Mercado, June 2012

Centro Teaching Guide

Clemente Soto Velez: A Revolutionary Poet

Developed by Carmen I. Mercado (revised 03/03/2013)

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This teaching guide focuses on the life and work of Clemente Soto Vélez. It is one in a series of teaching guides on in the United States, sometimes referred to as Puerto Ricans in the Diaspora. It is published by The Center for Puerto Rican Studies/Centro in the interest of creating teaching resources that are designed to promote a better understanding of the cultural, intellectual and economic contributions of U.S. Puerto Ricans. To that end, this guide contains:

 Background information on Clemente Soto Vélez (1905-1993).  An interdisciplinary, standards-based instructional unit that aligns with the new Core Standards and that may extend over a week or longer.  Teaching resources that include primary and secondary sources accessible at Centro’s website and in its library and archival collection, including manuscripts, newspaper articles, photographs, audio recordings, film and video; and recommended readings appropriate for young adults are available through CUNY inter-library loans, the NYPL holdings and local bookstores.  Formative assessments or oral and written responses to prompts enable teachers to gauge their teaching effectiveness through students’ comments during and after each session and that allows teachers to make timely adjustments. Summative assessments enable teachers to evaluate both anticipated and unanticipated learning outcomes at the conclusion of this unit. It is expected that knowledge of the history and contributions of U.S. Puerto Ricans should, over time, creates consciousness of the value of education, and the written and spoken word in particular, to improve the quality of life of U.S. Puerto Ricans. Two essential questions guide this unit: (1) Does studying about the life and work of Clemente Soto Velez inspire new appreciation for the value of the written and spoken word, and education, in the struggle for social and economic justice and self-determination? (2) Does studying about the life and work of Clemente Soto Velez change how we view our responsibilities as members of our school community and the communities where we live?  References of instructional resources available in print or online by and about Clemente Soto Velez. These resources are organized into 4 sections: (a) Books

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authored or edited by the individual; (b) Web-based resources; (c) Chapters in books, articles, book reviews; and (d) Archival collections containing resources on featured Puerto Ricans. There are sufficient examples in each category to enable teachers to select those resources that most closely fit their instructional goals and teaching styles.

Learning Outcomes for Activities 1-2

Students are expected to meet appropriate objectives for Literacy in Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects as specified in the NYS Common Core English Language Arts Standards, Grades 6-12. Student work over time is the best indicator of whether students exceed, meet, or fall short of expected outcomes. It is recommended that teachers collaborate with students on the development of rubrics all agree serve as fair and valid indicators of what students understand and are able to do. In effect, participating in creating rubrics will assist students to be in control of their learning, as Clemente advocates. Changes in students’ understandings, reasoning and motivation are best appreciated when the products of each lesson are organized into a unit portfolio that may stand alone and combined with (and compared to) student work obtained from other teaching guides, or that have been completed during the school year.

Specifically, students are expected to:

 Provide evidence for thoughtful reading and drawing warranted conclusions from a range of texts of varying genres and increasing levels of intellectual and linguistic complexity, such as historical documents, personal essays, poetry, speeches, opinion pieces, power points, films produced for a broad audience/readership.

 Write routinely in response to prompts that have a specific purpose, such as to comment on and raise questions about instructional content and procedures, and to explain how Clemente Soto Velez’s life experiences shaped what and how he wrote. Emphasis will be on how well students integrate and evaluate

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information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., in print, online, film), with written and verbal feedback.

 Produce a well-documented and coherent final persuasive essay, (1-2 typed pages, 12 pt font, 1” margins) in response to one of two essential questions (See curriculum Map). The teacher will guide this writing through examples modeled in class (e.g., timeline, essay organizer, drafts of select essays). Although the rubric for determining the extent to which the essay exceeds, meets or falls short of meeting assignment requirements and established conventions for language use will be developed in collaboration with students, essays students are expected to use evidence from the film, primary and secondary documents and class discussions to support their thesis/argument in a coherent, well- documented and interesting manner appropriate to a given or self-selected audience. Students have a choice of essay questions for this summative assessment.

A Curriculum Map for Middle and Secondary Schools (grades 6-12)

Essential Enduring Formative Summative Questions Understandings Assessments Assessments Within/across the unit

Does studying Understanding that Prompts: Write a coherent 2-3 about the life and studying the life of -Explain to your page essay that work of Clemente “revolutionary poet” principal why you integrates knowledge Soto Velez inspire Clemente Soto Velez in believe that the life of and ideas from at new appreciation Puerto Rico and in New Clemente Soto Velez least 3 different for the value of the York: (a) inspires new is worthy of study. sources to explain:

4 Mercado, June 2012 written and spoken appreciations for the You may begin or word in the struggle value of the written and close your statement Choice 1 for social and spoken word in the by acknowledging -How learning about economic justice struggle for social and that you had little, if the life and writings of and self- economic justice and any knowledge of this Clemente Soto Velez determination? self-determination; and Puerto Rican poet made you think (b) contributes to a new prior to this unit. differently about… sense of civic pride and -Your Puerto Rican Does studying responsibility. -Explain to your heritage? OR about the life and family what you are -The “Puerto Rican work of Clemente learning about the life community” Soto Velez change and works of -What tools and how we view our revolutionary Puerto resources will you responsibilities as Rican poet Clemente use again to learn members of our Soto Velez and how more about Clemente school community this is changing you. Soto Velez? and the communities where . Choice 2 we live? Write a coherent essay explaining how has this unit has changed how you see and think about the value and purpose of education.

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Background Information Key Facts

 Clemente Soto-Velez was born in Lares, Puerto Rico in 1905 and attended school on at a time when Puerto Rican children were required to pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States.  Clemente co-founded "El Atalaya de los Dioses," which transformed into a revolutionary literary movement known as el Atalayismo connecting the literary world to political action or the written word to social change.  Life experiences inspired Clemente to “strip ignorance of its power”, using the power of the word to awaken critical consciousness.  Clemente became a leader in the Nationalist Movement led by , and in 1936 he along with Albizu and other militants in Puerto Rico was sentenced to prison time; he sentenced twice. On his second release, Federal agents took him to New York and warned him never to return to the island by threat of death.  Clemente established residence in New York in 1942, where he worked as a community organizer. He secured the support of Congressman Vito Marcantonio to create spaces where people could gather, learn and plan community activism.  Clemente took under his wings Puerto Rican artists, educators, and writers in their formative years like Pedro Pietri, Tato Laviera, Sandra Maria Esteves, mentoring and nurturing them through their early years.  In the in80’s Clemente returned to Puerto Rico in poor health, where he died in 1993. After his passing, the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center was established in the Lower East Side, in his honor.

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Learning about Clemente Soto Velez from Viewing and Discussing the Centro Film,

Clemente Soto Velez: A Revolt of Letters

1. Build students’ knowledge and provide a motive for learning. Introduce the unit on Clemente Soto Velez by viewing Caballo Blanco (1959) a 5-min musical video on You Tube, as interpreted by Roy Brown and Aires Bucaneros: file://localhost/(http/::www.youtube.com:watch%3Fv=6lwYtHwEzYM). Allow the video to introduce Clemente Soto Velez through words, images, and music. Introduce the next four sessions: “We will be viewing a film that introduces us to Clemente Soto Velez through the eyes of those who knew him best, among them his granddaughter Ana Soto Canino, poets Louis Reyes Rivera, Roy Brown, Tato Laviera, Mari-Thelma Costa, Pedro Lopez Adorno, and historians Gerald Meyer and Orlando Hernandez. Prepare a semantic web with Soto Velez in the center and 4 spokes to write a few words describing who these individuals are and their relationship to Soto Velez. Emphasize that students will learn about Soto Velez comes from the people who knew and loved him. Ask if anyone has heard about or read the writings of Clemente Soto Velez, charting students’ contributions including both conceptions and misconceptions. Call attention to some of the words used to describe Clemente e.g., patriot, wordsmith, community organizer, performance-poet, mentor, teacher and companion. Finally, reveal the full title of the film: Clemente Soto Velez: A Revolt of Letters, and ask students to write a brief explanation of the title of the film. Conclude by probing students’ expectations by charting a few responses. Return to students’ explanations and this chart during each session, checking off, correcting or adding further details before and after each viewing. It is recommended that this 45-minute bilingual film be viewed in no fewer than 4-6 sessions.

2. Introduce Centro Film, “Clemente Soto Velez: A Revolt through Letters”

This film traces major moments in the life of Clemente Soto Velez, from experiences in his early school years that were to mark the course of his life until his passing in San Juan in 1993. Six critical moments in Clemente’s life are brought to life through words,

7 Mercado, June 2012 images (photographs and video clips) and music. Although we learn about Clemente through his own words, mostly it is from testimonials offered by those who were closest to Soto Velez: Clemente’s granddaughter, poets Tato Laviera, Mari-Thelma Costa and Louis Reyes Rivera, and composer and musician Roy Brown. Brown offered both musical interludes and personal memories of Soto Velez.

The six episodes that comprise this film are: A Revolt is Born, Jail Time-Learning Process; Clemente and the Big Apple; Battling the Letters, The Muse; and Twilight. While it serves as an introduction to the six episodes, the opening segment of the film IS very insightful and should be emphasized along with three bolded episodes that provide insights into the heart and mind of this revolutionary poet. As Clemente acknowledges, it was the experience of having to pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States, and not the flag of Puerto Rico as a 5-year old attending school for the first time that was to mark his journey through life. However, all 6 episodes are instructive and appropriate for young adolescent learners, if time permits such in-depth discussion.

Explain the procedures for each viewing session. Students will complete a T chart, recording events they find interesting on the left column and leaving the right column blank. After each viewing, first students will compare the events they find interesting with those of a partner then each pair will share with the class those events they found in common. Students will be encouraged to comment on any new insight about Clemente’s life from this discussion, as the teacher records “Events” and “New Understandings” on a new chart. The role of the teacher is to listen carefully to capture how students express their ideas in their words, organizing these events into a timeline over several sessions. It is recommended that teachers clip index cards of events with clothe pins on a string affixed to the ends of a movable chalkboard. This makes it easy to add, remove or re-order events students suggest over six viewing episodes. However, the teacher should prepare her own timeline on a chart that is kept hidden from view until the last session, which will require research as the film is not always explicit as to the precise dates that particular events occurred. This is also a great opportunity in motivating students to do research to add the missing information. Once the timeline gets underway, it will facilitate comparisons of differences in events

8 Mercado, June 2012 students identify with those the teacher finds significant. What is important is the review that this timeline makes possible and the explanation that are offered for the inclusion of particular events in the life of Soto Velez. Consensus is not necessary as long as the explanations students and teacher offer are compelling. Over time, this exercise also prepares students for their final essay to be drafted in class after the last viewing session and revised at home.

Session I View segments 1 and 2 of the film (approx. 12 min.) Segment 1 (5 min.) A Revolt is Born- The Atalayismo Literary Movement is born in 1928 and in 1931 the PR Nationalist Party is formed. The young poets who co-founded the movement form a pact with Albizu Campos, founder of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. They will use poetry as a vehicle to do revolutionary work as they serve as leaders of the Nationalist Party. Clemente’s statement that being a poet means stripping ignorance of its power is a powerful and illuminating quote worthy of discussion.

Segment 2 (7 min.) Jail Time-Learning Process Clemente and other Nationalist poets are found guilty of conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States in Puerto Rico. In the high security prison in Atlanta, Georgia, Clemente shares a jail cell with Albizu Campos and became close friends. After 4 years in jail, he was released and returned to Puerto Rico and continued his political activity. In violation of his parole, he was rearrested and tried again. Clemente’s statement that wall crumbles when a man or woman thinks freely is another powerful and illuminating quote that deserves discussion time.

Session 2 View Segment 3 of the film (approx. 11 min.) Clemente and the Big Apple Although this segment sheds light on Clemente Soto Velez’s work as a community- organizer in East Harlem (El Barrio), it is an especially informative episode for teachers and students, grades 6-12. Clemente was brought to his “new home” in New York accompanied by federal agents who warned that if Clemente ever returned to Puerto Rico he would be killed. In El Barrio, Clemente used the opportunity to accomplish

9 Mercado, June 2012 important community goals through community education at the time of the Great Migration, when Puerto Ricans came in large numbers and formed the largest US Puerto Rican community in El Barrio. Building alliances was essential, which meant working with other ethnic groups, unions, community-based organizations, and political leaders such as Congressman Vito Marcantanio, a supporter of the disenfranchised. Developing community education programs was key to cultivate and nurture local leadership. He advised young people in simple and powerful words: You have to read, you have to study, you have to make sacrifices to develop the knowledge (and consciousness) you need to address the needs of our communities. When some said “I can’t speak (in public), he responded: “You have to speak!” As he comments, “If they are afraid to speak, how will they fight for our rights?” Reading and studying to understanding, through the written and spoken word are critical to developing the critical consciousness that is needed to motivate action, whether through public speaking, writing, or other means.

Session 3 View Segment 4 of the film (min) Battling the Letters This is an insightful segment that illustrates in compelling ways the significance of the ELA Literacy Standards, an important connection to make to motivate students to pay attention to how language works. Poet Tato Laviera, who was strongly influenced by Clemente, captures the essence of this segment when he states: “He understood the power of language.” As Clemente’s granddaughter adds that Clemente was a wordsmith who chose his words carefully. However, Clemente also “battled language,” meaning that he battled its irregularities, especially in the relationship between how words/letters are written and how they are pronounced (or not). Mari-Thelma Costa explains that these efforts have a long history, and Clemente was not alone in his efforts to change, reinvent or regularize Spanish orthography. He battled language when he wrote his name as Klemente.

For Clemente, the written word words must be brought to life through the spoken word. This style of reciting poetry, as a performance poet, is now referred to as Spoken Word,

10 Mercado, June 2012 and popular among young poets. Luis, the self-designated Janitor of History, adds that there is a wide difference between the Spanish word un declamador and its English translation, orator. Appropriately the segment concludes with two interpretive readings of Clemente’s writing from La Tierra Prometida (1979 )(The Promised Land) and Caballo de Palo (Wooden Horse). Although readings are done in Spanish (with English subtitles), this enables students with minimal Spanish language competence to appreciate Clemente’s unique style of working with words and sounds to convey meaning.

Session 4 View Segments 5 and 6 of the film (15 min) The Muse Amanda Soto Velez, the Muse, Clemente’s life partner, came to NY from Buenos Aires in the 1960s, and sought out the literary world. She was the force that kept Clemente alive. She made things easy for him so he could write—a literary angel and the power behind the writer; Both Amanda and Clemente were wordsmiths. Their tropical apartment on E 92 St. was an oasis for artists, educators and poets who regularly gathered there.

Twilight Clemente returned to Puerto Rico in frail heath, in the 1980’s At the age of 84 wanted to start a new movement. He died in San Juan in 1993, first buried in Bayamon first and finally in Lares where his life began.

3. Summarize and Integrate ideas

Offer students a choice of three prompts to consider and to offer a verbal explanation in response to it:

(a) What evidence do you have from viewing this film that Clemente Soto Velez was a “revolutionary poet.”

(b) How has the film on Clemente Soto Velez affected you and what you would like to accomplish in your life’s journey?

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(c) Does Clemente Soto Velez’s story remind you of someone you know or have read about? Explain similarities and differences you find between them. What lessons do these lives have to teach you as a young person growing up in ?

4. Extend and promote deep understand of content

Offer students’ choice in learning more about the life and accomplishments of Clemente Soto Velez through exposure to a variety of print and visual texts that form part of the Clemente Soto Velez and Amanda Soto Velez papers, found online at http://www.centropr.org/faids/velezf.html. The teacher may also organize opportunities for students to interview Centro historians and researchers such as Pedro Hernandez (or view his online video) to understand how researchers and educators may work with the Clemente Soto Velez collection. Students should now understand that doing archival research involves different forms of literacy to read, select from and organize primary documents. Engaging in historical thinking focused on the meaning and interpretation of these documents, students will begin to generate new interpretations of the US Puerto Rican Diaspora. At the Schomburg Collection in Harlem and the African Burial Ground Museum in Lower Manhattan they are able to read and view historical documents on the Black Diaspora, which interconnects with the Puerto Rican Diaspora. Writing the Final Essay Students will work on the final essay during the week following this unit. At a minimum, 2 45-min sessions will be provided for drafting the essay, 1 session for feedback and two sessions for making final edits. Teaching Resources

Section I: Texts by Clemente Soto Vélez

Soto Vélez, Clemente. (1930). “La trinchera atalayista.” La Linterna. (December 21, 1930) San Juan, PR

Soto Vélez, Clemente. (1954). Abrazo Interno. New York: Las Americas Publishing Co.

Soto Vélez, Clemente. (1955). Arboles. New York: Las Americas Publishing Co.

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Soto Vélez, Clemente. (1959). Caballo de Palo. New York: Las Americas Publishing Co.

Soto Vélez, Clemente. (1979). La tierra prometida. San Juan, PR: Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña.

Soto Vélez, Clemente. (1983). Esta urticante pasión de la pimienta. New York: Prisma Books.

Soto Vélez, Clemente. (1989). Obra poética. San Juan, PR: Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña.

Soto Vélez, Clemente. (1991). The blood that keeps singing/La sangre que sigue cantando. Translated by Martin Espada and Camile Perez-Bustillo. Willimantic, CT: Curbstone Press.

Soto Vélez, Clemente. (2005). Mujer u ombre u ombre o mujer. San Juan, PR: Editorial del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña

Section II: Web-based & audiovisual resources on Soto Vélez

Online description of archives of the Clemente Soto Vélez Center http://www.moma.org/learn/resources/latino_survey/Vélez_center

Guide to the Clemente Soto Vélez and Amanda Vélez Papers. http://centropr.hunter.cuny.edu/sites/default/files/faids/pdf/Soto_Vélez_Clemente.pdf Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center, New York City http://csvcenter.org/

González-Laguer, Joelle. (2010). “Clemente Soto Velez: a revolt through letters.” DVD. New York, NY: Center for Puerto Rican Studies.

Section III: Print Sources on Clemente Soto Vélez’s life and work

Azank, Natasha. (2012). "’The Guerilla Tongue’: The Politics of Resistance in Puerto Rican Poetry." Open Access Dissertations. Paper 512. http://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations/512

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“Clemente Soto Vélez, Puerto Rican Poet, 89.” The New York Times. Published: April 17, 1993.

Marithelma, Costa. (1990). Kaligrafiando: Conversaciones con Clememte Soto Vélez

Rodr guez Matos, Carlos Antonio. (1990). s e ente t e = Simposio Klemente Soto Beles. (Conference publication) San Juan, PR : Instituto de Cultura Puertorrique a.

Section IV: Archival materials on Clemente Soto Vélez

Archives of the Puerto Rican Diaspora. Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños, Hunter College, CUNY. The Clemente Soto Vélez Papers.

Barreno, Jose. (1983). “Conversacion y poesia con Clemente Soto Vélez [videorecording].” Production Company: BUYENEI 4 (Held at the Hostos Community College and Center for Puerto Rican Studies libraries)

Soto Vélez, Clemente. (1924). Clemente Soto Vélez Papers. (Mixed materials). Center for Puerto Rican Studies.

(Teaching resources were compiled by Carmen I. Mercado, Ricardo Gabriel and Victoria Nunez)

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