Video: Juan Felipe Herrera, Next U.S. Poet Laureate, Performing at USC in 1973 and 2010

Language & Literature

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Juan Felipe Herrera will become the next U.S. poet laureate this fall, but his words have long echoed through the halls of USC. In 1973, Herrera performed and read from his works as part of the Festival de Flor y Canto de Aztlan. Hosted by USC, the landmark Chicano literary event featured established writers such as Oscar Zeta Acosta and Luis Omar Salinas alongside emerging poets like Herrera.

Herrera returned in 2010 for the festival's reprisal in Doheny Memorial Library, joining many of the writers from the original event. In conjunction with the 2010 festival, the USC Libraries digitized video recordings from the 1973 event and made them publicly accessible. Watch Herrera's appearance above, and explore the full collection of videos and photographs (part of the Boeckmann Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies collection) at the USC Digital Library.

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Herrera (right) with Frank Sifuentes and Enrique Castillo outside the 1973 Festival de Flor y Canto. (Photo credit: Michael Sedano)


As he did in 1973, Herrera accompanied himself on guitar at the 2010 reprisal. (Photo credit: Michael Sedano)