With this last one, and the experimental films called "underground movies," in 1966 he initiated his association with the New York circle of writers and the famed Andy Warhol factory.
The Chicano movement of the mid 1960s awakened Barrios's political conscience and deeply involved him from 1968 through 1976. In 1970 he accepted a teaching position and moved to Crystal City, Texas, the birthplace of the Chicano movement and, he declares, of his own spiritual birth. He became editor of the newspaper La Verdad; staged several politically oriented plays, including his Dale Gas Cristal (Give It Gas, Cristal, 1977); and wrote several poems with political content. His later disillusionment with the betrayal of Chicano hopes and ideals by the leaders of the movement prompted the writing of more poems and the publishing of Puro rollo (A colores) (Much Ado About Nothing [in Color]) in 1982.
Puro rollo is a collection of twenty-seven poems dedicated to la plebe (the people). The work is divided into three parts, each called a rollo, or reel (of movie film). Each rollo consists of nine poems and is introduced with an epigraph, respectively, by César Chávez, José Martí, and Rudy Martínez. In general the poems in the three rollos follow a progressive change of tone and mood that goes from optimism and hopefulness in "Rollo 1," moves through disillusion and even fatalism in "Rollo 2," and ends in a calm, reflective mood in "Rollo 3."
The first poem in "Rollo 1," titled "The Merry-Go-Round," sets the euphoric mood:
Flashing mirrors capture the world
in hi/speed and s-l-o-w m-o-t-i-o-n
a spherical view of the entire world
much like our poetry full of pride and joy
in the knowledge that this world is ours....
This is a free page. This page contains 198 words. This
biography contains 2,364 words (approx. 8 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Biography with our Gregg Barrios Access Pass.
