from The Promised Land

Clemente Soto Vélez (1905–1993) was an influential Puerto Rican poet and activist. He is well known in Puerto Rico for both his poetry and his advocacy for independence. A bilingual selection of his poetry, The Blood That Keeps Singing/La Sangre que Sigue Canta, was published in 2001 by Curbstone Press.

Martín Espada has published numerous collections of poetry, including The Immigrant Iceboy’s Bolero (Waterfront Press), Trumpets from the Islands of Their Eviction (Bilingual Press), and Rebellion Is the Circle of a Lover’s Hands (Curbstone Press). His awards include a Massachusetts Artists Fellowship and the PEN/Revson Foundation Fellowship. He lives in Boston, where he works as a lawyer and teaches at Suffolk University Law School. (updated 1990)

Camilo Pérez-Bustillo is a lawyer, professor, translator, and human rights activist. He has written extensively on the rights of indigenous and displaced peoples and has been an advisor on poverty to the UN Human Rights Council. He was the co-editor of The Poverty of Rights: Human Rights and the Eradication of Poverty (Zed Books, 2001) and the co-translator of a selection of Clemente Soto Velez’s poetry, The Blood That Keeps Singing (Curbstone Press, 1995). (updated 6/2010)