefully with my contribution opened the door for a wider representation of Latinos in the mass media".However, in 2003 during a Christmas visit to her home in New York, Serros realized that she missed writing for her own audience and for her own therapeutic peace of mind. Consequently, she did not renew her contract for a second season.
During the 2003 Summer, she saw the surfing documentary, Step into Liquid and was floored by the film’s tanker surfing segment shot in Galveston, Texas. Upon returning home from the movie, she emailed one of the surfers featured in the film, award winning filmmaker, James Fulbright, and asked for the opportunity to experience firsthand what she had seen in the movie. In 2004, Serros was invited to tanker surf with Fulbright and his crew in the Gulf of Mexico for a featured segment of The CBS Evening News.
In 2005, Serros was approached by Alloy Entertainment to create a “Latina version” of their hugely successful Gossip Girl Young Adult Book Series. In 2006, her first young adult novel, Honey Blonde Chica was published followed by its sequel, ¡Scandalosa! in 2007.
In addition to her books, Serros has written for the Los Angeles Times, Ms. Magazine, CosmoGirl, and The Washington Post and contributes satirical commentaries for National Public Radio (Latino USA, Morning Edition, Weekend All Things Considered, Anthem, Along for the Ride, and The California Report). She recorded Selected Stories from Chicana Falsa for Mercury Records, and was selected by The Getty Research Institute and Poetry Society of America to have her poetry placed on MTA buses throughout Los Angeles County.
Chicana Falsa and Other Stories of Death Identity and Oxnard Lalo Press 1994
Chicana Falsa and Other Stories of Death, Identity and Oxnard (reissue) 1998 Riverhead Books 1996 ISBN 1-57322-685-8
How to be a Chicana Role Model Riverhead Books, 2000 ISBN 781573228244
Honey Blonde Chica (SimonPulse/Simon and Schuster) 2005 ISBN 978-1-4169-1591-1
¡Scandalosa! (SimonPulse) 2007 ISBN 978-1-4169-1593-5
Serros speaks on a national level to numerous schools, universities and organizations. In 2002, she served as the commencement speaker for Stanford University’s La Raza graduation. The same year, Serros was chosen by PEN Center USA to write and perform an original piece honoring John Steinbeck to commemorate the Twentieth Century Masters Tribute where she shared the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts' stage with literary luminaries as Arthur Miller, William Kennedy, Dorothy Allison, Studs Terkel, Peter Matthiessen and George Plimpton.
