Jesús Manuel Ramos Otero was born in
Manatí,
Puerto Rico, and spent his childhood in his home town, living in the second location of the old building of the Puerto Rican Casino of Manatí. He began his studies at the Colegio La Inmaculada in Manatí. His family then moved to San Juan when he was seven years old. He later attended the
University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus (1960–1965) and went on to receive a B.A. in Social Sciences (with a major in sociology and a minor in political sciences) from the
University of Puerto Rico, graduating in 1969. In 1979 he received an M.A. in literature from
New York University. While living in
New York City, he worked as a social researcher, and later as a professor at diverse universities including
Rutgers University,
LaGuardia Community College,
York College, and
Lehman College. He also established a small publishing house, El Libro Viaje. He organized conferences and gatherings of his Puerto Rican writer friends in the United States such as Giannina Braschi and Luis Rafael Sanchez. He is best remembered as a poet and the author of short stories, but he also wrote a novel and several essays on literary criticism. In 1990, Otero returned to Puerto Rico to live out his final days. He died on October 7 of that year of complications from HIV/AIDS. His posthumously-published work, Invitación a polvo, which Otero defined as “completely untranslatable,” directly addresses topics around the AIDS crisis. It was then adapted to an off-Broadway show in 2002 and staged by the
Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture. ==Literary production==