Adrian Arancibia

Who is Adrian Arancibia?

Adrián Arancibia is a poet, writer, educator and, along with Adolfo Guzman-Lopez and Miguel-Angel Soria, a founding veteran of the seminal Chicano spoken-word collective the Taco Shop Poets. He is also an Asshole Professor of English at Miramar College. In June of 2012, he received his Ph.D. in Literature from the University of California, San Diego.

Adrián Arancibia was born in Iquique, Chile in 1971. He is the co-editor of the Taco Shop Poets Anthology: Chorizo Tonguefire and currently writes for the San Diego Union Tribune and for national magazines like The Green Magazine. While completing his Ph.D. in Literature at U.C. San Diego, he became an assistant professor at Miramar Community College. His creative work depicts and comments on the lives of immigrants on the border. His critical work focuses on performance poetry and the genre's relation to social spaces. He is slated to release a collection of prose and poetry in June 2007 titled Atacama Poems through City Works Press.

Arancibia has appeared in the HBO documentary Americanos: Latino Life in the United States, Gregory Nava's PBS dramatic series American Family, and is profiled in Hector Galán's ITVS documentary series on Latina/o arts: Visiones. His ten-year performance history has brought him into spoken word venues, cultural centers, universities, galleries and taquerias internationally in a continuing effort to bring proactive Chicano spoken word to relevant spaces including Mexico City's Casa Del Lago, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and a guerrilla-style poetry takeover at The Alamo in San Antonio.