According to an obit written by Cumpian, Cortez was surrounded by friends and listening to the music of the Texas Tornados. He had been bedridden for a year and a half following a massive heart attack. Cortez was 81. When I lived in Chicago from 1985 until 2000, I got to know Carlos Cortez well. He was the elder spokesperson of Chicano poetry and art in that wonderful city -a great teacher and a revolutionist. We did readings together and his work appeared at the Guild Complex, the multi-arts cultural center I helped found in 1989. Most of Cortez's poetry was published by Cumpian's March/Abrazo Press and Charles H. Kerr. But he is best known for his wood and linoleum-cut graphics, paintings, and murals, chronicling the plight and struggle of Mexicans and other Native peoples in the United States.

During World War II, the U.S. government imprisoned Cortez as a conscientious objector. He became a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) union -known as the "Wobblies." He also served as a columnist and editor for the IWW newspaper, The Industrial Worker, from the late 1950s to 2005. Cortez and artist Jose G. Gonzalez founded the first Mexican arts organization in Illinois with the 1975 creation of Movimiento Artistico Chicano, March, Inc. Cortez also became active in the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, the Chicago Mural Group, the Mexican Taller del Grabado (Mexican Graphic Workshop), Casa de la Cultura Mestizarte, the Native Men's Song Circle, and Charles H. Kerr Publishers. The Smithsonian Institute and the Museum of Modern Art in New York are two major institutions that house Cortez's work.

Those seeking to honor his memory may make a contribution to the American Indian Center or the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. Carlos Cortez will be sorely missed. One of a kind, expressive of a time when people spoke, wrote, and painted the truth in all its complexity, Cortez gave rise to generations of Chicano writers and artists, including influencing me and my work. He heroically stood up against oppression and inequity, and his courage and fortitude will forever be imprinted in our souls. -Descanse en paz, hermano!

Luis Rodriguez is editor of Xispas Magazine
For more information on Carlos Cortez: www.art-for-a-change.com/blog
The following poem and most of the information for this piece came from Carlos Cumpian

IN VINO VERITAS

High in the Mountains
Surrounding Kalamata
There is a humble village Taverna
That serves delicacies
Homegrown in the high altitudes.

Small wild birds that
Look like naked baby chickens,
Home pressed olive oil
That has a flavor all its own
That only Mountain fruit can give,

Accompanied by homemade
Mountain wine
That caresses one's palate
Like the tongue
Of a passionate mistress!