NYWIFT Blog

AmeRican Poet Tato Laviera: Affirmation in the words, rhythms and blended language of an influential Nuyorican poet

By Lisa Stahl

For generations, the Polish, Jewish, and Puerto Rican communities who have inhabited and redefined the Lower East Side of Manhattan have found its winding streets both a landing and rallying point. The community can wear different faces: either a place of toil and struggle, the twilight region of choice between disparate languages and customs, or a land of aspirations and promise. But to cross that line, to realize one’s potential, is a lonely journey. Something gets lost in translation: the rhythms, words, poetry, and music that inspired you. The herculean fight to overcome poverty for a sometimes unrealized promise of a better life can take a toll.

Tato Laviera

 

No one articulates that better than Tato Laviera, a little known but enormously important Nuyorican poet who pushed the boundaries of language, inspired the spoken word movement, and defined the Nuyorican experience. As an artist he innovated: he combined music, theater, poetry, dance, the power of dramatic contrasts and a commitment to social activism to create a new type of poetry. As both a poet and performer, he documented his own experience and affirmed his community’s worth, redefined its sense of identity.

Vivian Hernandez Ortiz, the producer and director of the documentary AmeRican Poet Tato Laviera, is an award-winning journalist, TV news producer, and documentary filmmaker. In her own words, “Being a Puerto Rican I felt very strongly I could tell his story.” Ortiz’s decades of experience as a journalist for NBC and ABC News and a senior producer for a newsmagazine program on FIOS1 informs her expert storytelling. In this compelling documentary, available on DVD, she pieces together from archived and original interviews with colleagues and family members Tato’s magic, the impact he had on his colleagues and community.

In advance of the film’s showing in the NYWIFT Member Screening Series June 25-29th, 2020, Hernandez Ortiz discussed the filmmaking process and Tato’s legacy. 

First, some definitions:

Nuyorican: a Puerto Rican living in New York. Tato was one of the first to document the Nuyorican experience, according to his colleagues.

The Nuyorican Poets Café on the Lower East Side, was in part inspired by Tato’s legacy and the spoken word movement. The legendary avant garde venue describes itself as one whose artists use poetry, jazz, theater, hip-hop and spoken word as a means of social empowerment for minority and underprivileged artists.

Spanglish: the art of combining Spanish and English in original ways.

AmeRican: the name of a moving signature Laviera poem that endeavors to define the experience of a Puerto Rican growing up in New York.

 

NYWIFT Member Vivian Hernandez Ortiz

 

What role did you play in the making of this documentary?

I was the producer and director. I hired a bilingual editor to work with me, and got a beloved Conga player from El Barrio to play his music to weave the percussion sound with the spoken word about this truly pure artist. 

 

What inspired this documentary?

I love to tell impactful stories. It was an organic transition to go from being a journalist on news magazine shows to documentary filmmaking.  The interviews with Tato, his friends, colleagues, and family members had been shelved for five or six years. When I came on the scene, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work immediately to piece together the myriad of interviews, and figure out the missing pieces. I found I had a big hole to fill. Fortunately, Prof William Luis gracefully filled that hole. I went to work piecing together a myriad of interviews and re-interviewed Tato’s sister, Ruth, to learn about his early life.

Tato Laviera

 

What were some of your challenges?

I was the new person, a Latina with a supervisory role working with a skeleton crew in the media unit at CENTRO [at Hunter College]. [But] I completely believed in the project and in telling Tato’s story. I am an advocate and a mentor to young men and women in our community. 

 

How do you feel this film resonates with the Black Lives Matter movement?

Tato’s message was really about being inclusive; “he” is a “we.”  Assimilation is an issue for any culture adopting to the ways of the their new homeland. You can go back home but the community you left behind may not accept you for who you’ve become. ‘Neither here, nor there’ [as Tato said]: you don’t fit in. In his unique way Tato raised consciousness. [Nuyoricans] are a people marginalized in our own culture, blended racially and culturally. In the film a local activist says she thought Tato was a better community activist than a poet. He made a great impact. He was beloved by the people. He would light up the room. His message is also inclusive. His philosophy is to grow as an individual.

 

What do you feel was most satisfying about making this movie?

I captured the essence of the man, through his love of the spoken word, through the lively sounds of our music, from his deep relationships with people, and his unfailing love for his Puerto Rican family.

 

Watch AmeRican Poet Tato Laviera any time June 25-29th as part of NYWIFT’s Member Screening Series. Then tune in to a Q&A with filmmaker Vivian Hernandez Ortiz on Monday, June 29th at 5 PM EST. Register for both now

 

AmeRican Poet Tato Laviera was produced by the Center for Puerto Rican Studies/Hunter College/CUNY (Centro).

PUBLISHED BY

Lisa Stahl

Lisa Stahl Lisa Stahl has followed her own unconventional path, working in and out of the industry, behind and in front of the camera (TV and film), and as a writer, producing e-learning courses on personal style online, doing development research and writing for a UN-based TV show, extensive investigative research in politics and international affairs for a prominent political strategist, and as a lifestyle editor for a chic digital magazine interviewing prominent fascinating people in the entertainment, fashion, health, wellness, and travel industries. She has also worked recently as a technical writer covering the latest anti-terrorism technologies and developments in data science and artificial intelligence.

View all posts by Lisa Stahl

Comments are closed

Related Posts

NYWIFT Member Spotlight: Kathryn O’Kane

Today, we’re shining a spotlight on former NYWIFT Board Member Kathryn O’Kane! Kathryn is the co-director and co-writer of the short comedic film Subtext, which has been accepted into the 2025 LA Shorts International Film Festival, screening July 26 at 7:45 p.m. LA Shorts is the longest-running short film festival in Los Angeles. The festival screens over 400 films and attracts 10,000 attendees each year, including Hollywood industry professionals and emerging undiscovered independent filmmakers. Subtext follows Eric, who is running late to his first date with Sara, and he just can’t stop texting. A feeling so many of us, unfortunately, are bound to relate to. Kathryn sat down with co-director, co-writer, and editor Christopher Raby to talk to us about their creative process.

READ MORE

Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Christine Stoddard

Welcome to NYWIFT, Christine Stoddard! Christine Stoddard is a filmmaker, TV personality, and video artist named one of Brooklyn Magazine’s Top 50 Most Fascinating People. Her latest film is 5 Ways I Didn’t Marry You, directed by Tom Dunn. A 2025 graduate of Columbia Journalism School and the Columbia Painting Intensive, she creates imaginative films, deeply reported TV programs, and playful videos.  Currently, she hosts the TV show Don't Mind If I Don't with Aaron Gold. She also runs the YouTube channel Stoddard Says and terrorizes the Internet with her alter ego Art Bitch. Her feature film, Sirena's Gallery, is streaming on Amazon and Tubi and was featured in The Brooklyn Rail.  As founder of Quail Bell Press & Productions, her film and theater projects have been recognized by the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Puffin Foundation, the Brooklyn Arts Council, and other organizations. Get to know Christine, her roots in the film industry, and her experiences as a TV host!

READ MORE

Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Andrea Frierson

Welcome to NYWIFT, Andrea Frierson! Two-time Helen Hayes Award nominee Andrea Frierson is a Dramatists Guild Fellow, a NYSCA grant recipient, and a Library of Congress Award-winner (Ethnographic Research, American Folklife). Her plays and musicals have been produced by Lincoln Center Theater and the York Theatre Company in NYC, among others. As an actor, her Broadway productions include: The Lion King, Once on This Island, Bring in ‘Da Noise/Bring in ‘Da Funk, Eubie!, For Colored Girls, Marie Christine, and Julie Taymor’s Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass. Television appearances include: Quantico, Pose, Red Oaks, Elementary, and Harlem. Andrea was a series regular on the Nickelodeon TV series, Allegra’s Window. In our interview, Andrea discusses her experiences as a writer, actor, and singer, and her journey writing her memoir.

READ MORE

Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Laci Joseph

Welcome to NYWIFT, Laci Joseph! Laci Joseph is a graduating senior at Temple University, earning her B.A. in Film and Media Arts in Spring 2025. She is passionate about production design and visual storytelling, with a focus on African American culture, history, and uplifting marginalized communities. Her creative interests include themes of love, romance, identity, and global exploration.  Laci aspires to design for music videos, short films, and documentaries, while also bringing her own passion projects to life. Through her work, she aims to build immersive visual worlds that inspire connection, celebrate culture, and reflect powerful, underrepresented stories. Laci discusses what brought her to film, projects she is currently working on, and the themes she conveys through her work!

READ MORE
JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER
css.php