The Story
Louis Reyes Rivera Speaks Truth
Louis Reyes Rivera explained to an audience that “we have been lied to about everything.” As a guest speaker for the Hispanic Cultural Organization Monday night, Rivera provided a captivating mix of lecture and poetry, leaving the audience with his thoughts on history, current issues, and the misrepresentation of everything in between.
“The HCO wanted to bring to campus a speaker that would be both educational and entertaining as well as appeal to a large audience,” said HCO Vice President, Amy Creech. “We thought Mr. Rivera would do an excellent job of touching on issues which are pertinent not only to our organization but several other organizations and academic departments.”
After declaring, “I come before you a poet,” Rivera opened his lecture with a powerful poem from his book, Scattered Scriptures. He says that this book, 21 years in the making, is his "attempt to translate history into poetry," and it focuses attention on what history books have ignored.
Rivera has been referred to as a “janitor of history” because he makes an effort to clean up history.
“There is a tendency to take a droplet out of a river and making the droplet the river,” Rivera said, referring to historical portrayals of certain people, such as Julius Caesar, as representative of their time, while ignoring all of the others that were involved in making that one person great.
Rivera’s goal is to retell history, incorporating the stories of all of the people that seem to have been forgotten.
"You got to look hard sometimes, but it’s all there," he said.
The informal lecture merged history with current issues such as ethnicity and race. Rivera discussed the terms “African-American” and “Hispanic,” and where those terms originated. He made the point that, “it is always from someone else’s point of view that you are being measured,” arguing that these terms are merely labels used to place different values on different people.
Rivera’s voice would take new life in the reading of one of his poems that encompassed the history and emotions of the topic at hand. He says, of being a poet, “I’m not reporting something, I’m reflecting on it, I’m living it.”
His poems give voice to the past, blending languages and cultures together to convey a time that once was, but is now almost forgotten.
Rivera can be heard discussing his views on a radio program called “Prospective” on
This was only one of several events put on by the Hispanic Cultural Organization this year. Saturday 29 March, they had a Día Para La Comunidad (Community Day), and in the past they have sponsored Shaggy Flores, and co-sponsored with Multicultural Affairs a performance called ‘Yo Soy Latina’.
“The main goals of the HCO are to educate the William and Mary community about Hispanic culture and unify and serve the Hispanic community,” said Creech. “Anyone who has an interest in Hispanic culture is welcome to come to our meetings and events.”