Donald Gutierrez - Career

Career

Gutierrez is a scholar of D. H. Lawrence, and wrote about the last period (late 1920s) of Lawrence, whom Gutierrez describes as having dealt with death and symbolic renewal in an "ontological" manner, a lens through which Lawrence offered keen insights into humankind and society. An erstwhile Berkeley student who observed the "Bohemian-literati" world in the 1950s, Gutierrez has also written memoirs and commentaries on the "Beat" scenes of Berkeley and San Francisco. Gutierrez also has produced many works on the legendary San Francisco author-poet, Kenneth Rexroth and other icons of that time. Gutierrez currently lectures, gives poetry readings and writes essays, articles and book reviews.

Gutierrez' post-2000 work and writings have moved away from an academic focus of literature and fine arts, and he now writes articles and essays more as a social and political commentator, with topics of: social justice, human rights abuses, economic inequities, and the major role he feels U.S. domestic and foreign policy plays in these. His defense of Constitutional and international human and civil rights is non-wavering. He is an outspoken critic of political repression, international war criminals (Chile's Augusto Pinochet, Guatemala's Efraín Ríos Montt, Nicaragua's Somoza, Panama's Manuel Noriega, etc.), the United States' "School of the Americas" (the Department of Defense's Spanish-speaking training facility), the U.S. military engagements in Iraq, Bosnia, Vietnam, the current torture and imprisonment practices the U.S. is claimed to participate in (including "extraordinary rendition" and "dark cells") and the policies of the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.

Gutierrez has written six books, more than 100 essays, papers and book reviews. He has contributed numerous essays to journals, newspapers, universities, and online publishers, including the El Dorado Sun, the North Dakota Quarterly, Progressive San Francisco Latino newspaper, El Tecolote, the D. H. Lawrence Review, the Malahat Review, the University of California's "California Alumni Association", Mosaic, Review of Existential Psychology and Psychiatry, Texas Quarterly, Twentieth Century Literature, and Studies in Short Fiction. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with his wife Marlene Zander-Gutierrez, a New Mexico artist. They have two sons, Hector and Trajan Gutierrez. Gutierrez is an avid sports fan and has written an occasional essay on the economic aspect of professional sports.