University of California, Santa Barbara
Davidson Library

Department of Special Collections

Californian Ethnic and Multicultural Archives

 

GUIDE TO THE
CORPI, LUCHA PAPERS

1958-1998

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Collection Number:  CEMA 26   Size Collection:  1.2 linear feet (3 boxes).   Acquisition Information: Donated by Lucha Corpi, September 26, 2000.   Access restrictions:  None.   Use Restriction: Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections.  Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.   Processing Information:  Principle processor Alexander Hauschild, assisted by Viviana Gonzalez, Courtney Bone, 2001.   Location:  Del Norte.

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BIOGRAPHY

Lucha Corpi is a celebrated Chicana author.  Born in 1945 in Jaltipan Veracruz, she has received numerous literary awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and the Latino Hallmark Book Award. She was named president of the Centro Chicano de Escritores (Chicano Writers Center), and is a member of the international feminist mystery novel circle, Sisters in Crime. Currently, she lives and teaches English in Oakland, California.  Her poems have appeared in literary magazines anthologies, and in the collection, Fireflight (1976). Corpi was first introduced to poetry through the poetic rhythm of song.  She once said,

“My father liked singing and music very much, many different kinds and types of music.  Through him I developed a sense of musicality…or what you call poetic rhythm.  When I write now I try to create sounds that have a musical tone.  I still write in Spanish because the tones I learned as a child were all in Spanish.”

Her early childhood teachers encouraged these talents by having her perform recitals and memorize poems. In 1964 she came to California at the age of nineteen, enrolling at the University of California Berkeley. She received her B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley, and her M.A. from San Francisco State University in World and Comparative Literature.

Lucha Corpi, who goes by the name “Luz”, began writing during a difficult period in her life, simply to express all the pent up feelings she was experiencing.  She found that she had an innate understanding of words. As she says, “I could charge them with electricity, make them shine, and make them do what I wanted them to do.” 

Nearly all of Lucha Corpi’s poems have been translated into English by Catherine Rodriguez-Nieto, a writer in her own right and a master of translation.

Luz sums up the relationship of her educational experience to her writing in the following manner,  “I don’t consider writing a profession.  Its reason for existing is different.  Education is important because it allows you to read and study works that help you in the craft of your writing, the apparatus, the structure in which you place your experience.  That is useful. But, education can also intimidate you so that you can never write.”

Lucha Corpi is part of the great renaissance in Latino literature taking place throughout the United States. Her major works include, Delia's Song (1984), Eulogy for a Brown Angel (1992), Cactus Blood (1995), Palabras de mediodia/Noon Words (1980), Variations on a Storm (1990) and Where Fireflies Dance (1997). Eulogy for a Brown Angel received the 1992 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award and the Multicultural Publishers' Exchange award for the best book of fiction, 1992. It features a Chicana feminist detective, Gloria Damasco.

SCOPE NOTE

The Lucha Corpi Papers are primarily arranged according to subject matter and date.  Wherever possible they have been maintained in their original order to reflect the design of the creator.  Series I: Personal and Biographical contains several clippings with mention of the writer and her work and the writer’s correspondence has been arranged in two groups, incoming and outgoing, the first arranged alphabetically the second arranged chronologically. In addition, a miscellaneous group has been created to contain pieces of a biographical. Series II: Literary Work falls naturally into four sub-series, School Papers, Short Stories, “Cuentos Infantiles,” and Poetry. These sections have been arranged in chronological order where the original order was not evident. The last series, Series III: Photos has been arranged according to the creator’s original order and each photo has had its information cited in this guide wherever that information was available.

 

CONTAINER LIST

SERIES I: PERSONAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL

 

Box   Folder    Contents

 

1           1                 Articles and Reviews

                  

Correspondence

1           2                       Incoming (A-J), (1973-1984)

1           3                       Incoming (K-Z), (1976-1983)

1           4                       Outgoing , (1976-1982)

1           5                       Miscellaneous, (1978-1982)

 

SERIES II: LITERARY WORK

 

                School Papers

1           6                       Passion: The Vehicle of Fate (April 1979)

1           6                       La Demencia de Andres Abalos (April 1978)

1           6                       Imagination and Reality in the Poetry of William Carlos Williams (Spring 1978)

1           6                       The Spirit and the Flesh in the Poetry of Charles Baudelaire (December 1978)

1           6                       The Absurd in The Stranger and the Trial (December 1978)

1           6                       Three Portraits: Bathsheba, Eustacia and Sue (December 1977)

1           6                       Personal Statement, San Francisco State University (1977)

1           6                       Soneto #67 de Fernando de Herrera (March 1973)

1           6                       Midterm Examination Spanish 115 (February 1972)

1           6                       Ecchoing Gree and the Garden of Love (March 1972)

1           6                       Los Funerales de la Mama Grande (April 1972)

1           6                       Informe Sobre Ciegos (May 1972)

1           6                       La Búsqueda y El Retorno (June 1972)

1           6                       Hymn Before Sunrise Paper (n.d.)

1           6                       The Indian, Spanish & Mestizo Heritage (n.d.)

1           6                       Spanish Survey of the Latin American Novel (n.d.)    

                                     

                Short Stories

1           7                       The Strawberry Ghost (1998)

1           7                       Delia’s Song (1984)

1           7                       Shadows on Ebbing Water, 1 draft (1984)

1           7                       Alguna fé adorable, 3 drafts (1982)

1           7                       Los Cristos del Alma, 4 drafts (1982)

1           7                       Cuento sin título, 1 draft (n.d.)

1           7                       Delmira, 3 drafts (n.d.)

1           7                       Mariposa Negra, Mariposa Negra, 1 draft (n.d.)

1           7                       Viajes en La Noche de Mañana (n.d.)

 

                Cuentos Infantiles

2           1                       Corazón (1985)

2           1                       El Río de los Recuerdos, 1 draft & 1 published copy (1985)

2           1                       The River of Memories, 1 draft & 1 published copy (1985)

 

2           2                       Fem Magazine (1984)

2           3                       Printers Copy of “Palabras de Mediodia” (1980)

2           4                       Printers Copy of “Black Widows Wardrobe” (c. 1972))

 

2           5                        “Tres Mujeres” (1970)

2           5                        Arturo/Ricardo (n.d.)

2           5                       Intruso (n.d.)

2           5                       My Grandmother (n.d.)

 

Box   Folder    Contents

 

                                Poetry

2           6                       Invitations Programs and Announcements (1969-1995)

2           7                       “Variaciones Sobre Una Tempestad” (1987)

3           1                       “Los ritos del invierno/The rites of Winter” (1982)

3           2                       Poetry (1970-1981)

3           3                       Poetry (n.d.)

3           4                       Invitations Programs and Announcements (n.d.)

3           5                       University of California Folder

3           6                       Miscellaneous

 

 

SERIES III: PHOTOGRAPHS

 

3           7                 Biographical Photographs (9 photographs)

                                      Age 32

                                      Age 21, at parents’ 25^th anniversary, San Luis Potosi.

Age 19, passport photo when immigrated to United States.

Age 17, in dentistry school with basketball team, “Madrina” of the team.

Age 16, piano recital Teatro de la Paz, San Luis Potosi, Mexico.

Age 16, graduation from high school, Bachillerate Hispano Mexicano, San Luis                        Obispo,Mexico.

Age 15, Quinceañera, 1960.

Age 13, piano recital at teacher’s house in San Luis Obispo, Mexico (1958).

Age 4, with brother Victor and sister Conchita, at Valtipan, Veracruz.

 

3           8                 Palabras del Mediodia Reception Photographs (3 photographs)

                                 Left to right: Jorge Lerma, artist illustrator and teacher. Oscar Treviño, publisher Fuego de Aztlán Publications. Corpi Catherine Rodriguez Nieto, Arturo Hernandez (son), Alcides Rodriguez Nieto two photographs, n.d.

                                      Corpi reading at reception, n.d.

 

3           9                 Personal Photographs (7 photographs)

Age 40, piano recital at Berkeley Piano Club.

Age 33, with students at the Oakland Public Schools (ca. 1978).

Age 30 (three photographs)

Age 29, outside Centro Infantil de la Raza (not depicted), was a parent involved in       its creation.

Age 27, student at UC Berkeley (Photographer Wolfgang Binder).

 

3           10               Writer’s Photographs (5 photographs)

                                      Corpi with Mark Greenside fiction writer.

                                From left to right, Ricardo Vasquez poet, Manuel Gomez poet, activist, Lucha Corpi

                                Sarah Espinoza Viale, Argentinean poet.

                                 Left to right: Roberta Fernandez (edited Corpi’s first mystery novel), Arturo Carrillo, friend and mariachi, and Corpi at Cinco de Mayo celebration Oakland Ca. 1978.

                                      Manuel Gomez, poet (seated) Juan José Arreola, Mexican fiction writer, wrote forward to Palabras del Mediodia, Lucha Corpi and son Arturo (right corner foreground) Picture taken June 1972.

 

3           11               Family Photographs (4 photographs)

                                 Family at grandmother’s house on Avenida Morelos, Jaltipan, Veracruz Mexico, 1957 View of Avenida Morelos ca, Mid 1970s. Corpi with Arturo Hernandez (son) at 8^th grade graduation, Oakland California. Miguel Angel Corpi (Corpi’s father). Victoria Constantino de Corpi (Corpi’s mother)1965.

 

Series IV Audio/Video Material

 

A8618/CS,       Third World Poetry at San Francisco State , 1980
A8619/CS,       Song Cycle, Susan Riley Caldini, 5/9/1992
A8620/CS,       KPFA interview, reading, Eulogy,  n.d.
A8621/CS,       SPA Corpi: Oficio nocturna: la Poesia, 1980
A8622/CS,       En Contacto Directo, KPFA, 9/18/1992
A8623/CS,       La Malinche, 5/3/1986
A8624/CS,       Faculty Lounge Mills College, Nov. 12
A8625/CS,       KIKO, Miami, 6/23/2003
A8626/CS,       CactusBlood, Arte Publico Press, Home Expressway Show,  6/25/1995
A8627/CS,       Bouchercon '97: A Ragout of Mystery; Cross Cultural issues; Roles of  Sleuths, 1997
A8628/CS,       Guns and Salsa: Latino Crime Fiction, n.d.
A8629/CS,       Bouchercon '97: Readings: Poets Who Turn to Crime, 1997
A8630/CS,       Color Voices, KPFA, 5/25/1985
A8631/CS,       KPFA Storytelling, 1976-1977