Author Works To Educate Public With Her Published Writings

Balboa Elementary’s snarling bulldog mascot says more than Anita Endrezze would like.

Instead of a moniker signifying victory for basketball teams, it reminds her of the Spanish conqueror Balboa’s dogs of war that ripped her Mexican Indian ancestors to shreds.

The North Spokane writer, poet, artist, researcher and parent of a Balboa student wrote to Spokane School District administrators last month to point out the dubious history of the mascot.

Endrezze says she did not write to be the politically correct police. She wanted to open the eyes of the culturally homogenous Spokane. “I think it’s a writer’s duty to educate,” said Endrezze.

She has not heard back from the school district. But the Mead High School graduate has gotten response from around the world from her award-winning poetry and short stories. She has given lectures for the Washington state Humanities Commission throughout the Inland Northwest.

First published as a 20-year-old Eastern Washington University student, she has spent the last 24 years educating readers on the rich history of her native Yaqui, a tribe originally from northern Mexico.

Packed with rich, visual images and compassion, Endrezze says her work is celebration, not reactionary. “I am talking about the human spirit and the beauty that is possible,” said Endrezze.

She has published five books and had stories and poems in dozens of compilations. Her writing has been translated into Danish and French.

She draws much from Yaqui stories told by her father. Her mother is “a Northern European hodge-podge.” One story includes the Yaqui creation story, which predicts a smoking iron snake would destroy the tribe’s culture.

She also pulls ideas from experiences in Denmark and Hawaii. Her husband is Danish.

Motherhood has proven both a blessing and a curse for her artistic life. Raising two children, including five-year-old Balboa student Maja, draws from her writing muse.

“You have to make some choices. Some artists make the choice to shove everything out to do their art,” said Endrezze. “My priority is my children.”

Unable to write effectively, she tried painting. She rarely sells her work, a cacophany of primary colors that resembles Guatamalan art. Still, she is ready to publish a new collection of poems, and another is on the way.

“I’m always going to have my writing,” said Endrezze. “My life started out telling stories. And I have always been able to do what I love.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: AN EXCERPT From the poem “The Songmaker,” about a homeless Native American man sitting on a sidewalk:

If he would lift his face I could see his eyes, see if he’s singing now a soul-solving song. But he’s all hunched over and everyone walks around him. He must have strong magic to be so invisible.