A childhood in Chile marked by both the lyricism of Pablo Neruda's poetic legacy and the violence of the Pinochet regime flavors the experiences that poet and playwright Carlos Baron has brought to his writings over decades as an exile from his homeland.
After studying sociology and theater arts at UC Berkeley in the late 1960s and early 70s, Baron returned to briefly to Chile to defend the Salvador Allende government, for which he was imprisoned. Upon returning to the Bay Area, in 1975 he helped to found the La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley, a cultural meeting ground for Chilean exiles, where he was the first Cultural Coordinator. As a poet and a professional storyteller, Baron's impassioned work has appeared throughout the world at festivals in Cuba, Chile, and the US.
Multiculturalism and Latino theater remain primary interests for Baron, who was also the theater and dance coordinator for the Mission Cultural Center and founder and first artistic director of San Francisco's Teatro Latino. As a professor of theater arts at San Francisco State University, Baron has not only helped to expand La Raza and multicultural studies at the university, but also directs the University's Teatro Arcoiris, or Rainbow Theater, a multicultural theater workshop.
Read more on the KQED Spark website.
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