Sánchez, Ricardo, 1941-1995

Ricardo Sánchez, died Sunday at 54, in El Paso, Texas; Professor of Chicano Studies at Washignton State University; spent 9 years in prisons; grew up in the Barrio del Diablo of El Paso; dropped out of high school; joined army and recieved HS degree; spent time in prison for armed robberies; after release from prison in 1970 published poems which were a force in the Chicano movement;

Ricardo Sánchez was born March 29, 1941 in El Paso, Texas, the thirteenth child of a family originally from Northern New Mexico. His childhood neighborhood, El Barrio del Diablo, was an environment characterized by cultural pride (chicanismo) and familial warmth, as well as by violence, poverty, racism and alienation. Throughout his life and many travels Sánchez considered El Paso his spiritual home.
Despite a lack of encouragement at school, the young Ricardo became an avid reader and writer of poetry at an early age, with the goal of being a poet. In 1959 he dropped out of high school and enlisted in the army, where he earned a G.E.D. His service in the army ended in a dishonorable discharge and a prison sentence. After his parole in 1963 Sánchez married María Teresa Silva. In 1965, shortly before the birth of their first child, Sánchez returned to prison for armed robbery. The humiliation and frustration of his desperate struggle to support his family has been the theme of much of Sánchez's writing.
Sánchez was again paroled in 1969. This time, his "rehabilitation" was a success. Having dedicated much of his time in prison to reading and writing, Sánchez won a 1969 Frederick Douglass Fellowship for minority journalists in Richmond, Virginia, and then served as a lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. In 1970 he moved to Colorado with fellow poet Abelardo Delgado to work for a Colorado migrant worker organization. By 1971 he had published a volume of poetry, Obras (Works), and in 1971 he founded Mictla Publications, a Chicano publishing house. The first book to be published by Mictla was Sánchez's Canto y grito mi liberación (I Sing and Shout My Liberation). In 1972 he began work on his Ph.D. at Union Graduate School, which he finished in 1974. For a complete account of Sánchez's widely varied professional experience, see "Resumes" (1969-1994) in Series III of the collection, Personal Papers and Memorabilia.
Throughout his academic career, Sánchez continued as a prolific poet and writer, publishing volumes of poetry as well as individual poems, fiction and articles in periodicals across the country and internationally. He also kept up a busy schedule of poetry readings and speaking engagements, and was frequently involved in conferences, exhibitions and projects of all kinds, mostly with a literary, artistic, educational or political focus. Sánchez was the author of two major syndicated columns, in the San Antonio Express-News (1985-1990) and in the El Paso Herald-Post (1988-1991), and his artistic endeavors include projects in various media, including film and television.
Sánchez was a key figure in the Chicano, Criminal Justice, and other political movements from the 1960s to the '90s. He was involved in numerous organizations, events and publications and held various positions within organizations. Information pertaining to his political involvement can be found throughout the collection, particularly in the Correspondence and Subject series. Ricardo and Teresa Sánchez had four children, Rikárd-Sergei, Libertad-Yvonne, Pedro-Cuauhtémoc (who died in infancy) and Jacinto-Temilotzín. They remained married until Ricardo Sánchez's death in September, 1995.
Major Publications:

Canto y grito mi liberación (1971)
HECHIZOspells (1976)
Milhaus Blues and Gritos Norteños (1979)
Brown Bear Honey Madness (1981)
Amsterdam Cantos y Poemas Pistos (1983)
Selected Poems (1985)
Bertrand and the Mehkqoverse (1989)
Eagle-Visioned/Feathered Adobe (1990)

Sometimes called the "grandfather of Chicano poetry," Ricardo Sánchez was a professor of creative writing and Chicano studies at Washington State University from 1991 until his death in 1995. He was born March 29, 1941 in El Paso, TX and raised in a neighborhood called "El barrio del diabolo." After serving in the U.S. Army he was convicted of armed robbery and sent to prison. In 1969, he received a Ford Foundation sponsorship as a Frederick Douglass Fellow in Journalism and in 1970 was employed as a staff writer and humanities instructor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

He earned his Ph.D. in American Studies and cultural linguistic theory in 1974, at the Union Graduate School in Cincinnati, Ohio. Subsequently, Dr. Sánchez worked at El Paso Community College (1974), the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (1977), and the University of Alaska (1979). From 1977 to 1980 he was an assistant professor at the University of Utah Ethnic Studies Center. At WSU, he was a member of the faculty in both the English Department and the Department of Comparative Cultures, achieving full professorship with tenure in early 1995.

His works include Canto y grito mi liberación (y lloro mis desmadrazgos...) : pensamientos, gritos, angustias, orgullos, penumbras poéticas, ensayos, historietas, hechizos almales del son de mi existencia... (The 1995 edition includes poems written during Dr. Sánchez's tenure at WSU); Amerikan journeys = Jornados americanos (1994); Dr. Sanchez' all-you-can-eat poetry buffet, or, Lentils of revolution (1994); Selected Poems (1985); Amsterdam Cantos y Poemas Pistos (1983); Brown Bear and Honey Madness. Alaskan Cruising Poems (1981); and Milhuas Blues and Gritos Nortenos (1978).

Dr. Sánchez died of cancer on September 3, 1995.

[Some biographical information was obtained from: Barceno, Roberto (compiler). "Ricardo Sanchez, Ph.D." (http://www.dr-ricardo-sanchez.com/bio.html).