Neil Raymond Ricco

Neil Raymond Ricco, formerly known as Noel Rico, is a Spanish-Italian American poet and writer known for his works featured in publications by Nicolás Kanellos, Eileen Myles and Mike Marqusee.

Ricco was an early member of the Nuyorican Poets Café and he appeared in the film Friend of the World.

Ricco is from North Bay Shore, New York, growing up in the South Bronx until his family relocated to Brentwood, Long Island when he was 14.

At the age of 23, he attended Long Island University and Colby College, earning a college degree.

Ricco said he didn't embrace his American and Puerto Rican roots until he was living in Maine.

In 1976, Ricco was part of the Nuyorican Poets Café community with Miguel Algarín and Luis Guzmán.

Ricco later worked for the United States Foreign Service.

Several of his works were published in Decade of Hispanic Literature: An Anniversary Anthology by Nicolás Kanellos.

"The First Place" was featured with "The Bronx, 1979" in New York, An Anthology by Mike Marqusee and with "The Lower East Side" and "Excerpt from the South Bronx II" in The Floating Borderlands.

Ricco's poems "January In Motion" and "The Bronx 1979" is for Miguel Piñero.

After moving to San Diego, Ricco had to find other work when publishers like Simon & Schuster were declining deals for a book contract.

In 1985, "Another Poem for Garcia Lorca" was published in ''Carreras.

Casos en la comunidad''.

His poem "Excerpt from the South Bronx" appeared in Dodeca.

Ricco lived in Panama City, Panama with his wife before relocating to San Diego, California in 2000.

While supervisor of Heritage Security Service at the Comerica Bank building on August 14, 2002, Ricco suffered a concussion after tripping upon exiting an elevator.

The elevator had stopped a foot below the floor level and Ricco accused Otis Elevator Company for not maintaining the building's elevators.

The situation created opposing tension between Heritage, Ricco and the building's contract.

He lived in Chula Vista, California in 2003 but was homeless for several years before moving to the C Street Inn in Downtown San Diego around 2012.

Ricco sanctioned for the city to have permanent housing for the homeless in 2010, rather than the transitional shelters provided until people recover financially.

In 2022, Ricco was one of seventy two residents who were ordered to vacate after city inspectors reported health and safety violations at the C Street Inn.

As a young writer, he went by the name Noel Rico.

Ricco's work has been published in languages of Spanish, Irish and Italian and he is influenced by Luis Lloréns Torres and Walt Whitman.

Ricco's 2015 works Bailey Among The Angels and The Rican Eye Detective Agency were edited and published by Michael C. Burgess.

In 2020, Ricco portrayed the character Ignacio in the independent film Friend of the World.

Sandra María Esteves' poem "For Noel Rico" was published in Decade of Hispanic Literature: An Anniversary Anthology.