Raúl Barrientos (1942-2012) was born in Puerto Montt, a small town in the south of Chile. He studied at the Unversidad de Concepcion, where he later became professor of theater. After the 1973 military coup he left Chile for the United States and pursued advanced studies in Spanish-American literatures at the University of Pennsylvania and SUNY-Stony Brook.  He has published nine volumes of poetry.