Danny Santiago
Danny Santiago is the pseudonym of Daniel Lewis James, an American writer born on January 14, 1911, in Kansas City, Missouri. His literary career began after he became involved in radical politics during his college years at Yale University, where he majored in Greek. Initially engaging in social reform through demonstrations, he later shifted his focus to writing. Santiago's work gained prominence in the 1950s and 1960s, particularly through a series of short stories about Los Angeles Latinos, which were well-received despite the author's reluctance to reveal his identity. In 1983, he published the acclaimed novel *Famous All over Town*, which explored Chicano life and was recognized as a significant contribution to Latino literature. However, a 1984 revelation that Santiago was not of Latino descent but an Anglo man using a Latino name sparked a heated debate over cultural identity and appropriation. Santiago's work remains a focal point in discussions about representation in literature, reflecting both the complexities of cultural identity and the importance of diverse voices in storytelling. Daniel Lewis James passed away on May 18, 1988, leaving behind a legacy that continues to resonate in literary circles.
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Subject Terms
Danny Santiago
Author
- Born: January 14, 1911
- Birthplace: Kansas City, Missouri
- Died: May 18, 1988
- Place of death: Monterey, California
Biography
Danny Santiago was one of the pseudonyms of Daniel Lewis James, who was born on January 14, 1911, in a middle-class neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri. His parents were D. L. James, who managed a company that sold china and crystal, and Lillie Snider James. His paternal grandfather was a first cousin to the outlaws Frank and Jesse James. James’s father loved literature and the theater and occasionally wrote plays that were performed in local amateur productions.
James attended the Kansas City Country Day School, graduating in 1927, and went on to Andover Academy and then Yale University, where he majored in Greek and graduated in 1933. During his college years he became involved in radical politics, writing newspaper articles and participating in demonstrations calling for social reform. After graduation he returned to Kansas City and worked for his father’s firm for a time, but soon became a laborer in Oklahoma’s oil fields. He joined the Young Communist League in the 1930’s, and was arrested and jailed for his participation in a protest rally in Kansas City that turned violent. At his father’s suggestion, he decided to try to change the world through his writing, rather than through demonstrations.
He moved to New York City and attempted unsuccessfully to find producers for his political plays. Moving next to Carmel, California, where his family had vacationed for years, he became involved in local radical groups. In 1938, he moved to Hollywood and joined the Communist Party. In 1940, he married the dancer Lilith Stanward and worked as an assistant for Charlie Chaplin, who was producing the film The Great Dictator. James produced two significant plays in the 1940’s: Winter Soldiers, which won him an award in New York as a promising young playwright, and Bloomer Girl (1944), a musical about women’s rights written in collaboration with his wife, Lilith.
In 1948, James and his wife left the Communist Party and became social workers in the Mexican community in Los Angeles, centered in the city’s Lincoln Heights neighborhood. When James was blacklisted in 1951 because of his former Communist activities, he wrote two screenplays using the name Daniel Hyatt, and then took the name Danny Santiago for a series of short stories about Los Angeles Latinos that appeared through the 1950’s and 1960’s. The stories were well received, but the author was something of a mystery: he would not go on book tours or grant interviews, and he corresponded only through his agent.
In 1983, the novel Famous All over Town by Danny Santiago was published to great acclaim. Santiago was heralded as an important new Chicano voice writing about Chicano life. The revelation in 1984 that the author was not Latino but an Anglo using a Latino name spurred a great debate about cultural identity and cultural usurpation. When James died in Monterey, California, on May 18, 1988, the controversy was far from settled. Famous All over Town is an important book because it is a sensitive and insightful novel about an underrepresented people and because it was one of the most visible documents in a literary debate that is far from over.