Tato Laviera
| Tato Laviera | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | Jesús Abraham Laviera Sánchez May 9, 1950 Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico |
| Died | November 1, 2013 (aged 63) Manhattan, New York |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Literary movement | Nuyorican |
Abraham "Tato" Laviera (May 9, 1950 – November 1, 2013), born Jesús Laviera Sanches, was a Puerto Rican native who immigrated to the United States. Through his life he was involved in various human rights organizations but was best known as a renowned Nuyorican poet. An obituary for NBC Latino describes him as "one of the greatest representatives of the Nuyorican movement."
Laviera was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico and moved to the Lower East Side of New York City in 1960 with his mother and siblings at the age of nine. He attended Catholic school in the United States where is teachers urged him to change his name to Abraham because they felt that Jesús was unfit for someone of Latino descent who did not understand English. As a result, he chose to go by the name "Tato," a nickname given by his brother. After graduating high school in 1968, he studied at Cornell University and later at Brooklyn College. However, he never received a degree from either school. Instead, he committed the majority of his time to social and community work. Laviera served as the director of University of the Streets, a nonprofit organization focused on providing educational opportunities for underprivileged individuals. Additionally, he was a director of the Hispanic Drama Workshop and a creative writing professor at Rutgers University.
While still in Puerto Rico, his mother studied under Juan Boria, an acclaimed poet and performer who was inspired by Afro-Caribbean culture. This early exposure introduced him to the world of Puerto Rican poetry that he later infiltrated. Tato initially began writing as a means of reestablishing the name that was taken from him earlier in his life.
Laviera had a daughter, Ruth Ella, and a son, Che Malik, who died in 2005. Tato suffered from diabetes, which caused a complications and interruptions in his work. In 2004, he was deemed legally blind due do complications with diabetes. He then revisited his passion for community work, working with the American Association for diabetes, where his main initiative was promoting awareness representing Latinos who suffered from the disease. He even founded the Jesús A. Laviera One-Day with Diabetes Project which allowed him to incorporate his adoration for poetry. He hosted events during which poets could speak about how diabetes has affected their lives and offer support to the Hispanic community. Following some years of financial and health problems, Laviera fell into a diabetic coma. Shortly after he died on November 1, 2013 in Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan.
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