On Friday, Feb. 18, my friend of more than 33 years, Chicano poet/novelist Víctor Martínez, passed away from complications of lung cancer. He was only 56 years old. Víctor was the author of the celebrated novel Parrot in the Oven that was awarded the 1996 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, among other prestigious literary awards.

Víctor Martínez was born and raised in Fresno, California, the fourth in a family of twelve children. He attended California State University at Fresno and Stanford University where I first met him in 1977, together with Juan Felipe Herrera. Víctor held a Wallace Stagner fellowship in the Department of English. He became a very active member of the tertulias literarias that were regularly held at Chicano poet/muralist/visual artist José Antonio Burciaga’s home in Menlo Park, near Stanford.

Later Víctor moved to the Mission District in San Francisco as Juan Felipe Herrera and I also did. The three of us lived and passed on to each other the same apartment we rented at different times on Capp Street in the heart of the Mission District. The three of us became active members of Humanizarte, a collective of Chicano poets, and later of El Centro Chicano/Latino de Escritores. Víctor was one of the regular writers and editors of La Revista Literaria de El Tecolote, contributing stupendous book, theater and film reviews.

It was at Stanford University where Víctor Martínez met Tina Alvarez, the love of his life. One morning Tina and Vic called me to come in a hurry to their pad on Capp Street. I ran from my flat on San Jose Avenue, a few blocks away, and found out that they had decided to get married that day and they wanted me as their witness. We took a joyful BART ride to City Hall and I was the sole witness to a simple and yet profound wedding ceremony that touched my heart. Víc and Tina didn’t need a lot of the usual trappings to show their love and commitment to each other.

Víctor was primordially a poet. He published in 1992 a collection of poetry titled Caring for a House with Chusma House Publications. He was a long-time active member of The Grotto, the San Francisco workspace community for writers, filmmakers and other narrative artists.

My friend, poet Lorna Dee Cervantes, best summarized Víctor’s unique work as a writer in a message she recently sent me: “He was the best among us. There was always something impeccable about him and his immense talent, his no bullshit ways and his unbullshitability, that thing that Hemingway said every great writer needs. How I need his poems now. How we need his voice.”

From Guatemala City, Feb. 20, 2011

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