Francisco X. Alarcón facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Francisco X. Alarcón
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Francisco X. Alarcón
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| Born | Francisco Xavier Alarcón 21 February 1954 Wilmington, California, U.S. |
| Died | 15 January 2016 (aged 61) Davis, California, U.S. |
| Language | Spanish; English |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | California State University, Long Beach; Stanford University |
| Genre | Poetry |
| Notable awards | 1993 American Book Award, PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award |
Francisco Xavier Alarcón (born February 21, 1954 – died January 15, 2016) was a famous Chicano poet and teacher. He was known for writing most of his poems in Spanish, even while living in the United States. His poems have been translated into languages like Irish and Swedish.
Francisco loved visiting schools to encourage young people to write poetry. He believed that children are "natural poets" and wanted to help them discover their own voices.
Contents
About Francisco's Early Life
Francisco Alarcón was born in Wilmington, California. He had four brothers and two sisters. When he was six, his family moved to Guadalajara, Mexico. They moved back to California when he was eighteen.
Francisco felt he became a writer at age fifteen. He helped write down his grandmother's songs, which were like ballads. His grandmother spoke Nahuatl, an ancient language. Growing up in both the United States and Mexico helped shape his unique writing style.
Moving to Los Angeles
As a young adult, Francisco moved back to the Los Angeles area. He earned his high school diploma from Cambria Adult School. He worked in restaurants and as a migrant farm worker. During this time, he also attended East Los Angeles College.
College and Early Poetry
Francisco graduated from California State University, Long Beach and Stanford University. In college, he started writing poetry. He joined many writing groups and read his poems aloud at different places.
At Stanford, he edited a journal called Vortice from 1978 to 1980. In 1982, he received a special scholarship called a Fulbright Fellowship. This allowed him to travel to Mexico City. There, he found old Aztec poems that inspired his book Snake Poems: An Aztec Invocation.
Francisco's Teaching and Activism
Francisco Alarcón taught at the University of California, Davis. He also helped write Mundo 21, a Spanish textbook. This book is considered one of the best Spanish textbooks available.
Poets Responding to SB 1070
In 2010, some students protested a law in Arizona called Arizona SB 1070. This law was about immigration. Francisco wrote a poem called "For the Capitol Nine" and shared it online.
Many people liked his poem. This led him to create a Facebook group called "Poets Responding to SB 1070." The group grew to include over 1,200 poems. It received more than 600,000 visits. An anthology, which is a collection of poems, from this group is being prepared for publication.
Francisco also served as a judge for the 2012 Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize. He lived in Davis, California, and passed away from cancer on January 15, 2016.
Francisco's Poetry Style
Francisco Alarcón wrote poetry in English, Spanish, and Nahuatl. His poems were often presented in a bilingual format, meaning they were in two languages. His style was simple and direct. He would remove anything that didn't add to the poem.
Sometimes, critics didn't notice his simple style. But his short lines and careful word choices were very intentional. Francisco didn't plan his poems in advance. He let them grow naturally from his feelings. He believed poetry was best read aloud. He didn't use periods in his writing because he felt his poems were like his life, and a period would mean an end.
Cultural Connections in Poetry
Francisco's work was deeply influenced by Aztec culture and ancient chants. Connecting to his heritage and languages, both Spanish and English, was very important to him. He believed that speaking more than one language was crucial for a person's identity.
He tried to write his poetry in a bilingual way. However, he felt that not all ideas translate perfectly between languages. Sometimes, his word choices depended on specific language concepts.
Writing for Children
Francisco Alarcón was highly respected for his children's poetry. He started writing for kids in 1997. He noticed there were not many books for children written by Latino poets. It took him a few years to convince a publisher to print bilingual poems for children. Publishers thought they wouldn't sell well in the United States.
Kirkus Reviews praised his children's book, Animal Poems of the Iguazu, calling it "eloquently crafted." He was admired for showing Latino culture in his children's poems. His children's poetry shows a "genuine warmth and sense of play." Many of these poems are about his own childhood memories. This helps children connect to their own family experiences. His descriptions of food are another common theme that all children can relate to.
Poetry for Adults
Francisco's poetry for adults explored more complex topics. These included relationships and life experiences. His books Snake Poems: An Aztec Invocation and De amor oscuro/Of Dark Love made him one of the "strongest voices in contemporary Chicano poetry." De amor oscuro/Of Dark Love was especially important. It was one of the first collections of Mexican-American poetry fully dedicated to the feeling of love.
He also wrote some short stories.
Awards and Recognition
Francisco Alarcón received many awards for his poetry:
- 1981 Ruben Dario Prize for poetry.
- 1984 Chicano Literary Prize for poetry.
- 1993 American Book Award
- 1993 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award
- 1997 Pura Belpré Honor Award by the American Library Association
- 1998 Carlos Pellicer-Robert Frost Poetry Honor Award by the Third Binational Border Poetry Contest, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.
- 2002 Pura Belpré Honor Award, Danforth and Fulbright fellowships
- 2002 Fred Cody Lifetime Achievement Award from the Bay Area Book Reviewers Association (BABRA)
Works by Francisco X. Alarcón
- Tattoos, Oakland: Nomad Press, 1985
- Ya Vas, Carnal, San Francisco 1985
- Loma Prieta, Santa Cruz: We Press 1990
- Body in Flames/Cuerpo en llamas, San Francisco: Chronicle Books 1990
- De amor oscuro/Of Dark Love, Santa Cruz: Moving Parts Press 1991
- Cuerpo en llamas/Kropp i lågor, Lysekil, Sweden: Fabians Förlag 1991
- Cuerpo en llamas / Colainn ar bharr lasrach, Indreabhán, Ireland:Cló Iar-Connachta Teo 1992
- Poemas zurdos, Mexico City: Editorial Factor 1992
- De amor oscuro/Vin an ngrá dorcha, Indreabhán, Ireland: Cló Iar-Connachta Teo, 1992
- No Golden Gate for Us, Tesuque, New Mexico: Pennywhistle Press, 1993, ISBN: 9780938631163
- Sonnets to Madness and Other Misfortunes / Sonetos a la locura y otras penas, Berkeley: Creative Arts Book Company, 2001, ISBN: 9780887394508
- Ce Uno One: Poems for the New Sun / Poemas para el Nuevo Sol, Sacramento: Scythe Press 2010, ISBN: 9781930454262
See also
In Spanish: Francisco X. Alarcón para niños
