Zita Arocha is an award-winning bilingual writer, journalist, writing coach and educator. Born in Cuba and raised in Tampa, she lives in Southern New Mexico. A lifelong advocate for diversity in the news media, she has written extensively about immigration and Latino issues for many publications, including The Miami Herald and The Washington Post. She is an Emeritus professor of communication at UTEP where she taught for two decades and founded the web magazine Borderzine.com. She earned an MFA in bilingual creative writing from UTEP. 

Guajira, the Cuba girl, is her first published book, and she is working on a historical novel about the Cuban immigrant enclave of Ybor City. Her non-fiction essays have been published in the literary journals Rigorous, Allium, and Story Circle Network.  Caminos, an anthology of mini memoirs she edited for the Center for Mexican American Studies at UT Austin, will be released in 2026.