The Pedro Pietri Papers, held at the Centro, Center for Puerto Rican Studies, City University of New York, "chronicle the extraordinarily creative, productive, and at times, anarchic life of one of the most original and innovative contemporary writers of the Puerto Rican community. They lend insight into the vast scope of Pietri’s literary interests and endeavors, his collaborative relationships with other writers and his editorial process." Later years Pietri was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2003. He went to Mexico to receive an alternative treatment for a year. On March 3, 2004, Pietri died en route from Mexico to New York. Funeral services were held in East Harlem at the historic First Spanish Methodist Church, which was taken over in 1969 by the Young Lords and renamed at the time as "The First People's Church" to provide free breakfast and other programs to the poor and working people of El Barrio. This is where, fittingly, Pietri first read in public his classic poem, "Puerto Rican Obituary", in support of the Lords' takeover of the church. See also Corsican immigration to Puerto Rico List of Puerto Rican writers Puerto Rican literature Miguel Piñero, co-founder of Nuyorican Poets Cafe and of its literary movement Giannina Braschi, leading lady of Nuyorican culture and author of Spanglish novel Yo-Yo Boing! Miguel Algarín, founder of Nuyorican Poets Cafe and co-founder of its literary movement Braschi's Empire of Dreams References Further reading Dalleo, Raphael, and Elena Machado Sáez. "Periodizing Latino/a Literature Through Pedro Pietri's Nuyorican Cityscapes." The Latino/a Canon and the Emergence of Post-Sixties Literature. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. 17–44. https://web.archive.org/web/20131029193238/http://www.post-sixties.com/. González, Ray. Ed. Currents from the dancing river: contemporary Latino fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1994. Hathaway, Heather, Josef Jarab, and Jeffrey Melnick. Eds. Race and the modern artist. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Hernandez, Carmen Dolores. Puerto Rican voices in English: interviews with writers. Westport: Praeger, 1997. Marzán, Julio. Ed. Inventing a word: an anthology of twentieth-century Puerto Rican poetry. New York: Columbia University Press, 1980. Reyes, Israel. Humor and the eccentric text in Puerto Rican literature. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005. External links Monthly Review Democracy Now! Tribute Nuyorican Obituary Tribute by Frances R. Aparicio Read Puerto Rican Obituary Read "El Spanglish National Anthem" View Current TV's program on Nuyorican culture. (https://web.archive.org/web/20090219001002/http://current.com/items/88836867/nuyorican_power.htm) Puerto Rican Obituary.Spanish.Translation by Raúl Racedo 1944 births 2004 deaths Poets from Ponce Puerto Rican