He was born in Albuquerque's Old Town in 1938 and passed away in January 2015, after a lifetime as a writer, historian, educator and activist. Teatro Paraguas pays tribute to the beloved New Mexico poet Tony Mares with Rio del Corazon,dramatic readings of poems selected from his books. Performances are later this month at Teatro Paraguas in Santa Fe and at Albuquerque's National Hispanic Cultural Center.
Argos MacCallum, Executive Director of Teatro Paraguas, says that Mares was a pivotal figure in the poetry world of New Mexico because his ability to write in both English and Spanish enabled him "to combine the intelligence of each culture . . . and to tie them together like a knot."
Argos speaks in greater detail about Tony Mares and his career in this longer version of the interview, and discusses how Teatro Paraguas will present the poetry.
