mora was born in boston, massachusetts and grew up in cuba. his father, a medical doctor and professor, is cuban, and his mother's parents are from hungary, which they fled in advance of active hungarian-german cooperation in 1941. mora's family fled cuba after the cuban revolution of 1959 when mora was eight years old. mora's family relocated to jackson, mississippi, where mora lived until leaving for college. he received a b.a., with honors, from swarthmore college in 1974.