John A. Flores was born into a migrant family that traveled throughout California, Oregon and Idaho picking and planting all types of crops through his teenage years along with the hundreds of migrants that made their living under the hot sun of summer and the cold foggy and rainy days of winter.

Being together day and night with other migrant families, it was only natural that his first language was Spanish which he learned to read, write and speak before enrolling in the first grade in the small community called “La Colonia” near the small city of Shafter, California.

During those migrant years, the author would join his father and other workers around the campfire in the evenings after the day’s work and evening meal and listen as they shared stories of the day’s work or other life experiences. Many times, their conversation consisted of short comments that would draw laughter and other short comments from others with the same results. 

This was the author’s introduction to dichos! The author would write down the dichos, not knowing what they really meant, and then when he was alone with his father, his father would explain the meaning behind those few words.

Voltaire once wrote that “I don’t have the time to write you a short letter so I ‘m writing you a long one”. This is the intent of a dicho!  In the speaking of a few words, the person stating the dicho would share a thought would take paragraphs and maybe pages to fully explain the meaning of these few words.

The author began accumulating dichos at this early age and when the word got out that he was collecting them, the other migrant workers working alongside his family begin contributing to his collection that ultimately resulted in the author writing a book on the dichos he learned during his lifetime. He thanks those friends and immediate family that kept asking when he would write a book which he finally did! The author has been fortunate in being able to travel worldwide and visiting many Spanish-Speaking countries allowing him to accumulate over 7,000 dichos to date.

The author has written 3 books and has spoken to thousands over the years using humorous graphics of some of his dichos to make a point regarding the subject matter being discussed. 

He still continues to make presentations to community groups and parents, using dichos, to address the importance of their children receiving an education and the parent’s role under the LCAP requirements of the State of California.