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Mohr’s Nilda

Mohr’s Nilda

Nicholasa Mohr’s first novel, Nilda (1973), was influenced by events in her life. Early drafts of the coming-of-age story were written in the first person, but Mohr decided first-person pronouns were too conversational. Instead, she preferred third person because it allowed her distance from the character.

Nilda is the story of a young girl growing up, from ages ten to thirteen, in New York’s Spanish Harlem during World War II. The novel shows how people in authority, from teachers to police officers, are cruel to Nilda’s poor Puerto Rican family. When her parents die, Nilda’s siblings are separated; she is sent to live with an aunt in the Bronx. Through all of the pain and disappointments, however, Nilda finds solace in art, just as Mohr did while growing up.

Nilda was lauded by critics and earned several awards, including the Society of Illustrators citation of merit, which was given to Mohr for the book’s jacket and eight illustrations.


See Also

Alma Flor Ada

Miguel Algarín

Julia Alvarez

Marie Arana

Giannina Braschi

Monica Brown

Esmeralda Santiago

Great Lives from History: Latinos

Nicholasa Mohr

by KaaVonia Hinton

American writer and artist

Mohr is a fine artist who is known for writing and illustrating books about growing up poor, female, and Puerto Rican in New York. Her novels and short stories describe some of the injustices endured by Puerto Rican immigrants.

Areas of achievement: Art; literature; theater

Early Life

Nicholasa Mohr (nih-koh-LAH-suh) was born on November 1, 1935, to Pedro and Nicholasa (Rivera) Golpe in Spanish Harlem, New York. Her parents and four of her brothers had migrated to the United States from Puerto Rico. Once in the United States, two more sons were born before the last child, Mohr, arrived. Before she entered school, the family moved to the Bronx. Mohr grew up in a traditional Puerto Rican home where, as the only female child, she had more household responsibilities than her six brothers and less freedom to explore areas outside the home.

Mohr’s father died when she was eight years old, leaving her mother, who often was ill, to take care of the family. Mohr admired her mother’s strength and ingenuity as she struggled to keep the family together. Eventually, despite her efforts, they went on welfare. Mohr’s mother encouraged her to work hard in school and often gave her paper, pencils, and crayons to keep her busy. Mohr used the materials to create art, which served as a means of escape. Her drawings garnered praise from her mother, who hoped she would eventually use her talent to support herself. Her mother died when Mohr was fourteen, and the family was separated. Mohr went to live with her mother’s sister but never really felt welcome there.

Mohr was an avid reader who enjoyed works by Bernard Shaw, Eugene O’Neill, and Carson McCullers. She wanted to attend a college preparatory high school, but a guidance counselor—who saw her only as a poor Latina—encouraged her to attend a trade high school and learn to sew rather than draw. Not one to be discouraged, Mohr continued to pursue her dream of becoming an artist through courses in fashion illustration. Unsatisfied with four years of high school training, Mohr enrolled in the Art Students League of New York in 1953. While there, she studied painting and drawing in a program that was deeply grounded in European culture. Like most of her classmates, Mohr began saving money for a trip to Europe before she found books in the public library that featured Mexican art. She was inspired to travel to Mexico City, where she studied art and printmaking at the Taller de Gráfica Popular (People’s Graphic Workshop). While there, Mohr admired the work of Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Frida Kahlo, and others. When she returned to New York, she studied at the New School for Social Research. It was there that she met Irwin Mohr, a doctoral student in clinical psychology; the couple married in 1957. They raised two sons, David and Jason, together in Teaneck, New Jersey, where Mohr set up a studio in their home.

Life’s Work

By 1972, Mohr had spent eighteen years using visual art—oil paintings, drawings, and prints—to tell stories about her community. She had exhibited her work and was supported by a number of galleries. One of her collectors, the head of a publishing company, approached her agent about a possible book project after noticing that her art contained words and phrases. There was an untapped market for books written about Puerto Ricans at the time; however, Mohr was not interested, even though she realized that she had an aptitude for writing. After a while, she relented. She wrote fifty pages of short vignettes about growing up Puerto Rican with few financial resources. The publisher liked Mohr’s work but was not interested in the type of stories she had written. She suspected that the publisher might have been looking for sensational stories.

With the vignettes filed away, Mohr continued to produce art. Publishing house Harper & Row asked if she would provide the art for a book of poetry, but when she showed them her work, they decided against using it. While there, Mohr asked Ellen Rudin to read her vignettes; a few weeks later, she was offered a book contract. Mohr had received a fellowship to reside at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire during the summer, so she used the time to write Nilda. The novel was published in 1973. Nilda earned Mohr The New York Times’s Outstanding Book Award for juvenile fiction in 1973 and the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award in 1974.

The success of her first novel encouraged Mohr to shift her focus from art to writing. One of her older brothers, Vincent, who worked in publishing, helped Mohr achieve her goal. Her second book, El Bronx Remembered: A Novella and Stories, was published in 1975 with Mohr’s own cover art. It was cited as a best book in 1975 by School Library Journal and received The New York Times’s Outstanding Book Award in teenage fiction. El Bronx Remembered also was a National Book Award finalist for most distinguished book in children’s literature in 1976. The following year, In Nueva York (1977) was published. In Nueva York was named a Notable Trade Book in Social Studies by the National Council for the Social Studies and the Children’s Book Council, a Best Book by School Library Journal, and a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association.

Mohr cites American authors, especially Southern women such as Eudora Welty and Carson McCullers, as influences. Mohr, who has been labeled a children’s author, argues that she writes for all ages. She maintains that the only books she wrote specifically for children are Felita (1979) and its sequel, Going Home (1986). Mohr’s other books include Rituals of Survival: A Woman’s Portfolio (1985) and A Matter of Pride, and Other Stories (1997). In 1994, she published a memoir, In My Own Words: Growing Up Inside the Sanctuary of My Imagination. Two years later, she wrote the foreword for Latinas!: Women of Achievement (1996).

Mohr also has written for television, radio, and the stage. She was the head creative writer and coproducer of the television series Aquí y ahora (Here and Now). Her plays include Zoraida (1988) and I Never Even Seen My Father (1995), based on a short story from In Nueva York (1995). She also received a grant from the New York State Council on the arts to create a play based on Nilda (1973). Mohr has taught at various universities, such as Queens College, Richmond College, and American International University in London. She received the Hispanic Heritage Award in 1997.

Significance

A novelist and playwright, Mohr is one of the pioneers of fiction about Latinos in the United States. During the 1970’s, she was one of the few writers of color who illustrated her own work, providing readers with images and narratives. Since then, she has spoken and written repeatedly about her position as a Puerto Rican born in the United States who fully embraces the use of mainstream American English in her work. She has inspired many writers to tell their own stories of growing up talented and hopeful, despite disenfranchisement.

Further Reading

1 

Mohr, Nicholasa. “An Interview with Nicholasa Mohr.” Interview by Myra Zarnowski. Reading Teacher 45, no. 2 (October 1991): 100-106. Mohr describes her writing process.

2 

_______. “Pa’lante: An Interview with Nicholasa Mohr.” Interview by Bridget Kevane and Juanita Heredia. In Latina Self-Portraits: Interviews with Contemporary Women Writers, edited by Bridget Kevane and Juanita Heredia. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2000. A candid interview about Mohr’s life and work, particularly her eight-year (1986-1994) absence from the world of publishing.

3 

Rico, Barbara Roche. “‘Rituals of Survival’: A Critical Reassessment of the Fiction of Nicholasa Mohr.” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 28, no. 3 (2007): 160-179. This article offers an extensive look at the lack of attention to Mohr’s work and includes a critical discussion of several of Mohr’s books.

4 

Vasquez, Mary S. “Borderspaces in Nicholasa Mohr’s Growing Up Inside the Sanctuary of My Imagination.” Bilingual Review 26, no. 1 (January-April 2001/2002): 26-33. Provides a close examination of Mohr’s memoir in the context of autobiographical work or testimonials by Latinas.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Hinton, KaaVonia. "Nicholasa Mohr." Great Lives from History: Latinos, edited by Carmen Tafolla & Martha P. Cotera, Salem Press, 2012. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=GLL_10013240040301001.
APA 7th
Hinton, K. (2012). Nicholasa Mohr. In C. Tafolla & M. P. Cotera (Eds.), Great Lives from History: Latinos. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Hinton, KaaVonia. "Nicholasa Mohr." Edited by Carmen Tafolla & Martha P. Cotera. Great Lives from History: Latinos. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2012. Accessed October 22, 2025. online.salempress.com.