Gary Soto was born to Manuel and Angie Soto on April 12, 1952, in Fresno, California, as the second of three children. The family was working class and lived in lower-income areas of the city. Soto’s parents worked in the agricultural industry in the San Joaquin Valley, and at five years old, his father died in a workplace accident at the Sun-Maid Raisin Company. Soto was devastated, and his mother was left to raise Gary and his siblings on her own.

After Soto’s father’s death, Soto and his mother, siblings, and grandparents took agricultural or factory jobs to make ends meet. For Soto’s family, education was not emphasized; survival was. Soto did not particularly excel in school, although he did develop an affinity for books and spent many hours reading in the school library. This is where Soto’s love of literature and writing began. After high school, he attended Fresno City College, where he was captivated by poetry. He eventually transferred to California State University, Fresno, where he took poetry classes and eventually graduated with a BA in English. He later earned an MFA in creative writing from the University of California, Irvine.

Soto married Carolyn Oda in 1975, with whom he has a daughter, Mariko Heidi.