University Showcase, 10/13, 8a: Margaret Randall is a poet, writer, translator, photographer, and activist whose archives are held at the University of New Mexico. She has authored over 200 books, and on this episode she talks about her two most recent: "Letters From the Edge: Outrider Conversations" and "More Letters From the Edge." The books are made of up letters among Randall and people she considers "outriders," people who pursue their creative work despite significant challenges.
Randall considers herself an outrider as well. She lives in Albuquerque, where she’s originally from. But she spent a lot of her life in other places, including New York, Mexico City, Cuba, and Nicaragua. She also had short stays in North Vietnam and Peru.
She edited a bilingual literary magazine for eight years out of Mexico City and has known some of the great artistic and literary figures of her generation.
When she returned to the United States in 1984, the U.S. government ordered her deported. U.S. officials argued she took out Mexican citizenship in 1967, thereby losing her U.S. citizenship. But the government also claimed that the opinions Randall expressed in several of her books were "against the good order and happiness of the United States". She waged a years-long battle to finally get her citizenship restored.
