Valerie Menard

Valerie Menard is a freelance writer and editor based in Austin, Texas. She established S.A. Esa Enterprises, a freelance writing and editing service, in January of 2000. She’s a former editor for Hispanic magazine and La Prensa (Austin) newspaper and the published author of three books dealing with the Latino culture in the United States—The Latino Holiday Book, ¡Celebremos!, and Latinas in Love.

As a freelance writer she has written for several publications including The Austin American Statesman, Estylo, Latina Style, Hispanic Executive, and Latina, spanning a wide variety of topics, from entertainment to automotive. She was also associate publisher and editor of Decisive Latino/Decisive Auto Latino, a national magazine offering cultural and consumer news from Latino experts. She launched LatinoTraffcReport.com in 2015 for Latino automotive enthusiasts.

In 2000, her first solo book project, The Latino Holiday Book, was published by Marlowe and Company and revised in 2004. The book was published in Spanish by Random House Español in 2001 and titled, ¡Celebremos! In 2003, Marlowe and Company published Latinas in Love, a relationship book for Latinas based on Menard’s experience as an advice columnist. She received the 2003 Latino Spirit Award from the California Latino Legislative Caucus in recognition of her literary contributions to the Latino community.

She established the Latinx Children’s Book Project in 2018 after acquiring a contract from the City of Austin Department of Economic Development as an umbrellaed project for Ballet East Dance Company.

A native of Glendale, California, Menard was raised in San Antonio, Texas and is a second-generation Mexican American, She attended the University of Texas at Austin where she earned two bachelor’s degrees—one in English and the other in journalism.