Clemente Soto Vélez

As a poet, journalist and activist, Clemente Soto Vélez mentored many generations of Latino artists in New York City. Upon his death in 1993, he left a rich legacy that contributed to the cultural, social and economic life of Puerto Ricans in New York City and Latinos everywhere.

Among his many accomplishments, Clemente founded literary and community organizations including the Puerto Rican Merchants Association to help store owners protect their rights, as pioneering entrepreneurs.

Clemente Soto Vélez's life and work exemplify his deep concern for the well being of Puerto Ricans and other Latinos, and demonstrate his firm belief in self-sufficiency and community empowerment. As a member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party , he fought for the dignity and sovereignty of the Puerto Rican Nation, alongside Pedro Albizu Campos and Juan Antonio Corrretjer.

Clemente Soto Vélez remains one of the most
prominent of Puerto Rico's poets, who wrote in the
tradition of Neruda, with powerful, passionate,
socially visionary and surrealist vision.

A sample of his work and vision can be found in The Blood That Keeps Singing , where "the English-speaking reader can discover at last this major writer whose poetry and passionate social vision are inseparable, a man for whom the poet must be 'light transformed into humanity." -- MultiCultural Review

Available through Curbstone Press , a not-for-profit literary arts organization and other bookstores.