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Hispanic Heritage Month (SEPT.15th - OCT.15th 2005 Saturday, September 17, 2005 Hispanic Heritage Month
Sept.15th - Oct.15th 2005
(This is about the famous poet, actor & playwright Miguel Piñero in my own words).
MIGUEL PINERO
Born: December. 19th , 1946 in Gurabo, Puerto Rico
Died: June. 16th , 1988 in New York City, New York
(some sources say June. 17th, 1988)
Died of cirrhosis of the liver.Survived by his brother Dadi Piñero,his sister, his wife & adopted son Ismael Piñero.
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Miguel Piñero was born Antonio Gomez Miguel Piñero in Gurabo, Puerto Rico on December. 19th , 1946, the son of Miguel Angel Gomez Ramos and Adelina Piñero, they moved to New York City where his father had left his family to fend for themselves on the streets to survive. His education; he attended public schools in New York City, received his high school equivalency diploma. Mr. Piñero’s career was Writer and actor, Founder of NuYorican Poet’s Theatre, New York, NY 1974. Awarded the NY Drama Critics Circle Award, Obie Award, and Drama Desk Award, all 1974, all for (Short Eyes: The Killing of a Sex Offender by the Inmates of the House of Detention Awaiting Trial.
In 1972 Miguel Piñero was 25 years old Puerto Rican-American who was serving a jail sentence for second - degree robbery. Two years later Miguel Piñero he jumped to literary fame with his first play and it became a production , it was called Short Eyes , that was for short, the longer version is Short Eyes : The Killing of a Sex Offender by the Inmates of the House of Detention Awaiting Trial. It was first produced in New York City at Theatre of Riverside Church, January 1974, produced on Broadway at Vivian Beaumont Theatre, May, 1974.
Miguel Piñero produced eleven plays , the first few plays were unpublished but were produced, they were; All Junkies (1973 New York), Short Eyes (1974 New York, First Published:1975 Hill and Wang, New York), The Sun Always Shines For The Cool (1975 New York), The Guntower (1976 New York, First Published: Unpublished), Eulogy For A Small- Time Thief (1977 New York, First Published:1986 Arte Publico Press, Houston), Cold Beer (1979 New York, First Published: Unpublished) , Paper Toilet (1979 Los Angeles, First Published: Unpublished), Straight From The Ghetto (1977 New York, First Published: Unpublished), Payland Blues (1980 New York, First Published: Unpublished), Nuyorican Nights At The Stanton Street Social Club (1980 New York, First Published: Unpublished) , Midnight Moon At The Greasy Spoon (1981 New York, First Published : 1986 Arte Publico Press , Houston).
In 1973 on the Lower East Side Miguel Piñero was co-founder of the Nuyorican Poet’s Café along with Miguel Algarin who found the Nuyorican Poet’s Café, it began as a living room salon in the East Village apartment of writer and poet, Miguel Alagrin.
Joseph Papp head of New York Shakespeare Festival Production Theatre hailed Miguel Piñero in the New York Times as “ the first Puerto Rican playwright to really break through and be accepted as a major writer for the stage” and as “an extraordinarily original talent.”
During Piñero ’s short life, however, the playwright probably heard more condemnation than praise. Piñero married Juanita Lovette Ramirize in 1977. They divorced in 1979, Miguel Piñero & Juanita had adopted a boy named Ismael Castro as their son.
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Here is a little piece from Miguel Piñero’s Short Eyes, this is Act II and it has the setting:
The setting is the dayroom in the House of Detention. The characters are the inmates (mostly Puerto Rican and black) and guards of one section. The play depicts racial encounters, personal encounters, and the self-encounters of men facing their own yearnings, frustrations, rages, and fears. The tenuous stability of thee section is disrupted with the arrival of Clark Davis.
Clark Davis is white and middle-class. He was arrested for raping a young girl, a crime that, even among these violent and hardened men, is looked on with particular revulsion. He is badly abused and threatened by both inmates and guards. Juan, a Puerto Rican inmate, is the one person who shows him any compassion, and Clark confides to Juan his own self-hatred and all the details of his sordid sexual proclivities.
In the following scene Clark has just returned from the lineup. He believes that he has a chance of being released and asks Juan not to divulge anything from their personal conversation. Juan is faced with the dilemma of breaking the confidence of this pathetic man or allowing him to go back outside “to scar up some more little girls’ minds.”
Short Eyes
By Miguel Pinero
~Act II~
JUAN: What you want to see me about, Clark?
CLARK: Look, what I told you earlier … er … that between
me and you …like, I don’t know why I even said that, just…
just that…man, like everything was just coming down on me
… My wife … she was at the hospital … She … she didn’t even look at me … once, not once … Please … don’t let it out … please … I’ll really go for help this time … I promise.
JUAN: What happened at the P.I. Stand?
CLARK: Nothing … nothing … happened…
JUAN: Did she identify you? Did she?
CLARK: I don’t know. I didn’t see anybody. They put me next to a bunch of other men about my size, weight …You --- the whole lineup routine. I didn’t see anybody or anything but the people there and this voice that kept asking me to turn around to say, “Hello, little girl.” That’s all.
JUAN: Nothing else?
CLARK: No.
JUAN: You mean they didn’t make you sign some papers?
CLARK: No.
JUAN: Was there a lawyer for you there? Somebody from the courts?
CLARK: Juan, I really don’t know …I didn’t see anybody …
And they didn’t let me speak to anyone at all … They hustled
me in and hustled me right out …
JUAN: If they are rushing it ---the P.I.---that could mean they
only are waiting on the limitation to run out.
CLARK: No …no one told me anything.
JUAN: What it means is that you will get a chance to scar up
Some more little girls’ minds.
CLARK: Don’t say that, Juan. Please don’t think like that. Be-
live me, if I thought I couldn’t seek help after this ordeal, I
Would have never---I mean, I couldn’t do that again.
JUAN: How many times you’ve said that in the street and wind
up molesting some kid in the park.
Here are all his plays in order by date:
All Junkies 1973
Short Eyes 1974
Side Show 1975
The Sun Always Shines For The Cool 1975
NuYorican Poets: An Anthology of Puerto Rican Words and Feelings 1975
The Guntower 1976
Eulogy For A Small- Time Thief 1977
Straight From The Ghetto 1977
Paper Toilet 1979
Cold Beer 1979
La Bodega Sold Dreams (poetry) Arte Publico 1979/ Work in Progress “Every Form of Refuge Has It’s Price
Nuyorican Nights At The Stanton Street Social Club 1980
Payland Blues 1980
Midnight Moon At The Greasy Spoon 1981/ Other: Editor with Miguel Algarin
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