"Like I said, it was 1957 when I started in oral tradition by memorizing all the poems I wrote…And I’d sit in parties, and bars—they were just poems to make people feel good…"

Pedro Pietri Literature See all quotes by Pedro Pietri →

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“…It goes back to 1945; when my parents, right, they left paradise looking for paradise…During the adventure of Operation Bootstrap, a lot of people were brainwashed to believe that if they leave there you can have a better life over here.”

“I was introduced to Langston Hughes, who became one of my favorite poets…I mean, he was a poet; he wasn’t about words, he was a poet, he had rhythm.”

Resonant Thoughts

"People who live at the lower ends of watersheds cannot be isolationists — or not for long. Pretty soon they will notice that water flows, and that will set them to thinking about the people upstream w…"

— Wendell Berry

Literature1934

#mind

"Americans experience time in two distinct ways—as religious people and as people of no religion. Just so, we experience ourselves as a historical people and as people who are not implicated by history…"

— Richard Rodriguez

Literature1958

#history

"We now begin to experience the danger of admitting so great an error to have a place in the declaration of our independence. For a long time it lay dormant; but in the process of time it began to germ…"

— John C. Calhoun

Politics1782–1850

#justice