U.S. poet laureate speaks on social justice

Juan Felipe Herrera, the first Hispanic to serve as the U.S. poet laureate, visited the UTRGV Edinburg campus last week to discuss social justice and share his work.

“It all begins with you,” Herrera said during his keynote address last Thursday in the Performing Arts Complex. “It all begins with what you observe and wrongs that you see, limitations imposed on our families, on workers, on women, on LGBTQ students and friends, and human beings and animals and plants, and you go, ‘I don’t like the way they’re being treated.’ That’s how social justice begins.”

Herrera, who lives in Fresno, Calif., is the author of 30 books, including “187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross the Border: Undocuments 1971-2007” and “Border-Crosser with a Lamborghini Dream.” He was appointed as the Library of Congress’ 21st Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry on June 10, 2015, and was appointed to serve a second term on April 13 of last year. Herrera is the also the son of migrant farmworkers.

UTRGV creative writing Professor Steven Schneider, who wrote the National Endowment for the Arts Big Read grant along with two books of his own, organized the visit from the poet laureate. Herrera’s visit was part of FESTIBA, the Festival of International Books and Arts, which promotes literacy and culture to residents of the Rio Grande Valley.

Herrera said social justice is about positive change and human rights.

“I was wondering about positive change in our society,” he said. “I was wondering about this thing called social change in our society, because all colors, all classes, all gender orientations, all people to be treated with equality, to have the total freedom they deserve. It’s their human right. We want tenderness, we want kindness, we want compassion, we want art, free expression and new, bright, rhythmic, blazing visions to come for our future generations.”

Bryce Milligan, a San Antonio writer, musician and prominent literary publisher, was also on hand to talk about the history of the search for social justice.

“The yearning for true social justice has been expressed throughout human history all over the planet,” Milligan said. “I would argue that now is the time to break the rules, to broaden our horizons, to envision, strive and demand liberty and justice for all.”