Early Life
Francisca Valenzuela was born in San Francisco, California to Chilean-born scientists, Pablo DT Valenzuela and Bernardita Méndez. She is the fourth oldest and only daughter of five children. At a very early age, Valenzuela demonstrated an interest in music and began taking music lessons at the age of 7. By age ten, she was playing acoustic guitar and continued studying classical piano. She lived and attended school in San Francisco and Berkeley, California. During summer vacations, she and her brothers would travel to Santiago, where they would visit relatives. Eventually, the family would make the permanent move to Santiago, when Francisca was 12.
In 2000, Francisca published her first book,"Defenseless Waters" a collection of her poems. She released her second book,"Abejorros/Madurar", which was distributed in Spain and Latin America. As part a promotional tour for "Defenseless Waters", she brought her guitar and keyboard to venues in northern California, where she gave poetry readings and performed songs of her own composition. Valenzuela is fluent in English and Spanish, and often composes songs in both languages. Although she and her family still live in Santiago, Valenzuela often returns to San Francisco to visit.
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