Poen

Poetrv: PuertoRican Obituarv

by Pedro Pietri

"Puerto RicanObituary"was first read in 1969at a rattyin supportof the YoungLords

Party,

an anti-imperiatist

Latinoyouth groupin New York.Like the BtackPantherParty,the Young

Lordswere community activists, supportingdemands or f air and affordabte housingand decent

f

programs children.They tinkedtheir neighborhood

heatth care, and they ran free breakfast

for

militancyto a programthat catledfor the end of U.S.imperialadventurism Vietnamand

in

etsewhere,third world liberation, an end to the oppression the poor and peopteof cotor,

of

and the buitdingof a sociatistsociety.The YoungLordswere destroyedby U.S. government

provocationsin the mid 1970s,but PedroPietri continuedon as a radicat activist and poet-he

saw no distinction between these roles. Most notabtyhe helpedto found and sustainthe

NuyoricanPoetsCaf6, an acctaimedcenter for oppositionat

arts and literature.

Pedro Pietri was born in Ponce,Puerto Ricoin 1944and raisedin Hartem.After high schoot,he

was drafted into the U.S.army, servedin Vietnam, and returned to the United Statesa fierce

it.

opponent of that war and the systemthat spawned "l reatisedwho the real enemywas, and

who invadedtheir

it was not the Vietcongin their black pajamas,but the mercenaries

country." On fire with rage againstthe system,he wrote, "Puerto RicanObituary," first

publ.ished a cottectionof his work with the sametitte by MonthtyReviewPress 1973,as

in

in

we[[ as eight other votumes verse.PedroPietri died of cancer,aged59, on March3,7004.

of

The power, insight, and message 'Puerto RicanObituory" continue to resonateomong

of

actiists ond dreomersoll over the world. As the NewYork Timesput it recently "three

"-Eds.

decadesogo, o poem ignited a movemenf.

They worked

They were always on time

They were never late

They never spokeback

when they were insulted

They worked

They nevertook daysoff

that were not on the calendar

They neverwent on strike

without permission

They worked

ten days a week

and...