While San Juan, Puerto Rico is my home, I grew up in the state of Texas and have lived in Japan, Austria, and Germany. 

I earned my B.A. in cultural anthropology and M.A. in Latin American studies (with concentrations in history and anthropology) at the University of Texas at Austin. Later I received my Ph.D. in linguistics at the University of Puerto Rico's Río Piedras Campus. 

More recently, I completed an M.F.A. in creative writing at New York University's program in Paris. My thesis, "Night Twenty-One," was completed under the direction of Professor Catherine Barnett.

I have been a Fulbright Scholar as well as a Fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies and received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities as well as the American Philosophical Society.

Currently, I am the Director of Institute of Caribbean Studies at the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras. I also teach English and linguistics at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

In addition to writing poetry, I enjoy translating between English and Spanish.

C. S. Lewis