Claudio "Storm" San Miguel

Claudio "Storm" San Miguel, San Antonio College English professor, poet and inspiration to a generation of San Antonio students, artists and writers passed away on September 28, 2021. Born September 21, 1963, Storm earned an English degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. He studied Mexican art and literature in Mexico City and Puebla, art history at the University of London, and held a Fulbright Fellowship in Russia.

While in Houston he began his teaching career at the University of Houston and Houston Community College and became actively involved in the arts community. He served on the Cultural Arts Council of Houston/Harris County, Houston International Fotofest, and was a member of the Inprint Advisory Board. He was invited to read his poetry to packed audiences at several venues throughout the city. For many years he was a writer-in-residence for Writers in the Schools in Houston. He founded and edited Midtown, a journal of literature, art, and ideas at Houston Community College.

After completing his graduate degree, he returned home to San Antonio. As a San Antonio College professor, he invited his students to follow in his footsteps to write from their own lives, share their family stories and unique cultural histories by connecting to their pasts. His classes were a paradigm of experiential learning. Students researched their familial background for a cultural research project, went on scavenger hunts around campus, attended theatrical productions, literary readings, and visited the San Antonio Museum of Art, returning to the classroom to discuss and write about their experiences. He edited and published Xeriscapes, the San Antonio college literary journal. For over twenty-five years, he chaired the colleges Multicultural Conference; he started the Koehler House literary readings, featuring his students reading from their own writing, which he published in a literary journal. Always in touch with the ever changing political and artistic climate, he incorporated performances by artists, dancers, musicians, and writers at the Multicultural Conference establishing it as a Fiesta event.

Storm carved out a place for himself as an educator and poet wherever he went. Those lucky enough to know him, to take one of his classes, or to work alongside him as a colleague, discuss literature and politics, art, science fiction, God, religion, to listen to him speak, or to have him as a listenercan never forget him. As a teacher and a writer, he set out to change lives, to make a difference, to have an impact. And that is what he did.

He is predeceased by his father Jose San Miguel, and survived by his son, Ariel Armand San Miguel, his mother Guadalupe Sanchez San Miguel, and his siblings, nephews, and nieces, as well as the many students and faculty at San Antonio College he considered family.

A Memorial Service will be held at Porter Loring Mortuary on Sunday October 17, 2021, at 11:00 am. A Memorial service will also be held on the San Antonio College campus on date to be announced.