Alejandro Grattan-Dominguez

For more information about the author and his highly acclaimed book "The Dark Side of the Dream," please visit the website at www.TheDarkSideOfTheDream.com

Alejandro Grattan-Dominguez was born in El Paso, Texas, the oldest son of an Irish father and a Mexican mother. After flunking out of college twice, he finally made good at Texas A& M, before going on to SMU, where he earned a BA in English Literature.

Relocating to Los Angeles, he worked as a claims adjuster, and amused by the fact that so many claimants experienced miraculous recoveries after receiving a settlement check, he wrote up a short synopsis--which found its way to the famed director, Alfred Hitchcock, who over a very brief telephone call, encouraged Grattan to make a movie based on the story. After two long years, he had done exactly that--and his career in the movie business was born.

That career reached its zenith in 1979, when he wrote, directed and co-produced the first major movie about the Mexican-American experience. The film, Only Once in a Lifetime, was invited to premier at the Kennedy Center, and later selected as one of a few films to represent the United States at the Deauville Film Festival in France.

In 1987, he moved to Ajijic, Mexico, and in 1988, he founded the Ajijic Writers' Group (which still exists today), and began writing novels. The next several years saw the publication of seven novels, (most of which are on amazon). The screenplays he adapted from some of his books have won several awards at script competitions in Mexico and the US. In 2007, he was selected for inclusion in Who's Who in Mexico.

For the past 18 years, he has been the Editor-in-Chief of El Ojo del Lago (Chapala.com), the most widely-read English-language magazine in Mexico.

His mother's country has proved lucky for him.