Alurista | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Alberto Baltazar Urista Heredia (1947-08-08)August 8, 1947 (age 78) |
| Occupation | Poet, activist |
| Nationality | American |
| Literary movement | Aztlán |
Alberto Baltazar Urista Heredia (born August 8, 1947), better known by hisnom de plumeAlurista, is an Americanpoet andactivist.[1] His work was influential in theChicano Movement and is important to the field ofChicano poetry.[2]
Urista was born inMexico City and attended primary school inMorelos. He went to theUnited States when he was thirteen, settling with his family in theborder city ofSan Diego,California. He graduated from high school in 1965 and began studyingbusiness administration atChapman University inOrange County, California. He disliked the field, however, and transferred toSan Diego State University (SDSU) to studyreligion. He changed his major several times before earning a B.A. inpsychology in 1970. He went on to earn an M.A. from SDSU in 1978, and his PhD in literature from theUniversity of California-San Diego in 1983.[3] His doctoral thesis was on the fiction of Chicano lawyer and authorOscar Zeta Acosta. He has taught atCalifornia Polytechnic State University inSan Luis Obispo, California, Escuela Tlatelolco inDenver, Colorado, and at theUniversity of Texas at Austin. He has also lectured and read his poetry in venues throughout the world.
Urista's first experience writing poetry was as a student in Mexico, when he began writing love poems for his classmates as a way to earn money. He began writingpoetry for publication in 1966. In 1967, he co-founded the SDSU chapter ofMEChA, theMovimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán, ("Chicano Student Movement ofAztlán") and organized students in favor of theUnited Farm Workersgrape boycott. He held several jobs, including working for theVolunteers in Service to America (VISTA) program, part of theLyndon B. Johnson administration'swar on poverty.
In 1969, he attended the First NationalChicano Youth Liberation Conference, hosted byRodolfo "Corky" Gonzales's Crusade for Justice, and read a poem to the attendees. The poem so moved the youth present that they adopted it as the preamble of thePlan Espiritual de Aztlán, the politicalmanifesto of theChicano Movement. Upon returning to San Diego, he helped to establish theChicano Studies department at SDSU.
During the mid-1990s, he traveled and performed with theTaco Shop Poets. However, he has expressed disapproval of the new,Hip hop-influenced style of Chicano poetry. Regarding apoetry slam hosted by the Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana (MACLA), he said, "That's not Chicano poetry, [...] It's nice that they're doing it, but it's not part of the tradition of Chicano literature."[4]
As an active member of the San Diego-area Chicano Movement, Urista was instrumental in the 1970 takeover ofChicano Park and in the foundation of theCentro Cultural de la Raza, a cultural center. It was at this time that he began using the name "Alurista". The assumption of a pen name was as much for anonymity as it was for artistry. According to Urista, "My apartment was shot up by theMinutemen. I didn't want these people to be able to associate my last name with my family, so I changed it."[4] However, the name change was also a reflection of hisMarxist philosophy: "The notion was to synthesize--to bring things together. So I tried to do that with my name."[4]
In the 1970s, Alurista organized the Festival Floricanto, an annual event that convened Chicano writers and critics to share and critique their work.
In addition to his own poetry, Alurista has written works ofnon-fiction,literary criticism, and many essays on Chicano culture and history. He is credited with popularizing the Chicano Movement-era concept of "Aztlán" and imbuing it with a spiritual dimension through his poetry. His Spanish-language writings were among the first by an American to be taken seriously by critics from hispanophone countries. In the United States, he was one of the first critically acclaimed poets to mix the Spanish andEnglish languages.
Alurista has been married twice and has four children. He spent the years 1995 – 1998 in a "spiritual meandering", about which he said, "Being an artist is not all creativity. There are periods of self-destructiveness. You internalize things that destroy you. You end up blaming others for your pain--whatever or whoever those 'others' happen to be--which makes you a resentful person. That resentment turns inward, and you end up eating yourself up."[4] In 1998, after family problems and rumors of substance abuse, Alurista left his longtime home of San Diego forSan Jose, California, attracted by its active cultural arts scene.
Spiritually, Urista identifies as both aBuddhist[4] and aRoman Catholic, as well as acknowledgingindigenous practices such as thesweat lodge. Politically, he identifies himself as a "...socialist. With a definiteMayan bent to everything."[4]
Alurista identifies as both a Buddhist[4] and aRoman Catholic. He admires Catholicism for its rituals, and Buddhism for its meditative practices. He says that he also engages inNative American practices, and is "connected to [his] Father Sun and Mother Earth and [his] brothers and sisters, trees and ants and what not.. [he's] able to do things that show [him] that everything is connected, man."[4]
Alurista has received numerous awards and has made his mark in theChicano community. He has read his poetry all over the world, from Mexico, to the United States, to Europe. He was also producer and subject of the video, "Torn in Two", which featured four Chicano poets. The video aired in 1984 and won an Emmy. Alurista's work is being collected in the "Mexican American Archives at the Benson Collection: A Guide for Users", University of Texas, Austin. He is a professor and scholar, having obtained his Ph.D. in Spanish and Latin American literature, he was awarded the Jr. MacArthur Chair in Spanish by Colorado College in 1984 for his teaching excellence. He is the cofounder of multiple academic and community organizations, such asMovimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan at San Diego State, Concilio for la Justicia,Centro Cultural de la Raza, and the Department of Chicano Studies at San Diego State University. His papers are held at University of Texas, Austin and atCalifornia Ethnic and Multicultural Archives.
