Luis López with childhood friends. Photo courtesy of López.
Luis López is a born storyteller, and he has many entertaining stories that tell the tale of his colorful life. In his new interview with the Mesa County Oral History Project, you can hear stories of his time in Albuquerque as a boy, and of the Pachuco Spanish that he and his friends spoke. López talks about his close relationship with his brother, who was a good, sensitive artist and a good baseball player. He speaks also about his own baseball playing days, including his time coaching and helping to desegregate baseball teams in the South during the Civil Rights Era.
You can hear stories about the many books of poetry that he has written, of the diligence necessary to have a life in letters, and of being one of the first writers brave enough to write in both English and Spanish. One of his books, More Musings of a Barrio Sack Boy, is available as an audio book online, produced by our very own 970West Studio.
López has a PhD in English literature and has also studied astrology, astronomy, religion, genealogy, history, and dream poetry. He went to St. John’s University, spent some time at Harvard and Oxford, attended a Jesuit seminary, and worked as a professor at the University of New Mexico before reprising that role at Colorado Mesa University.
López has befriended many writers over the years, such as his childhood and lifelong friend Rudolfo Anaya (recently deceased) and Jimmy Santiago Baca. He has done readings with valued friends and fellow poets on the Western Slope, and has been an important part of our arts and literary communities for thirty years. Last but not least, López ran the Mesa County Libraries Central Branch poetry group for several years before ceding it to our current and wonderful leader Jennifer Rane Hancock.
Listen to López’s new Mesa Country Oral History Project interview, and to his previous 970West Studio interview, and help celebrate this valuable Mesa County writer and citizen.