I’m very grateful to all the people of Fresno, to Philip Levine and all the poets before me, and all the farmworkers. I didn’t get here by myself. Juan Felipe Herrera Read Quote
What I really had was stories, the oral traditions of my parents. We moved so much that that was really our encyclopedia. A dream world told to me from my parents in the living room. Juan Felipe Herrera Read Quote
San Diego shaped me a lot. The visual landscapes, the emotional panoramas, the teachers and mentors I had from the third grade through San Diego High – it’s all a big part of the poetry fountain that I continue to drink from. Juan Felipe Herrera Read Quote
My parents moved from ranch to ranch, valley to valley, town to town, but our roots in Fowler never really faded. For me, it’s a place of history, stories and songs, not just facts and figures. Juan Felipe Herrera Read Quote
I am representing California, and all of California, definitely as a Mexicano, a Chicano, a Latino. Juan Felipe Herrera Read Quote
My mother was a washerwoman – or a woman that cleaned houses in Texas… in Plano, Texas – who always loved poetry and always loved stories. Juan Felipe Herrera Read Quote
The more we engage in society, the more firsts we have, then there will be a moment when we have no more firsts. Or maybe there will always be new firsts. Juan Felipe Herrera Read Quote
Sometimes you can do things with Spanish – like verbs and genders – easier than you can in English. Juan Felipe Herrera Read Quote
Sometimes I have a very fleeting emotional dance with a fleeting phrase, like ‘half-Mexican.’ Juan Felipe Herrera Read Quote
