Mary Elizabeth Victoria Borton de Treviño (September 2, 1904 – December 2, 2001) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

writer. She received the Newbery Medal.

Early years and education

Elizabeth was born in

Bakersfield Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Kern County. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's populat ...

, California, to Carrie Louise Christensen and attorney Fred Ellsworth Borton. Her family were all enthusiastic readers; Fred had published short stories and poems before becoming a lawyer. Elizabeth always wanted to become an author. She began writing poetry at age 6, and had her first poem published at 8. Her parents strongly encouraged her ambitions. She attended

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1925 with a bachelor's degree in Latin American History.

Career

After finishing college, she moved to Massachusetts to study violin at the Boston Conservatory, then worked as a reporter. On August 10, 1935, she married Luis Jorge Treviño Arreola y Gómez Sánchez de la Barquera (b. August 5, 1902) and moved to his hometown of

Monterrey Monterrey ( , ) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León, Mexico, and the third largest city in Mexico behind Guadalajara and Mexico City. Located at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the city is anchor ...

, Mexico. After their two sons, Luis Federico and Enrique Ricardo Treviño-Borton, were born, they lived in Monterrey for a time, then moved to Mexico City in 1941. Their final move was to Cuernavaca,

Morelos Morelos (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Morelos ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Morelos), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 36 municipalities and its capital city is Cuer ...

, in 1965, known popularly as the "City of Eternal Spring". Her book ''

I, Juan de Pareja ''I, Juan de Pareja'' is a novel by American writer Elizabeth Borton de Treviño, which won the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature in 1966. The book is based on the ''Portrait of Juan de Pareja'', the real-life port ...

'' (1965) won the Newbery Medal in 196

It was inspired by her elder son Luis' interest in art, particularly painting. Luis told her the story of the artist

Diego Velázquez Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (baptized June 6, 1599August 6, 1660) was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, and of the Spanish Golden Age. He was an individualistic artist of th ...

and his slave Juan de Pareja, model for one of Velázquez' most famous paintings, whom Velázquez instructed in painting and later freed. After seeing the original of Velázquez' painting of Juan, she was inspired to write about their relationship.Bostrom, Kathleen Long. ''Winning Authors: Profiles of the Newbery Medalists''. New York: Libraries Unlimited, 2003. Her younger son Enrique was the translator of the Spanish edition of the novel. Among her other novels are ''Nacar the White Deer'', ''The Greek of Toledo'', ''Casilda of the Rising Moon'', ''El Güero: A True Adventure Story'' (illustrated by Leslie W. Bowman), ''Beyond the Gates of Hercules'', and ''The Fourth Gift''. She also wrote five of the "

Pollyanna ''Pollyanna'' is a 1913 novel by American author Eleanor H. Porter, considered a classic of children's literature. The book's success led to Porter's soon writing a sequel, ''Pollyanna Grows Up'' (1915). Eleven more ''Pollyanna'' sequels, know ...

" books: ''Pollyanna in Hollywood'', ''Pollyanna's Castle in Mexico'', ''Pollyanna's Door To Happiness'', ''Pollyanna's Golden Horseshoe'', and ''Pollyanna and the Secret Mission''. Borton later wrote several memoirs of her life as an American who had married into a traditional Mexican family: the best-seller ''My Heart Lies South'' and its sequels, ''Where the Heart Is'' and ''The Hearthstone of My Heart''. Her last book, ''Leona: A Love Story'', was published in 1994, when she was 90. She died at 97 on December 2, 2001, in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Luis had predeceased her in 1988. Her elder son Luis, an artist, never married. His brother Enrique, an attorney who lived in London for many years, married Sonia Rodriguez Vargas and had three children, Daniel Enrique, Elizabeth Victoria, and León Ricardo. Treviño's novel ''The Music Within'' inspired American novelist Ray Downs (''Wind Across The Amazon''; ''One More Mission'') to become a writer. He was an English teacher at the Colegio Americano de Cuernavaca and visited Treviño often. Two of his students were Borton's grandchildren Daniel Enrique and Elizabeth Victoria.

References

Newbery winner 1966
''The Newbery Companion''. Retrieved July 6, 2006.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Trevino, Elizabeth Borton de Newbery Medal winners 1904 births 2001 deaths Stanford University alumni Boston Conservatory at Berklee alumni