Todos Somos Poetas: A History
The idea of Todos Somos Poetas originated during 1988 with
Val Martínez, a former lecturer in the Department
of Foreign Languages & Literatures at Purdue University
Calumet, and director of Bilingual Education for the school
city of East Chicago. Mr. Martínez expressed to Dr.
Geoffrey Barrow, then head of the Department, his belief
that Hispanics and people in general are poets by nature.
Hence his desire to create a forum where students, faculty,
staff, local poets, and members of the community could share
their poetry with others. Dr. Barrow embraced Mr. Martínez’s
idea, and with the assistance of Dr. Tony Lamb, they organized
the first Todos Somos Poetas (We Are All Poets), which took
place on Saturday, March 4, 1989, with guest poet Tino Villanueva.
The event was a success and a cooperative agreement was reached
with Indiana University Northwest to host the next event
the following year.
An invitation was extended to John Attinassi,
former head of the Bilingual Education Department at Indiana
University Northwest, to be the project sponsor of the second
annual poetry festival Todos Somos Poetas. Working in collaboration
with Ms. Bernadette Monda, Associate faculty member in the
Department of English at IUN and the project director, along
with members of the organizing committee from IUN and PUC,
Dr. Attinassi requested and received a grant from the Indiana
Humanities Council. Other sponsors included the Department
of Foreign Languages & Literatures of Purdue University
Calumet, Arte Publico Press, East Chicago and Gary schools,
National Endowment for the Arts, and Student Organizations
(Los Latinos from PUC; BESO, and ALMA from IUN). The Friday
event included workshops in Gary Emerson Visual and Performing
Arts School, and East Chicago Central High School, and an
evening of poetry with Tato Laviera and Lucha Corpi. The
Saturday event took place at IUN Conference Center and included
workshops, poetry readings with guest poets, book displays
and signings.
For the Third Annual Poetry Festival, Prof. Carmen L. Torres-Robles,
Director, and Dr. Joan de la Cova, Co-Director, received
a mini-grant from the Indiana Humanities Council
for the event. The event took place Saturday, March 16, 1991, and
featured guest poet Tato Laviera.
The event has alternated sponsorship between Purdue
University Calumet and Indiana University
Northwest. Dr. Torres-Robles
(PUC) and Dr. Sohed Rodriguez (IUN) have
shared directorship of TSP. Since Dr. Rodríguez’retirement, the
event takes place at Purdue University Calumet and is held
on the last Saturday of April.
The interest and participation of students, faculty, staff, local poets, and members of the community in general,
have contributed to the success and continuation of the event. The event has also been successful with the full
support of the Administration of both Indiana University Northwest and Purdue University Calumet. Todos Somos Poetas
has been enhanced by the participation of guest poets Tino Villanueva, Lucha Corpi, Tato Laviera,
David Hernández, Alba Ambert, Gloria Vando, Marcos McPeek Villatoro, Loreina Santos Silva,
Gloria Velázquez, Armando Romero, Eleodoro J. Febres,Roberto Sosa. Julieta Dobles Izaguirre, Manlio Argueta, Christian Santos,
and Milagros Terán.
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