Luis Alberto Urrea Professions : Poet Born : 1955 Browse All Authors Top 34 quotes by Luis Alberto Urrea A lot of our family was undocumented. My mom and dad were both super conservative. My dad had a green card; my mom was an Eisenhower Republican who did not approve of all the 'illegal people.' Luis Alberto Urrea green dad family people The situation was kind of complicated in that my mother didn't speak Spanish. My father spoke English, you know, as best he could. Luis Alberto Urrea best you mother father Spanish was my first language. Honestly, I learned to first speak in Spanish, not English, because my poor mother had to go to San Diego every day to work and then come back. And she would come home when I was an infant long after I was asleep. Luis Alberto Urrea day mother work home I had not seen lawns till fifth grade - big green lawns. Luis Alberto Urrea had seen big green Borders are liminal spaces. Anyone worthy of the title of 'writer' is a border writer. We all are border people. Luis Alberto Urrea border worthy borders people I'm a theological writer mistaken for a political writer. My theme is grace versus karma. Luis Alberto Urrea theme karma political grace The stupidity of militarized fences between two worlds is a metaphor for all the things that divide us as human beings. Luis Alberto Urrea us human things stupidity I often say poetry was my first love. Luis Alberto Urrea say first-love poetry love Poetry is how I feed the soul, and it's how I fire the furnace of writing. Luis Alberto Urrea poetry soul fire writing Many of us writers tour like a literary Bachman Turner Overdrive. We ain't pretty, but we're on the road. Many of us wish we were rock stars anyway. For my part, I live in my iPod. The musicians there are my constant companions on the road. Luis Alberto Urrea live road stars wish I missed the Wilco phenom while busy obsessing over rock en Espanol. So imagine my surprise when I found myself at O'Hare getting on a plane with my Chi-town homeboy, Jeff Tweedy. I loved the guy right away and loved his family. How odd to know somebody before you listen to them. I don't know if that's bad or good. Luis Alberto Urrea good myself you family My dad looked like Errol Flynn, and I think my mom thought she was moving into a hacienda, but they lived on a dirt street in Tijuana, a house jammed with relatives, nobody speaking English. She didn't know a word of Spanish. She grew up well and was appalled and humiliated, terrified of anyone ethnic. Luis Alberto Urrea street nobody dad mom Way back when I was working at the dump, I saw that, even when living among the trash, that some people would decide to choose joy in their lives. Luis Alberto Urrea some-people joy people way It's the most absurd story. I grew up in the dirt streets of Tijuana, dying of all kinds of diseases - tuberculosis, fevers, all that - and it somehow turned into this charmed life. I don't know exactly how. Luis Alberto Urrea story how know life Similar Authors Abdellatif Laabi poet Ihara Saikaku poet Abram Joseph Ryan poet Ingeborg Bachmann poet Izumi Shikibu poet Bion of Smyrna poet All Authors