Tato Laviera (1951-2013)
Tato Laviera was a Nuyorican poet and playwright and part of the Nuyorican Movement. Though born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, he moved to the Lower East Side of New York City with his family at ten years old.
He began writing poems very young in multiple languages - Spanish, English, and Spanglish. He is well known for his excellent articulation in all three languages, as well as his use of metaphor and rhythm. In a 2012 interview, he “discussed the role linguistic innovation plays in his work, stating, ‘Puerto Rico in particular intertwines Caribbean Black Spanish. We dare to claim it. It is a source of pride and we are not linguistically crippled. My claim to fame is I can experiment, and sound intelligent with my linguistic experiments.’”
His poems addressed themes such as language, cultural identity, and race, particularly in relation to the transnational identities of Puerto Ricans living in the United States. All aspects of his writing were intentional and aided him in his mission to lift up fellow Latinos, particularly Afro-Latinos, with pride and dignity. This sense of Puerto Rican pride and its split sense of identity is seen as a positive in his poem “AmeRícan”. According to Laviera, the importance of his poems are found in the titles. The title of this poem is what he is calling Puerto Ricans living in America. He is choosing to depict this transnational identity which can be jarring and isolating, as something positive and beautiful.
