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raúlrsalinas: The Cockroach Poet

raúlrsalinas is a literary luminary who has shared podiums and microphones with giants such as Miguel Piñero, Pedro Pietri, Oscar Zeta Acosta, John Trudell, Jose Montoya, Ernesto Cardenal and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, among many others, Salinas has also been a tireless crusader for human rights and social justice, as reflected in his work with the Amerian Indian Movement and the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee and his writing clinics for at-risk youth in countless juvenile detention facilties and community centers nationwide.

Author of three poetry collections "Viaje/Trip" (chapbook), "East of the Freeway," and "Un Trip Through The Mind Jail," plus the forthcoming "Indio Trails: A Xicano Odyssey through Indian Country" (Wings Press) as well as two spoken word CDs "Los Many Mundos of raúlrsalinas: Un Poetic Jazz Viaje con Friends" (Calaca Press/Red Salmon Press) and "Beyond the BEATen Path" (Red Salmon Press). His literary work has appeared in numerous anthologies and journals. He is also an adjunct professor at St. Edwards University, Austin, Texas. In 2002, raúlrsalinas was the recipient of the Louis Reyes Rivera Lifetime Achievement Award presented on behalf of La Causa student group at Amherst College, Mass. and The Dark Souls Collective. In March of 2003, he was honored with the Martin Luther, Jr., César Chavez, Rosa Parks Visiting Professorship Award given by the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

Born in Texas on March 17th, 1934, raulrsalinas is one of the few remaining poetic voices from a special circle of writers that includes Jose Antonio Burciaga, Ricardo Sanchez, Piñero and the recently passed Pietri. A people's poet who has dubbed himself, effacingly, the "cockroach poet," Salinas has traveled the globe as a representative of indigenous philosophies and revolutionary-humanist ideologies. Through it all he has remained faithful to the word as a curative, a restorative magic to be used for healing and redemption.

For the last several decades he has mentored aspiring writers, both in and out of his humble shop in Austin, Texas, Resistence Bookstore.

(Edited from an article by Alejo Sierra)