Miguel-Angel Soria

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Miguel-Angel Soria is a Chicano Community Artist/Activist from San Diego, California. Originally born in Tijuana and raised a few blocks from Tijuana's Avenida Revolucion, he and his family eventually arrive on the U.S. side and settled in the San Ysidro/ Nestor area of San Diego.

Soria was performing his poetry since the mid to late 1980's. He participated in the San Diego peace movement with the help of such groups as The Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD), and its Youth Activism Task Force (YATF). He penned work for journals such as The Non-Violent Actvist and a number of local zines. Miguel-Angel read at Punk shows and at peace rallies. He was later known as a strong part of the MEChA poetry circles. He read in a number of regional, state, and eventually national MEChA conferences. He was very active in the Straight-Edge punk movement and helped organize a number of Unity Benefit concerts where acts from a different musical genres would come together.

While a student at the University of San Diego, he created an alternative poetry venue in the early 1990's to higlight the work of Xicana and Xicano artist, it was called "Noche de Atole". He always echoed the Xicana and Xicano activist of the first part of the Xicana/o movement in his belief that Xicana and Xicano poetry needed to pay tribute to its lineage. Thus, the use of the name atole. He invited many local theater, danza, music and poetry groups to the event. One highlight was the debut of a young poet then known to the world only for his journalism, Adolfo Guzman-Lopez.

Originally a participant in a poetry series called Taco Shop Poetry held at the Centro Cultural de la Raza, he formed the core of the spoken word/performance group Taco Shop Poets along with Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, Tomas Riley, and Adrian Arancibia. Soria was the group's Artistic Director, organizing rehearsals and leading their weekly meetings. Soria was also a consistent part of the TSP's line-up. He also acted as Executive Producer of Chorizo TongueFire, the TSP's first CD.

Soria has often been credited for bringing the audience interaction component to the Taco Shop Poets. For instance, during his poem "ingles for the children" he divided the audience into two groups and then had one side of the room chant "ingles" while the other chants "Spanish" as he performed his poem. He used a number of performance devices that were borrowed from his childhood. He would also go into the audience during the middle of performance of The Taco Shop Poets Manifesto and whisper secrets into the audiences ears, inviting the memers to pass the secret along to the next audience member. His work taunts the border between spoken word and performance art. He would also wrap an audience member with a roll of calculator paper that would have one of his poems. He often tore books apart on stage, distributing the pages to the audience and invited the audince to create and perform a collage poem from the torn pages. He claimed Agusto Boal, Los Tigres Del Norte, Bad Brains, and Tijuana's Solucion Mortal and Mercado Negro as influences. TSP fans either love or hate his kinetic energy and LOUD volume as he performs/ screams his poetry. Soria has said he is an old punk rocker and that his screams come from that movement.

Soria is currently involved in writing, directing and producing video projects such as KIOSKO, a children's show he created. He is also a member of Loko Artz Collective, a video production company based out of San Diego. (lokoartz.com)


-   An Interview at UCSB featuring the Taco Shop Poets (Includes Migual-Angel Soria): [1]