Puerto Rican Poet Reads From Works

Aurora Levins-Morales, a Puerto Rican activist and poet, read from her works about sexual and racial alienation last night at Radcliffe's Agassiz House.

In a talk sponsored by the Third World Students Alliance, the Radcliffe Union of Students and Education 4 Action, the multi-faceted Levins-Morales spoke to an audience of 25, largely composed of student activists.

"I am an immigrant searching for a country, inventing a country I can belong to," she read from one poem, "Stories." Much of Levins-Morales' poetry deals with her feelings of alienation as a woman, a Latino and a Jew. The poems also dealt with her memories of growing up in Puerto Rico.

In addition to writing poetry, Levins-Morales has also worked as an interpreter with Salvadoran refugees. She said one of the poems she read, about the brutal murder of a pregnant woman by the Salvadoran police, was based directly on a refugee's story.

She said that women's groups in South America "are working on literacy projects and on anti-racism workshops. They are also working with mothers on what they teach their children (about sex roles)."