Lorna Dee Cervantes (born August 6, 1954) is an American poet and activist, who is considered one of the greatest figures in Chicano poetry. She has been described by Alurista as "probably the best Chicana poet active today."

Early life

Cervantes was born in 1954 in the Mission District of San Francisco, and is of Mexican and Chumash ancestry. After her parents divorced when she was five, she grew up in San Jose with her mother, grandmother and brother. She grew up speaking English exclusively. This was strictly enforced by her parents, who allowed only English to be spoken at home by her and her brother. This was to avoid the racism that was occurring in her community at that time. This loss of language and a struggle to find her true identity inspired her poetry later on in life. She attended Abraham Lincoln High School. She received an Associate Arts degree from San Jose Community College in 1976, and a BA in Creative Arts from San José State University in 1984. She attended UC Santa Cruz for a PhD History of Consciousness (all but dissertation), 1984–88.

Professional life

Her brother, Stephen Cervantes had a job at a local library and she became familiar with Shakespeare, Keats, Shelly and Byron who would have the most influence on her self-conception as a poet. By the age of fifteen she had compiled her first collection of poetry. In 1974 she traveled with her brother to Mexico City, Mexico, who played with the Theater of the People of San Jose at the Quinto Festival de los Teatros Chicanos. At the last moment, Cervantes was asked to participate by reading some of her poetry. She chose to read a portion of "Refugee Ship," a poem that enacts the major dilemma of being Chicanx; feeling adrift between two cultures. This reading received much attention and appeared in a Mexican newspaper, as well as other journals and reviews. The poem was later included in her award-winning debut, Emplumada (1981). Cervantes considers herself "a Chicana writer, a feminist writer, a political writer" (Cervantes). Her collections of poetry include Emplumada, From the Cables of Genocide, Drive: The First Quartet and Ciento: 100 100-Word Love Poems, and Sueño: New Poems, are held in high esteem and have attracted numerous nominations and awards. In an interview conducted by Sonia V. Gonzalez, the poet states that through writing and publishing, "I was trying to give back that gift that had saved me when I discovered, again, African-American women's poetry. I was having this vision of some little Chicana in San Antonio [Texas] going, scanning the shelves, like I used to do, scanning the shelves for women's names, or Spanish surnames, hoping she'll pull it out, relate to it. So it was intentionally accessible poetry, intended to bridge that gap, that literacy gap." Cervantes was actively involved in the publication of numerous Chicana/o writers from the 1970s onwards when she produced her own Chicana/o literary journal, MANGO "which was the first to publish Sandra Cisneros, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Alberto Rios, Ray Gonzalez, Ronnie Burk, and Orlando Ramírez [co-editor]. Cervantes and MANGO also championed the early work of writers Gary Soto, José Montoya, José Montalvo, José Antonio Burciaga, and her personal favourite, Luís Omar Salinas" Cervantes has delivered poetry readings, workshops and guest lectures across the US. She was part of the Librotraficante Movement. The 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to Tucson was intended to smuggle books back into the hands of students, after they were boxed up and carted out of class rooms during class time, in order to comply with Arizona House Bill 2281. Cervantes delivered a moving speech to the Movement's supporters outside of the Alamo in March 2012. The poet was one of seven featured writers to give a reading at the American Literature Association Conference held in San Francisco in May 2012. Ciento: 100 100 Word Love Poems was nominated for a Northern California Book Award in 2012 under the poetry category. Her fifth collection, Sueño, published in 2013 was shortlisted for the Latin American Book Award in poetry in 2014. A European launch of the collection was hosted by University College Cork, Ireland in June 2014 as part of a symposium on Pathways, Explorations, Approaches in Mexican and Mexican American Studies.

Career

Published works

Awards

Critical studies