Raul Salinas died last night at the age of 76. in Austin, Texas. Raul is best known for his epic poem Un Trip Through the Mind Jail (Y Otras Excursions), one of the seminal works in American literature. Raul was a crazy mix of vato loco, Native American activist, scat poet, teacher, and beatnic saint. A couple of links...an essay on Salinas and his work by Louis Mendoza, a personal remebrance by Abel Salas, an old Austin Chronicle article on Raul, and a brief bio over at La Bloga, here are the first couple of sentences:
Raúl 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 Soleded State Prison in California. Over the span of the next 15 years, Salinas spent 11 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 were intensified, and so it is with keen insight into the subhuman conditions of prisons and an inhuman world that the pinto aesthetics that inform his poetry were formulated.
Raul was truly one of the last of his kind. Here's one of the last performances of Raul's shot in San Antonio by Victor Payan. The photo above is from the set of Ray Santisteban's PBS documentary Voices from Texas, which features a very badass stylized reading by Raul of Un Trip. A must see. I'll try and find a link.
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