Revolutionary poet and beloved, longtime El Tecolote contributor Alfonso Texidor, 68, died Christmas Day, 2014 from lung cancer.
Texidor was born in Puerto Rico, where he got involved in the pro-independence movement after graduating high school. He eventually moved to the Bronx, New York City and became involved with revolutionary politics and militant anti-war activism.
Disillusioned with the factionalism of the radical left, Texidor traveled west, arriving in San Francisco in the late 1960s. He settled in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood during the hippie movement, taking a job as coordinator with the Haight Ashbury Music workshop. In the early ’80s he relocated to the Mission District, integrating seamlessly into the poetry scene, and ultimately finding the neighborhood’s bilingual newspaper, El Tecolote.
At El Tecolote he worked as a translator and as the calendario editor. He used the calendar to
promote local artists and foster community in the neighborhood he loved.
Texidor leaves behind an entire city that will never be the same without him. An afternoon memorial is planned for early February, although the date has not been confirmed as of this time.
