Son of migrant farmworker named US poet laureate

 

American Immigration Council - The next poet laureate of the United States is Juan Felipe Herrera, the son of migrant farm workers. Herrera will be the first-ever Chicano poet laureate, signaling, as the Los Angeles Times put it, “…an acknowledgment of the importance of Spanish and bilingual culture in America.”

Herrera writes in English and Spanish, often using both in the same poem, and he has been described as “the elder statesman of Mexican American poetry.” His poetry collections include works about the U.S.-Mexico border and the experiences of immigrants – 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross the Border: Undocuments 1971-2007 (2008) and Border-Crosser with a Lamborghini Dream (1991) are just a few. The immigration theme influences much of his work, including an early poem entitled “Everyday We Get More Illegal,” which deals with detention, citizenship, and immigrant families.