Video by Pam Stevenson, Agave Productions Inc., for Historical League
Alberto Rios’ life and work have been shaped by his dual heritage. Mr. Rios was born in Nogales, Arizona, the
son of an English mother and a Mexican father who met in England during World War II. A nurse, his mother left her familiar life in England to make a new life in Arizona. Growing up in a border town, Mr. Rios saw the dramatic contrast between the small Arizona town of Nogales, and the large Mexican city of Nogales. He says that as a boy he could easily step across the international “line” and he lived in two worlds, speaking both Spanish and English. “I knew that everything had more than one name and this helped me see the depth in things . . . two different ways to say the same thing.”
Alberto Rios began his creative writing in the backs of notebooks in junior high, but he did not take his writing seriously. After winning a scholarship to attend the University of Arizona, he discovered poetry. He earned degrees from the U of A in English and psychology and then entered law school. After the first year, he decided to puesue a master of fine arts degree. He explains, “I wasn’t quitting law school; I had quit writing and it was time to go back.”
After graduation, Mr. Rios faced the challenge of making a living as a poet and turned to teaching, participating in a program called Poets in the Schools. In 1980, with the Arizona Commission on the Arts and Central Arizona College, he started a community writer-in-residence program based on the model of the agricultural extension agent. Traveling around Pinal County, he worked with anyone who wanted help: ranch women writing memoirs, members of library book clubs, kids in elementary schools and authors in creative writing clubs.
Mr. Rios’ career as a traveling writing teacher ended when he won the Walt Whitman Award, a national prize for a first book of poetry. That national recognition led to a job offer from Arizona State University. As a professor of English at ASU, he enjoys working with his students. He tells them, “Every pencil is filled with a book, and as far as I can tell, pencils are doing their end of the job. It’s up to us to pick up the pencil and start writing.”
Alberto Rios is the author of eight books of poetry, three collections of short stories, and a memoir about growing up on the United States - Mexico border. His work has been translated, taught internationally, and even adapted for classical and popular music. His book of poems, The Smallest Muscle in the Human Body, was a finalist for the 2002 National Book Award. His work has also become part of public art with 600 of his “little poems” set in stone adjacent to the path alongside Tempe Town Lake. Mr. Rios also wrote and read poems for Governor Janet Napolitano’s inaugurations and for the Arizona visit of Mexico’s President Vicente Fox.
Mr. Rios describes his writing as telling stories . . . “remembering something that’s worth remembering.” He uses the language and ideas of both sides of the Nogales fence to relate adventures. “It helps articulate the human experience, which I think helps us see what we have in common.”
