The Loves of Ricardo

As Yevgeny Yevtushenko recounts, Ricardo Sanchez was one of the creators of la poesia chicana and his voice was the concentrate of many silent voices. His written poetry was ambassador of the non-written sufferings of so many chicanos, whose barefoot feet were in the USA, but whose barefoot soul was endlessly walking sobre la tierra seca mexicana, muriendo de la sed. Ricardo Sanchez (1941-1995) is considered one of the fathers of the Chicano literary genre and is one of the most published and widely anthologized Chicano writers. His family had roots in New Mexico for five generations, but he was raised in El Paso, Texas. Sanchez earned a PhD in American studies and cultural linguistic theory from the Union Graduate School in Cincinatti, Ohio, and taught in several schools throughout the US. He traveled continuously, lecturing and reading. The Loves of Ricardo is published posthumously. Sanchez's papers are archived at the University of Texas, Austin, and at Stanford University.