Alma Iris Ramirez was born in Texas of Mexican ancestry. She dropped out of school in 9th grade to get married, and later trained as a licensed vocational nurse before moving to Australia in 1972.
Alma has been politically active in Australia, as a member of Women’s Liberation, and one of the founding members of the Women’s electoral lobby (SA) and a spokesperson in support of a Rape Crisis Centre for St Peters. She founded a group to promote political awareness in South Australia (Freedom In Tibet) during which time she visited the Dalai Lama twice for extended interviews. She has an Associate Diploma in Aboriginal Studies from the Adelaide College of Advanced education, and a BA in Anthropology and Asian Literature from the University of Adelaide.
Alma was previously President and remains a member of the SA Multicultural Writers Association.
She has published poetry in Spanish and English. She earlier published under her first name ‘Alma’ to save confusion because she had been married three times. Her poetry and articles have been anthologised in Pearls (1980), Ethnic Australia (1982), Arc of Australian Voices (1990), Tuesday Night Live (1993) Hope & Fear (1994), Voicing the Difference (1994) and Immigrant Experience in Australian Literature (1995)
Alma still enjoys playing with the English language through her writing, but now also writes for the Internet, contributing to the Peaceliberation website. She has just declared herself a cyberspace Human Rights Activist on her brand new web site (still under construction) http://alamiris.tripod.com/ with two articles, Apache Wars, and Genocide and Colonisation.
How To Prepare A Banquet Of Guilt For All Occasions
First, select your guilt preference (racial or sexist)
weigh it prejudiced. Roll out the guilt thin, cover
all insecurities, sprinkle liberally with jealousy.
Pound it violently with bitterness. This diss makes
an excellent crass-role.
Avoid using a good cut of guilt in erotica-stew.
It is common!
Use guilt butter for frying heated opinions only.
When in doubt; chill the guilt and serve objectively.
Other Serving Suggestions
- Steamed sexual guilt may be served repressed, or
Perverted. - Guilt braised in abstracts is always served
intellectually, with esoteric soup. - Slice the mind into vulnerable strips, roll in
guilt and serve neurotically. - Morals may be served smothered in a thick
guilt sauce, garnished with hostility. - Religious guilt goes well with a thin austere
sauce and dogmatic biscuits.
Remember! Guilt, hate, suspicion, and fear, make an
Excellent lynch!
From Friendly Street No. 3
The Intellectual
He’ll never get to
the main course.
His menu is guided
by abstracts,
theories and absolutes.
He’ll savour the clear entre,
sip the red aperitif,
nibble at each course, respectively –
But the main course
will never be touched
because he can’t stomach
the confrontation –
the responsibility
for the life and death,
for the beast,
for the blood on the steak
at the centre
of his plate!
From Friendly Street No. 4
Men Aren’t
Men aren’t
what they used to be.
The quality isn’t there.
They wash and wear
(wrinkle free)
and hold their youthful
shape longer, but
they lack the strength of
a home-grown-cotton boy
or the lustre of
a cultivated silken man.
Men don’t last
like they used to.
Unisex polyester-cotton models
fray along machine-trimmed edges,
unravel, or come undone.
They’re out of touch with nature
and humankind.
They lack the bond of flax to linen,
of land to sheep to woollen cloth.
We are left with threadbare
manufactured products;
synthetic materials that
drip dry.
From Friendly Street No. 7 and Tuesday Night Live