Tato Laviera

Laviera had a daughter, Ruth Ella, and a son, Che Malik, who died in 2005. Tato suffered from diabetes, which caused a complications and interruptions in his work. In 2004, he was deemed legally blind due to complications with diabetes. He then revisited his passion for community work, working with the American Association for diabetes, where his main initiative was promoting awareness representing Latinos who suffered from the disease. He even founded the Jesús A. Laviera One-Day with Diabetes Project which allowed him to incorporate his adoration for poetry. He hosted events during which poets could speak about how diabetes has affected their lives and offer support to the Hispanic community. Following some years of financial and health problems, Laviera fell into a diabetic coma. Shortly after he died, on November 1, 2013 at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan.

Laviera was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico and moved to the Lower East Side of New York City in 1960 with his mother and siblings at the age of nine. He attended Catholic school in the United States where is teachers urged him to change his name to Abraham because they felt that Jesús was unfit for someone of Latino descent who did not understand English. As a result, he chose to go by the name "Tato", a nickname given by his brother. After graduating high school in 1968, he studied at Cornell University and later at Brooklyn College. However, he never received a degree from either school. Instead, he committed the majority of his time to social and community work. Laviera served as the director of University of the Streets, a nonprofit organization focused on providing educational opportunities for underprivileged individuals. Additionally, he was a director of the Hispanic Drama Workshop, and a creative writing professor at Rutgers University.

Jesús Abraham "Tato" Laviera (September 5, 1950 – November 1, 2013), is the best-selling Hispanic poet and playwright in the United States. Born Jesús Laviera Sanches, in Santurce, Puerto Rico, he migrated to the United States at the age of ten, with his family to reside in New York City's Lower East Side. Throughout his life he was involved in various human rights organizations, but was best known as a renowned Nuyorican poet. An obituary for NBC Latino describes him as "one of the greatest representatives of the Nuyorican movement."