Pedro Pietri

Pedro Pietri was born on March 21,1944 in Ponce, Puerto Rico. He is best known as a “Nuyorican” poet and playwright.  In 1947 he and his family moved to New York City, where they settled in Spanish Harlem.  At age five, Pedro’s father contracted pneumonia and died, leaving his mother with him and four other siblings. As a teenager the one person who inspired him the most was his aunt, His aunt was a poet and soon Pedro began to write his own original pieces.  His poetry was mainly inspired by the life experiences he had passed through. After high school Pedro was drafted into the Vietnam War, where he dealt with discrimination for other soldiers. These experiences greatly impacted him, and after he returned from war he became very active in Puerto Rican Civil Rights with the group The Young Lords.  Along with writing memorable poems the The Puerto Rican Obituary and The Spanglish National Anthem, he opened the Nuyorican café, a place where many Puerto Rican intellectuals preform their original pieces. In 2003, Pietri was diagnosed with stomach cancer as a result of exposure during the Vietnam War to a chemical known as Agent Orange. He chose to undergo alternate treatments in Mexico and unfortunately died on the flight back from Mexico at age 59.