Salima Rivera

Poet, activist, and community organizer Salima Rivera was born in Isabela, Puerto Rico. In her late teens and her twenties, Rivera became a notable figure in the Chicago Latino literary renaissance of the 1960s and 70s by cofounding the literary workshops Los Otros Poetry Collective and La Taller. 

During her lifetime, Rivera’s poetry appeared in magazines including Revista Chicano-Riqueña, Ecos: A Latino Journal of People’s Culture & Literature, and Third Woman. In 1979, Rivera participated in the first Festival de Mujeres held in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, organized by Mujeres Latinas en Acción. Filmmakers Eleanor Boyer and Karen Peugh directed a documentary of the festival that features Rivera reading her poems. Rivera’s bilingual poetry collection, It’s Not About Dreams (Erato/Poetry, 2014), which includes poems written from 1973 to 1996, was posthumously published nearly a decade after her death. 

Shortly after her birth, Rivera’s father began working at a mining company in Salt Lake City, Utah. Two years later, a strike forced the family to move to Chicago, Illinois. Rivera was educated at Crane Technical and Richards Vocational High Schools. She moved among Chicago neighborhoods throughout her life and became a part of communities in Pilsen, Bronzeville, Humboldt Park, Little Italy, and Kenwood. Throughout her life, Rivera remained involved in community organizations, including Casa Aztlán, Movimiento Artístico Chicano, and the Association of Latino Brotherhood of Artists (ALBA). In the 1980s, she began working for the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. 

The National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture featured Rivera in a 2014 presentation commemorating her work as a poet and activist. Rivera’s depiction is included in the “Pierce Street Legends Mural Project,” which was unveiled at a ceremony in 2018. That same year, Rivera was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.