Salinas, Raul

Biographical notes:

BIOGRAPHY

Raul / Roy / "Tapon" Salinas was born in San Antonio, Texas on March 17, 1934. He was raised in Austin, Texas from 1936 to 1956, when he moved to Los Angeles. In 1957 he was sentenced to prison in Soledad State Prison in California. Over the span of the next 15 years, Salinas spent eleven years behind the walls of state and federal penitentiaries. It was during his incarceration in some of the nation's most brutal prison systems that Salinas' social and political consciousness was shaped. His prison years were prolific ones, including creative, political, and legal writings, as well as an abundance of correspondence. In 1963, while in Huntsville, he began writing a jazz column called "The Quarter Note" which ran for eighteen months. In Leavenworth he played a key role in founding and producing two important prison journals, Aztlan de Leavenworth and New Era Prison Magazine. It was in these journals that his poetry first circulated and gained recognition within and outside of the prison walls. As a spokesperson, ideologue, educator, and jailhouse lawyer of the prisoner-rights movement, Salinas also became an internationalist who saw the necessity of making alliances with others. This vision continues to inform his political and poetic practice. Initially published in the inaugural issue of Aztlan de Leavenworth, "Trip thru a Mind Jail" (1970) became the title piece for a book of poetry published by Editorial Pocho Che in 1980. With the assistance of several professors and students at the University of Washington -Seattle, Salinas obtained early release from Marion Federal Penitentiary in 1972. As a student at the University of Washington, Salinas worked in various community development projects and forged alliances with Native American groups in the Northwest, a relationship that was to intensify over the next fifteen years. Although Salinas writes of his experiences as a participant in the Native American Movement, it is a dimension of his life that has received scant attention. In the twenty-two years since his release from Marion, Salinas' involvement with various political movements has earned him an international reputation as an eloquent spokesman for justice. Salinas literary reputation in Austin has earned him recognition as the poet laureate of the East Side and the title of "maestro" from emerging poets who seek his advice and leadership. His literary work is perhaps most widely known for its street aesthetics and a sensibility which documents the interactions, hardships, and strife of barrio and prison life. The influence of jazz within his oeuvre connects it with the work of "Beat Generation" poets, musicians, and songwriters. His poetry collections include dedications, references, and responses to Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski, Charles Parker, Herschel Evans, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis, for example. This guide was written by Emmet Campos, Dana Maya Maynard, Louis Mendoza at the University of Texas at Austin in spring 1994. The Raul Salinas Collection was processed in spring 1998 by Scott Boehnen and Erika Beer of the Department of Special Collections, Stanford University.

CHRONOLOGICAL BIOGRAPHY

1934 1936 San Antonio, Texas. 1936 1956 Austin, Texas. 1956 1957 Los Angeles, California. 1957 1959 Soledad State Prison, California. 1959 1961 Austin, Texas. 1961 1965 Texas State Prison, Huntsville, Texas. 1963 1965 Publishes prose; poetry; and "The Quarter Notes," a monthly jazz column for The ECHO (Huntsville, TX). 1965 1967 Austin, Texas. 1967 1971 U.S. Federal Penitentiary, Leavenworth, Kansas. 1969 1971 Assistant editor of New Era Prison Magazine, Leavenworth Penitentiary 1969 Cofounder of Chicanos Organizados de Rebeldes de Aztlan, study group at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, Kansas. 1970 1971 Editor and writer for Aztlan de Leavenworth (prison journal publication). 1971 1972 U.S. Federal Penitentiary, Marion, Illinois. 1971 1972 Member of Federal Prisoners International Coalition, Federal Penitentiary, Marion, Illinois 1972 Drafting committee member for "Brainwashing Techniques in Prison" (report on prison abuses). Marion, IL. 1972 1976 Member of Centro de la Raza; Assistant Director, Jose Marti Day Care Center; cofounder of Resistencia Bookstore in the Centro, Seattle, Washington 1972 1977 Seattle, Washington. 1973 publishes Viaje/Trip (chapbook) Providence: Brown University. 1973 Counselor for Office of Minority Affairs, University of Washington, Seattle 1974 Edits Vortice (journal). Stanford: Stanford UP. 1974 Reads for Festival Flor y Canto I, U.S.C. 1974 Reads for Festival Sexto Sol, Stanford University. 1974 Reads for Festival Santa Clara. 1974 1976 Member of the American Indian Movement Northwest Chapter; presenter for Indian/Chicano Education, Seattle, Washington. 1975 1977 Media Spokesperson and Trail Coordinator for Survival of American Indians, Frank's Landing, Washington. 1977 1978 San Francisco, California. 1975 Participates in Venceremos Brigade to Cuba. 1976 Coordinates Cross-country Educational Caravan, Trail of Self Determination, Washington State to Washington D.C. 1977 Participates in Venceremos Brigade to Cuba 1977 1980 Cofounder of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, Seattle, Washington; Rapid City, South Dakota; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 1978 1979 Lecturer, Spanish and Portuguese, Chicano Studies, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. 1978 1980 Seattle, Washington 1979 Spokesman for Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, Puerto Rico. 1980 Spokesman for Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, Canada. 1980 Publishes Un Trip Through the Mind Jail y Otras Excursions. San Francisco: Editorial Pocho Che, 1980. 1980 1985 Austin, Texas. 1980 1986 Leonard Peltier Support Group (founder), Austin, Texas May 1980 Representative for Leonard Peltier at Canto Al Pueblo: A Four Arrows Symposium, Mesa, Arizona. July 1980 Participates in Annual Youth and Elders Conference, Philip Deere's Camp, Okemah, Oklahoma. May 1981 Leads four-person delegation to Yellow Thunder Camp, South Dakota. June 1981 Leads four-person Austin delegation to Annual Memorial, Oglala, South Dakota. 1981 Spokesperson for Leonard Peltier Defense Committee at the NGO Conference on Indigenous Philosophy and the Land in Geneva, Switzerland. 1981 Delegate and translator, International Indian Treaty Council, Nicaragua (for U.N. Seminar on Racial Discrimination). 1981 Board Member of El Centro Chicano, Austin, Texas. 1981 1984 League of United Chicano Artists (LUChA), Board Member; Cultural Advisor Co-Director (1988-1990). 1981 1985 Visiting Lecturer in RTF and CMAS, University of Texas at Austin. 1981, '82, '87 Consultant and international delegate, International Indian Treaty Council. 1982 Participates in Venceremos Brigadeto Cuba. January 1982 Attends American Indian Movement (AIM) Summit & Leadership Conference, San Francisco, CA. June 1982 Leads four-person delegation from Austin to June 26 Memorial, Oglala, South Dakota. 1982 1994 Proprietor, Resistencia Bookstore, Austin, Texas. 1982 1994 Founder, editor, and publisher, Red Salmon Press, Austin, Texas. July 1984 Attends International Indian Treaty Conference, Sisseton-Wahpheton Reservation, South Dakota. Austin delegation representing the LPDC and Artistas Indigenas. 1985 1986 St. Louis, Missouri. 1985 1986 Campaign Coordinator, Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals (St. Louis, Missouri). 1986 1994 Austin, Texas. 1986 1989 Youth counselor, South Austin Youth Services. 1987 Delegate and interpreter for International Indian Treaty Council in Geneva, Switzerland, 1987 Delegate for International Indian Treaty Council in Tripoli, Libya, North Africa 1988 1994 Workshop coordinator, Communities in Schools, Austin, TX. 1990 Reads at Inter-American Book Fair, Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, San Antonio, Texas. 1991 Reads at First Netzahualcoytl Poetry Festival, Mexican Museum of Art, Chicago, Illinois. 1992 Translates for reading by Ernesto Cardenal, Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, San Antonio, Texas. 1993 Reads at Inter-American book fair at Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, San Antonio, Texas. 1993 1994 Member, City of Austin Charter Review Committee. 1994 East of the Freeway: Reflections de mi Pueblo. Austin:Red Salmon Press, 1994.

From the guide to the Raul Salinas Papers, ca. 1950-1994, (Stanford University. Libraries. Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives.)

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