Daniel García Ordaz

Daniel García Ordaz, also known as The Poet Mariachi, is a Texas-based poet, educator, and songwriter whose work has been recognized as an emerging voice in Mexican American poetry. Born in Houston and raised in the Rio Grande Valley, he has served in the U.S. Navy as a Hospital Corpsman and later earned both a BA in English from The University of Texas–Pan American and an MFA in Creative Writing from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. García Ordaz’s work has been taught and written about by academics in the United States and abroad, and he has been featured at numerous literary events, including the Dallas International Book Fair and Texas Book Festival. He has also appeared as a TEDx speaker and served as McAllen Poet Laureate for 2023 and 2024–2025.

García Ordaz is the author of Cenzontle/Mockingbird: Songs of Empowerment and its YA Edition, Cenzontle/Mockingbird (YA Edition): Songs of Empowerment, as well as You Know What I’m Sayin’? and the children’s poetry collection Read Until You Bleed: Funny and Thoughtful Poems for Funny and Thoughtful Children.[