Judy Lucero Explained

Judy A. Lucero (pen name, #21918) was a Chicana prisoner poet, cited as a legend among Latina feminists.^[1] Lucero had a particularly tough life, becoming a heroin addict after being introduced to drugs at the age of eleven by one of her stepfathers, losing two children and dying in prison at the age of 28 from a brain hemorrhage.^{[2] [3] [4]}

Poetry

Lucero's poems were published in 1973 in De Colores Journal, Memoriam: Poems of Judy Lucero after her death.^{[5] [6]}

In her poem "I Speak an Illusion" she "articulates the contradictions of her Chicana experience while lamenting the apparently unbreakable bonds that incarcerate her."^[7]

Juan Gómez-Quiñones and Irene Vásquez highlight her work as advocating women's strength, such as in "Jail-Life Walk" which they refer to as "simply gripping".^[8]

Notes and References

1. Book: Olguín. Ben Valdez. Portuguese. Stanford University. Dept. of Spanish and. Testimonios pintaos: the political and symbolic economy of Pinto/a discourse. 1995. Stanford University. 204.
2. Book: Pèrez-Torres, Rafael. Movements in Chicano Poetry: Against Myths, Against Margins. 27 January 1995. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-47803-8. 117.
3. Book: Fisher, Dexter. The third woman: minority women writers of the United States. 1980. Houghton Mifflin. 978-0-395-27707-2. 395.
4. Mothers, Daughters, and Deities: Judy Lucero's Gynocritical Prison Poetics and Materialist Chicana Politics. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. 22. 2. 2001. 63–86. 10.1353/fro.2001.0021 . 8 August 2014. Olguin. B. V.. 144393765.
5. Book: Mullen. Bill. Smethurst. James Edward. Left of the Color Line: Race, Radicalism, and Twentieth-century Literature of the United States. 2003. University of North Carolina Press. 978-0-8078-5477-8. 137.
6. Book: Kanellos, Nicolás. Handbook of Hispanic Culture-Literature. Arte Publico Press. 978-1-61192-163-2. 107.
7. Book: Greene. Roland. Cushman. Stephen. Cavanagh. Clare . Jahan Ramazani . Paul F. Rouzer . Harris Feinsod . David Marno . Alexandra Slessarev. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. 2012. Princeton University Press. 978-0-691-15491-6. 228.
8. Book: Gómez-Quiñones. Juan. Vásquez. Irene. Making Aztlán: Ideology and Culture of the Chicana and Chicano Movement, 1966-1977. 30 April 2014. University of New Mexico Press. 978-0-8263-5467-9. 274.