Sylvia Sanchez Garza was born in Mercedes, Texas and raised in Weslaco, Texas. As a young girl, her family moved to Houston, Texas for a few years while her father worked on his doctorate at the University of Houston. She returned to and settled in the Rio Grande Valley. "I knew that it would always be my home," Dr. Sanchez Garza confessed. She and husband live in Edinburg, Texas and own a real estate company. She has four grown sons who make her very proud. She holds a B.A. in English, an M.A. in School Administration and a Ph.D. in Leadership Studies. Cascarones is her first novel.