Pedro Pietri - Wikipedia Pedro Pietri From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search Puerto Rican writer Pedro Pietri Pedro Pietri Born March 21, 1944 Ponce, Puerto Rico Died March 3, 2004 (aged 59) New York, NY Occupation poet, playwright Nationality Puerto Rican Literary movement Nuyorican Poets Cafe Pedro Pietri (March 21, 1944 – March 3, 2004) was a Nuyorican poet and playwright and one of the co-founders of the Nuyorican Movement. He was considered by some as the poet laureate of the Nuyorican Movement. Contents 1 Early years 2 "Puerto Rican Obituary" 3 Nuyorican Poets Café 4 Other works 5 Later years 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links Early years[edit] Pietri was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, however his family moved to New York City in 1947, when he was only three years old. They settled in the west side (Manhattanville) section of Manhattan where he and his siblings received their primary and secondary education. Pedro was greatly influenced by his aunt, who often recited poetry and on occasions put on theatrical plays in the First Spanish Methodist church in El Barrio. Pietri himself started to write poems as a student at Haaren High School.[1] After graduating from high school, Pietri worked in a variety of jobs until he was drafted into the Army and sent to fight in the Vietnam War. The experiences that he faced in the Army and Vietnam, plus the discrimination that he witnessed while growing up in New York, were to become the main factors that would forge his personality and style of poetry. "Puerto Rican Obituary"[edit] Upon his discharge from the Army, Pietri affiliated himself with a Puerto Rican Civil Rights activist group called the Young Lords. In 1969, he read for the first time his poem, "Puerto Rican Obituary".[2] The New York Times obituary of Pedro Pietri noted that the poem "sketched the lives of five Puerto Ricans who came to the United States with dreams that remained unfulfilled. By turns angry, heartbreaking and hopeful, it was embraced by young Puerto Ricans, who were imbued with a sense of pride and nationalism."[3] Fellow Puerto Rican poet of the Nuyorican Movement Giannina Braschi, who performed with Pedro Peitri, pays homage to "Puerto Rican Obituary" and his sites his own obituary in her novel "United States of Banana." "Puerto Rican Obituary" is an epic poem published in 1973 and widely considered Pietri's greatest work.[3][4] Nuyorican Poets Café[edit] Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Photo: Shankbone Pietri helped found the Nuyorican Movement together with Miguel Algarin, Miguel Piñero and Lucky Cienfuegos also founders of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. The Café is an institution where many New York Puerto Rican and Latino artists perform. Pietri wrote the play El Puerto Rican Embassy. The theme was that an island, which was neither an independent nation nor a state of the United States, should have an embassy. The idea for the play came from Pietri's nationalistic views. During the performance, he would sing "The Spanglish National Anthem" and hand out simulated "Puerto Rican passports" prepared in collaboration with Adál Maldonado.[1] Other works[edit] Among his other works are: Invisible Poetry (1979), Traffic (1980), Plays (1982), Traffic Violations (1983), and The Masses are Asses (1988). His writings have been published and included in the following anthologies: Inventing a Word: An Anthology of Twentieth Century Puerto Rican Poetry (ed. Julio Marzan, 1980), Illusions of a Revolving Door (1984), The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry (ed. Alan Kaufman, S.A. Griffin, 1999), The Prentice Hall Anthology of Latino Literature (ed. Eduardo del Rio, 2002) and many others. In August 2015, City Lights released Pedro Pietri: Selected Poetry, which gathers the most enduring and treasured work from his books—Puerto Rican Obituary,Traffic Violations, and Out of Order—and contains a generous selection of his previously unpublished writings. Pietri not only wrote poetry but also recorded it. In 1979, Pietri came out with an LP entitled Loose Joints and later One Is a Crowd which were produced by Folkways Records.,[5] also recorded ! Aqui se Habla Español ! Pedro Peitri en casa Puerto Rico on discos Coqui LP 1203 Funeral held at historic First Spanish Methodist Church of East Harlem Pietri was a free spirit whose performances were nontraditional. In his irreverence toward religion, he called himself Reverend, dressed in black and walked around with a large collapsible cross. In reaction to the romanticism of the community by groups like the Young Lords and others on the left, he wrote that "The Masses are Asses." In the first published collection of Nuyorican poetry (Nuyorican Poetry: An Anthology of Puerto Rican Words and Feelings edited by Miguel Algarín and Miguel Piñero in 1975), his contribution was a poem consisting entirely of punctuation marks. He would throw condoms at audiences during some of his performances. He was a nonconformist, constantly reminding the Movement of the importance of tolerance, intellectual freedom and not losing its humanity. His was a unique voice, both in substance and style, to which failed attempts by all to imitate his reading of his "Puerto Rican Obituary" out loud readily attest.[1] The Pedro Pietri Papers, held at the Centro, Center for Puerto Rican Studies, City University of New York, "chronicle the extraordinarily creative, productive, and at times, anarchic life of one of the most original and innovative contemporary writers of the Puerto Rican community. They lend insight into the vast scope of Pietri’s literary interests and endeavors, his collaborative relationships with other writers and his editorial process."[6] Later years[edit] Pietri was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2003. He went to Mexico to receive an alternative treatment for a year. On March 3, 2004, Pietri died en route from Mexico to New York. Funeral services were held in East Harlem at the historic First Spanish Methodist Church, which was taken over in 1969 by the Young Lords and renamed at the time as "The First People's Church" to provide free breakfast and other programs to the poor and working people of El Barrio. This is where, fittingly, Pietri first read in public his classic poem, "Puerto Rican Obituary", in support of the Lords' takeover of the church.[7] See also[edit] Puerto Rico portal Literature portal Biography portal Corsican immigration to Puerto Rico List of Puerto Rican writers Puerto Rican literature Miguel Piñero, co-founder of Nuyorican Poets Cafe and of its literary movement Giannina Braschi, leading lady of Nuyorican culture and author of Spanglish novel Yo-Yo Boing! Miguel Algarín, founder of Nuyorican Poets Cafe and co-founder of its literary movement Braschi's Empire of Dreams References[edit] ^ a b c Monthly Review ^ "Puerto Rican Obituary" ^ a b https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/06/arts/theater/06PIET.html "NYT Obit: Pietri, 59, Poet Who Chronicled Nuyorican Life, Dies" ^ Pietri, Pedro (20 August 2019). "Puerto Rican Obituary by Pedro Pietri". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 21 August 2019. ^ Loose Joints Album Details at Smithsonian Folkways ^ Center for Puerto Rican Studies ^ Tribute by Frances R. Aparicio Archived 2006-06-14 at the Wayback Machine Further reading[edit] Dalleo, Raphael, and Elena Machado Sáez. "Periodizing Latino/a Literature Through Pedro Pietri's Nuyorican Cityscapes." The Latino/a Canon and the Emergence of Post-Sixties Literature. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. 17-44. https://web.archive.org/web/20131029193238/http://www.post-sixties.com/. González, Ray. Ed. Currents from the dancing river: contemporary Latino fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1994. Hathaway, Heather, Josef Jarab, and Jeffrey Melnick. Eds. Race and the modern artist. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Hernandez, Carmen Dolores. Puerto Rican voices in English: interviews with writers. Westport: Praeger, 1997. Marzán, Julio. Ed. Inventing a word: an anthology of twentieth-century Puerto Rican poetry. New York: Columbia University Press, 1980. Reyes, Israel. Humor and the eccentric text in Puerto Rican literature. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005. External links[edit] Monthly Review Democracy Now! Tribute Nuyorican Obituary Tribute by Frances R. Aparicio Read Puerto Rican Obituary Pedro Pietri on IMDb Read "El Spanglish National Anthem" [1] View Current TV's program on Nuyorican culture. (https://web.archive.org/web/20090219001002/http://current.com/items/88836867/nuyorican_power.htm) Puerto Rican Obituary.Spanish.Translation by Raúl Racedo [2] v t e Independence movement in Puerto Rico Indigenous resistance Agüeybaná I Agüeybaná II Arasibo Hayuya Jumacao Urayoán Political organizations Union Party of Puerto Rico Independence Association of Puerto Rico Liberal Party of Puerto Rico Puerto Rican Independence Party Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Hostosian National Independence Movement Socialist Front Puerto Rico Pro-Independence University Federation Militant organizations Cadets of the Republic Boricua Popular Army (Macheteros) Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional 19th century activists Ramón Emeterio Betances Mariana Bracetti Mathias Brugman Roberto Cofresí María de las Mercedes Barbudo José de Diego Eugenio María de Hostos Francisco Gonzalo Marín Rosendo Matienzo Cintrón Antonio Mattei Lluberas Francisco Ramírez Medina José Gualberto Padilla Lola Rodríguez de Tió Manuel Rojas Juan Ríus Rivera Segundo Ruiz Belvis Arturo Alfonso Schomburg Antonio Valero de Bernabé Manuel Zeno Gandía Fernando Fernandez Agustín Stahl José "Aguila Blanca" Maldonado Marcos Xiorro 20th and 21st century activists Antonio Rafael Barceló Félix Benítez Rexach Rubén Berríos Americo Boschetti Juan Mari Brás Marie Haydée Beltrán Torres Roy Brown Cayetano Coll y Cuchí Gilberto Concepción de Gracia Juan Dalmau Pedro Ortiz Dávila José M. Dávila Monsanto Elizam Escobar Leopoldo Figueroa Víctor Manuel Gerena Edwin Irizarry Mora Luis Lloréns Torres Oscar López Rivera Filiberto Ojeda Ríos Antonio S. Pedreira Pedro Pietri Miguel Poventud Ángel Rivero Méndez Manuel Rodríguez Orellana María de Lourdes Santiago Piri Thomas Alejandrina Torres Carlos Alberto Torres Iris Zavala Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Pedro Albizu Campos José S. Alegría Margot Arce de Vázquez Elías Beauchamp Casimiro Berenguer Julia de Burgos Blanca Canales Nemesio Canales Rafael Cancel Miranda José Coll y Cuchí Oscar Collazo Rosa Collazo Juan Antonio Corretjer José Ferrer Canales Isabel Freire de Matos Carmelo Delgado Delgado Raimundo Díaz Pacheco Andres Figueroa Cordero Irvin Flores Lolita Lebrón Tomás López de Victoria Hugo Margenat René Marqués Francisco Matos Paoli Pedro "Davilita" Ortiz Dávila Ruth Mary Reynolds Germán Rieckehoff Helen Rodríguez Trías Hiram Rosado Isabel Rosado Isolina Rondón Vidal Santiago Díaz Daniel Santos Clemente Soto Vélez Griselio Torresola Antonio Vélez Alvarado Carlos Vélez Rieckehoff Teófilo Villavicencio Marxuach Olga Viscal Garriga Events Ducoudray Holstein Expedition Grito de Lares Intentona de Yauco Río Piedras massacre Ponce massacre Gag Law (Ley de la Mordaza) Nationalist Party revolts of the 1950s Jayuya Uprising San Juan Nationalist revolt Utuado Uprising Truman assassination attempt U.S. Capitol shooting incident (1954) Cerro Maravilla murders Symbols Lares Revolutionary Flag La Borinqueña by Lola Rodríguez de Tío Media Claridad Authority control BNE: XX1380345 ISNI: 0000 0000 5935 7806 LCCN: n85809204 MBA: ee9788d7-4c45-4990-b09b-0361979dcccc NTA: 203693825 SNAC: w6252jb1 SUDOC: 07695014X VIAF: 28539447 WorldCat Identities: lccn-n85809204 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pedro_Pietri&oldid=999553035" Categories: 1944 births 2004 deaths Poets from Ponce Puerto Rican people of Corsican descent Deaths from stomach cancer Puerto Rican poets Puerto Rican male writers Puerto Rican dramatists and playwrights Puerto Rican Army personnel United States Army soldiers 20th-century American poets 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American male writers Haaren High School alumni 21st-century dramatists and playwrights American Spanish-language writers Hidden categories: Webarchive template wayback links Articles with short description Short description matches Wikidata Wikipedia articles with BNE identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz identifiers Wikipedia articles with NTA identifiers Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikiquote Languages Italiano Latina Polski Edit links This page was last edited on 10 January 2021, at 19:41 (UTC). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers Contact Wikipedia Mobile view Developers Statistics Cookie statement