First Of Its Kind: Biography of a Raza Laureate y Más

Review: Francisco A. Lomelí, Osiris Aníbal Gómez, Eds. Juan Felipe Herrera. Migrant, Activist, Poet Laureate. Tucson: UofA Press, 2023

Michael Sedano

Someone has to be first. Someone, or someones, have to be the first editors to compile the first critical collection of scholarship centered around Juan Felipe Herrera. 

Editors Francisco Lomelí and Osiris Gómez became those someones with the June 2023 publication of the first critical survey of the extensive works scholars have produced about the first raza U.S. Poet Laureate, and before that honor, the first raza California Poet Laureate, Juan Felipe Herrera.

I say, "Raza," not "Chicano"owing to a point JFH makes in the closing interview, "How Do I Identify Myself."

Recently, we are Latinx. I am more inclined toward a 'humanity' identity. It embraces all 7.9 billion human beings.--there are no divisions, separations, and sectors.

I'm not here to reopen the "battle of the name", nor is this collection of thirteen articles, a biography, an interview, and a bibliography. I will declare, however, that Juan Felipe Herrera is a Chicano Poet no matter the lexical divides we impose upon ourselves. And "Chicano Poet" is the ethos assigned the subject by the various scholars collected herein.

Part I offers "Critical Perspectives on JFH's Poetics." Only one writer outright accuses Herrera of Chicanismo, Marzia Milazzo's "'To Go into American as I Go into Myself'"Chicana/o Indigeneity, the Indigenous Other, and the Ethnographic Gaze in JFH's _Mayan Drifter_".

1973: Juan Felipe Herrera and Lyn Romero (qepd)

Another Part I writer, María Herrera-Sobek shares a fascinating investigation of neologisms and caló, offering finely-detailed catalogs of Herrera's language and linguistic maneuverings.

2014: JFH leads "the Unity poem" on his last day as California Poet Laureate

Part II, "On Camaraderie and Poetics: Other Authors Reflect on JFH's Impact on Chicano Literature," there's that "Chicano" word again. This section includes a delightful personal essay by Tom Lutz recounting a two-family trip across Iowa where Herrera breaks the monotony creating a conceptual quest for the title "Gravy Donuts, 24/7: A Personal Reading of JFH."

2010: the Reunion Floricanto at USC. Herrera opens his reading
with the same piece he opened with in 1973

Part III, "The Child-Poet Within Me: Toward an Analysis of JFH's Children and Young Adult Literary Production focuses not only upon the books but the central role food plays in the Herrera oeuvre, with papers like Manuel Martín-Rodriguez' "JFH's Illustrated Books for Young Readers: Chicano Children's Literature con Cilantro."

2012: speaking as one of the Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets

Part IV offers a potpourri of reading, "Mapping the Sojourn of a Maverick." The "day in the life of" section includes an extensive interview with the Laureate by the Editors. If you want to learn how to be Juan Felipe Herrera, devour this interview. The section includes a worthwhile and adequately detailed biography by Renato Rosaldo. Scholars, and term paper writers perhaps, will deeply appreciate Donaldo W. Urioste's "Bibliography by and on JFH 2022."

2010: the Reunion Floricanto at USC

The Editors express contentment with the books illustration program. There are a few color plates and a smattering of photographs. I have been photographing JFH since he made his debut as a public poet at the 1973 Festival de Flor y Canto at the University of Southern California.

California Poet Laureate and volunteer readers. Sedano in red beret.

UCLA Profe Dr. Concepción Valadez happy to have her book signed by the author.

1973: The future Laureate reads "Let Us Gather In A Flourishing Way"
In the Video below from the 2010 Festival de Flor y Canto: Yesterday • Today • Tomorrow
JFH reads "Let Us Gather In A Flourishing Way"

Video © Barrio Dog Productions courtesy of Jesus Treviño