PIETRI, Pedro (Juan) 1943-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born March 21, 1943, in Ponce, PR; died of renal failure March 3, 2004, while on an airplane flight from Mexico to New York. Educator and author. Pietri was a prominent Puerto Rican poet and playwright whose writings captured the experiences of Nuyoricans—Puerto Ricans who have settled in New York City. Encouraged as a boy by his aunt to write poems, he worked a variety of menial jobs in New York's garment district before being drafted into the U.S. Army. Seeing action in Vietnam proved to be a radicalizing experience for him, and upon returning to New York he pursued his art with greater vehemence. His most famous poem, "Puerto Rican Obituary," had its early day in the sun when Pietri read it in public in 1969 at the Methodist Church in East Harlem, which the Young Lords activist group had briefly taken over. The poem, first published around 1971, captures themes with which Pietri would be concerned throughout his life, such as the injustice of Puerto Rico's status as neither independent nation nor American state, and the struggles of Puerto Ricans to make a place for themselves in American society. Becoming a powerful voice for his people, Pietri later helped found the Nuyorican Poets Café on the Lower East Side, a venue that helped inspire other Latino poets and where Pietri performed such pieces as "The Spanglish National Anthem" and "El Puerto Rican Embassy." In the late-1960s and early 1970s, he also encouraged other poets as a creative writing instructor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, at the Cultural Council Foundation in New York, and as a conductor of children's workshops. Other poetry collections by Pietri include The Blue and the Gray (1975), Uptown Train (1980), and Traffic Violations (1983); he also penned plays and play collections, including Dead Heroes Have No Feelings (1978), Jesus Is Leaving (1978), and Illusions of a Revolving Door: Plays (1992).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Chicago Tribune, March 8, 2004, Section 4, p. 9.

New York Times, March 6, 2004, p. A25.