The Center for Puerto Rican Studies (CENTRO) at Hunter College is excited to announce that ser islas/being islands by Víctor Fragoso and translated by Paul Orbuch, is officially on sale at La Bodega, CENTRO’s online store.
This special 50th-anniversary edition will include his poetry in both English and Spanish, along with archival photos, essays by CENTRO Archivist Herbert Durán and CENTRO Journal Editor Gustavo Quintero Vera, and personal letters from Fragoso’s papers at CENTRO.
ser islas / being islands is a testimony of loss and nostalgia, of longings and memories, of unattainable yearnings and sexual desires realized. The poetic voice offers a meditation of our singularity as individuals and our craving for connection with others and with nature itself. The text flows between solemn reflections of isolation and joyful celebrations of communion.
Originally published in 1976, this latest edition of ser islas/being islands delicately interwines images from Fragoso’s personal archival collections, elegantly capturing the nostalgic and intimate nature of his work with new essays by Archivist Herbert Duran and Gustavo Quintero Vera.
Victor Fragoso is an extremely important figure in the queer Nuyorican community who tragically died due to complications of AIDS in January 1982. Born in 1944 in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico, Víctor Fragoso was a prolific poet, playwright, and scholar. A graduate of the University of Puerto Rico (B.A.) and the University of Connecticut (M.A., PhD), he was one of the first proponents of Puerto Rican studies as an academic discipline. In the 1970s, He worked as a poet and playwright in New York and New Jersey while teaching as an Assistant Professor of Spanish at Livingston College, a residential college at Rutgers University. He joined the Committee of Puerto Rican Studies, where he designed and taught the first-ever course on Puerto Rican literature at Rutgers.
His poetry and plays focused on issues of gender, homosexuality, and the life of the Puerto Rican diaspora in the United States. While he never mentioned it explicitly, family members have said that Fragoso was motivated to leave Puerto Rico because of his sexual identity. In 1982, at 37 years old, he died due to AIDS-related complications. His residence in El Barrio in East Harlem is now an NYC LGBTQ+ historic site.
CENTRO is hosting a free virtual event to celebrate the book launch. On April 23 at 6PM, save the date for the official launch of the latest book released in the Diasporican Library collection of the CENTRO Press, ser islas/being islands by Victor Fragoso and translated by Paul Orbuch.
To learn more about Victor Fragoso, click here to view his collection in CENTRO’s digital archives.