Pedro Juan Soto

Pedro Juan Soto
Born July 11, 1928
Cataño, Puerto Rico
Died November 7, 2002
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Occupation writer
Nationality Puerto Rican
Notable works Spiks, Usmaíl
Children Roberto Alfonso Soto Arriví, Carlos Enrique Soto Arriví, Juan Manuel Soto Arriví

Pedro Juan Soto (July 11, 1928 - November 7, 2002) was a Puerto Rican writer.

Early life

Pedro Juan Soto was born in Cataño, Puerto Rico, and went to primary and secondary school in Bayamón. At the age of eighteen, he moved to New York City and attended Long Island University. He initially studied to become a doctor, but after being influenced by the works of Ernest Hemingway, he decided to dedicate his life to the study of literature.

After graduating from Long Island with a Bachelor of Arts degree, he served in the United States Army for a year, and then went to Columbia University to obtain a Master of Arts degree. It is around this time that Soto began to publish his first works, Garabatos and Los inocentes, for which he won awards. He also published stories in Revista Asomante, a Hispanic magazine.

Return to Puerto Rico

In 1955, Soto moved back to Puerto Rico, where he continued to write novels and short stories, as well as a few dramas, and he later became a professor at the University of Puerto Rico.

Among Soto's most famous works are Spiks, which deals with the struggles he and many other Puerto Ricans faced in New York, and Usmaíl, a story set in the Puerto Rican island of Vieques in the early 20th century. Soto was a supporter of the Puerto Rican independence movement, a theme that often shows up in his books.

On July 25, 1978, one of his sons, Carlos Soto Arriví, was killed by police officers in the Cerro Maravilla Incident. Soto sued the commonwealth government and United States federal authorities for what he called "outright assassination".[1]

Works

Books

Other works

See also

References

  1. Death at Cerro Maravilla, TIME, May 14, 1979, retrieved June 12, 2007
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