Dolores Prida, the playwright, poet and columnist, has passed away.
Her plays included Beautiful Señoritas, (1977), A House of Her Own (1999) and Four Guys Named José … and Una Mujer Named María! (2000).
Here is an excerpt from one of her 2011 columns for the Daily News:
As I celebrate my 50th anniversary as a New Yorker, the one regret I have, the one shadow marring and in a way devaluing all the good things that have happened, is that today, as an American citizen with a Hispanic name, I feel less welcome than in 1961. There’s an atmosphere of hate and rejection toward immigrants, and too many ears are now closed to what we have to say. It’s an invisible, insurmountable wall keeping us apart. It’s sad, I know but, hey, it’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to.
Follow this link to read more of her columns. The Nation also published a touching obituary for the writer:
Ms. Prida began writing short stories and poetry while still a teenager in Cuba. In the US she published her first book, the collection of poems 37 poemas (1967), but it was as a playwright that she would establish her literary reputation. Alongside Eduardo Machado, Manuel Martín, Tato Laviera and others, she was one of the most active and one of the first female playwrights that nourished the New York Latino stage during the 1980s and 1990s.