Thanks to the events celebrating Latino Poetry and the Anthology from the Library of America I have discovered that I know a poet who is a former Independent intern. Leticia Hernández-Linares, professor at San Francisco State University, was an Indy intern for a year in 1993.
Leticia and I are both poets published by Tía Chucha Press. I lived in San Francisco during the year she lived in Santa Barbara, and our paths didn’t cross until 2017, when we read together at Beyond Baroque in Venice. As the daughter of Salvadoran immigrants, she is a poet who champions and promotes Latina poetry. Earlier this month, when I participated in her hybrid reading at San Francisco’s Medicine for Nightmares bookstore via Zoom, I mentioned that I would be writing about the event for the Independent. She then told me her story of how she took some time off from completing her MFA to live and heal in Santa Barbara.
As someone who also has a master’s in literature from UC Santa Cruz, I can tell you that academic work is no easy feat and completing any type of graduate work is a testament to a person’s strength. Leticia is certainly impressive with everything she has accomplished in the past three decades, from her first publication in the Independent to becoming an award-winning author and poet, to writing a picture book, her community work against gentrification, and her many grants as an artist-in-residence at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.