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Diego Perez (born 25 November 1988) who’s known by his alias “Yung Pueblo” (young people) is an Ecuadorian American poet, mediator, speaker, and author. Born in Ecuador, Perez immigrated to Boston, America at a young age with his family. He published his debut book “clarity and connection” in April 2021 and rose to prominence on Instagram, eventually becoming one of the most popular "Instapoets" and a New York Times best selling author through his collections of poetry. He currently lives in Western Massachusetts with his wife where they live a quiet life filled with meditation.

Early life
Perez was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador before moving to America as a child where he was raised in Boston. Around the age of 15 he began getting involved with activist groups in Boston and spent time immersed in Boston activist circles. It was there he found his passion in helping others but despite finding joy in serving he struggled severely with mental health issues such as anxiety. He attended Wesleyan University from 2006 to 2010 where he began abusing drugs at the age of 18. He became addicted to hard drugs, the main ones being MDMA and cocaine. In the summer of 2011 he suffered a mild heart attack after mixing a variety of different drugs together, after the incident he vowed to never touch drugs again and has been clean ever since  Page text. . It was throughout his sobriety that he began exploring meditation and took his first Vipassana course taught by S.N. Goenka in 2012 where he began healing through his meditation practices. It was after he graduated college and moved to New York to continue his healing journey that his writing career would take off.

Career
He began posting his poetry on his Instagram account where he quickly gained popularity, he now currently has 2 million Instagram followers who he regularly posts to, becoming one of the most popular Instagram poets.

On 27 April 2021 he released his second book Clarity and connection(2021)Page text. the book explores mindfulness and growth through poetry, the book was met with commercial success and garnered an international audience  becoming number 1 in American Poetry, number 1 in Love Poetry and number 1 in Inspirational and Religious Poetry in books on Amazon. It currently has 4.9/5 stars on amazon. The Poetry book debuted at #15 on USA Today’s best sellers list and #1 on the Publishers Weekly Trade Paper Front list. The book was published by Andrews McMeel Publishing. Perez’s first book is titled Inward (2017) and was released on 6 October 2017, although the book was met with praise, it did not garner the popularity and world wide reach he has now. The book Inward (2017) explores the movement from self love to unconditional love and the power in letting go with the aim of showing readers that transformation and healing are all possible. He is currently working on another book that he aims to release in 2022. Perez is also the co-founder of 'Wisdom ventures' - a business platform founded with American business mogul Roger McNamee where he supports new businesses through designing their products and supporting a new generation of entrepreneurs. The business was founded in July 2021 Page text. . Their headquarters are based in San Francisco.

Personal Life
Perez met his wife while attending Wesleyan University, the pair began dating when she was 18 and he was 19 Page text. https://www.mindful.org/mindfulness-poet-of-the-people/. They have been married for 6 years. Perez admits to their being previous friction in their relationship but has said that since they've both started doing the inner work and meditating they've seen improvements. He describes the individual growth in a relationship as the key component to having a harmonious relationship. The couple currently live in Western Massachusetts where they live a private and quiet life filled with meditation.

After Graduating college Perez lived in New York City.

Perez decided on the pen name "Yung Pueblo" because Pueblo is a word that reminds him of his Ecuadorian roots and also because the translation of the name is 'Young people' which he finds sentiment in as he describes viewing humanity as young people still growing and learning. He began writing under the pen name in 2014.