Read the complete article in The New York Times. (Click on the word "article.")
Gonzalez, David. "Tato Laviera, Poet With Voice in Two Worlds, Has Home in Neither." The New York Times. February 12, 2010.
Most of us working with U.S. Latino Literature are familiar with Jesús Abraham "Tato" Laviera and his nuyorican sentiment in his poems in AmeRícan and La Carretera Made a U-Turn. This article, which appeared in The New York Times last month, is being circulated to us by our colleague Elena Machado Saéz from Florida Atlantic University. It is a heart-breaking story of a poet revered by many, now facing homelessness, caused by his health issues.
If you want to help Tato Laviera Arte Público Press' February 2010 E-News suggests the followings:
1. If you live in the New York area join the Tribute to Tato Laviera being organized by the Nuoyrican Poets Cafe on March 9 at 7pm.
2. Send donations to:
Mr. Tato Laviera
C/o Sánchez-Ramos
225 E. 93rd St. Apt. 8H
New York, NY 10128
If you are a Facebook member you may join his Facebook Group.
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Hello everyone.
ReplyDeleteI had read about Tato Laviera's situation, but this article has more details. I'm going to circulate it to my classmates.
It is sad that after getting a place in the canon and being included in classes (I read several poems by him in a class a year ago, for example) this is happening to him. It seems that the fate of poets, who only work as poets, has not changed and will not change. 100 years ago, Rubén Darío already told us on "The Bourgeois King": art has become a commodity and poets just another product, when they are not useful, they are left to die. I know I'm going into a sentimental path here, but sometimes I think there is hope for the art to be admired as art, but then I find news as Tato Laviera's and I become pesimistic. Of course, the good thing is that Laviera does not give up and is writing again. Maybe there is hope, afterall.