Review: Regalos. Gluten-free Caldo de Pescado. Eaton Fire Survivor

Guest Reviewer M. Miranda: Regalos by Elisa A. Garza. Lamar University Press, 2024. ISBN-13: 9781962148160

A Poetic Exploration of Family, Feminism, and Cultural Expectations

M. Miranda

Elisa A. Garza is a poet, editor, and former writing and literature teacher. Regalos was a finalist for the National Poetry Series and her most recent chapbook, Between the Light / entre la claridad, is in its second edition from Mouthfeel Press. Her poems have recently appeared in Southern Humanities Review, Ars Medica, Rogue Agent, and Huizache, who nominated her for a Pushcart Prize.

Regalos by Elisa A. Garza delivers a deftly crafted exploration of family, tradition, and cultural expectations framed within the intimate and layered experiences of a Mexican American family from South Texas. Garza masterfully moves between Spanish and English, creating a bilingual rhythm that reflects the duality of living between two cultures. This interplay of languages adds depth and authenticity to the poems and grounds the reader in the rich cultural heritage that shapes the characters’ lives in these poems. 

Garza writes with precision. Every word in these poems feels purposeful, and each line is rich with controlled emotional depth. I was reminded of Rita Dove’s Thomas and Beulah. Like Dove, Garza’s control of language and lineation elevates the narrative. Regalos is intellectually stimulating, honest, and authentically Chicana. 

In the book's first section, each poem is intended to capture the weight of love, self-sacrifice, and duty framed by a culture where marriage is seen as the highest virtue. The imagery and narrative vividly illustrate the complex ways tradition unites and divides women and highlight their shared experiences. The poems in the first section of the collection, such as “This is How You Cook Rice,” “All Señoritas Get Married,” and “Soy chicana, or Feminism for the First Century,” vividly capture this tension. 

Especially compelling is the narrative arc of the poetic voice—a character who, despite her deep love for family and sense of duty, recognizes the constraints of prescribed roles and seeks a different path. She yearns for love, but dreams of a partner unbound by cultural expectations, and machismo–– “Mi papá me dice que / men are hard to find. / This is his way of telling me / I am taking too long. / Posible, pero I am not looking / por un esposo; I want a partner . . . .”

In sections two and three, Garza explores sensuality and the desire for intimate connection without sacrificing equality and freedom instead obligation. Many of the poems in these sections offer a vision of love that is both tender and radically different than those of other women in her family. The speaker dreams of love–– “Cool sheets, I yearn for warmth, / for a body at my back. / All morning, I dream a man / with an angled face will walk / across this room, his stare / intense as the first long rain / of fall.” In “Mangos,” the poet unabashedly delights in erotic love. This poem underscores her rebellion against the taboo of sexuality. 

Throughout this collection, Garza also highlights the geography of South Texas and the women who worked the land and held familia together. While the reader senses the poetic voice's resistance to replicate her bisaabuelas’, abuelas’, and mother’s upbringing, the poems also skillfully balance affection and gratitude with critique. Their strength and self-determination are a testament to the evolving awareness of the speaker’s identity and drive to break out from traditions that hold her back. 

Regalos is a heartfelt and thought-provoking work that resonates with its themes of family, culture, resistance, and the journey toward dismantling the enduring patterns of patriarchal ideology. It does so without sacrificing the love and respect for the matriarchs who held everything together for the next generation of Chicanas. This collection reimagines what it means to love, respect, and redefine one's role within a Chicana lineage, bridging past and future with both reverence and quiet rebellion.

About La Bloga-Tuesday's Guest Reviewer

M. Miranda is an author, editor, and writer. 

Her books of poetry include The Lost Letters of Mileva, Cracked Spaces, and On the Edge of Dread, How Beautiful (forthcoming from Green Writers Press, 2026). 

 

The Gluten-free Chicano Cooks Mariscos
Caldo de Pescado
Michael Sedano, El Gluten-free Chicano

The Gluten-free Chicano shares sensible food for Celiacs, Diabetics, gente who want to avoid wheat, barley, rye grains, diet-aware gente who count carbohydrates to control glucose, and gente who want to enjoy eating food made by their own hand without a lot of hassle.

There are more fish in the sea than you can put into a good, solid caldo de pescado, meaning there’s endless variation on the taste and texture of a delicious bowl of caldo de pescado. The Gluten-free Chicano prefers cod or halibut for their firm texture and distinctive flavors, but these are costly choices.

You can enjoy a far less expensive version of caldo de pescado emulating Los Angeles area mariscos places, where bagre, catfish, is the pescado part of restaurant caldo de pescado. 

Homemade can’t be beat for at least three reasons. Gluten-free assurance begins in your own kitchen. Ingredients and preparation meet your personal taste and style. Cooking is fun.

Today, el Gluten-free Chicano shares a fresh corn version with cod as the centerpiece. The corn adds texture along with sweetness to enhance the cod’s delicate flavor. This is a quick and basic soup recipe. Good variations include exchange the flake fish for shrimp, add tomato sauce to the broth, add papa in place of rice, flavor the broth with wine or saffron or mint.

Preparation makes a big difference in making any soup. A sharp knife and good cutting surface are essential to effectively rendering whole vegetables into spoons brimming with a bit of everything.

Everything- <100 grams carbs or 25 g per bowl

6 oz fillet Cod 0 gm
Black peppercorns (ground is just fine) - 1g per tsp
Carrots - 8g per cup, boiled
Celery - 4g per cup raw
Cilantro - .7 per sprig
Garlic - 1g per clove
Elote - 17.12g
Onion - 10g large bulb
Rice - 45g cup cooked 
Salt - 0g
Tomato - 4g each
Bay leaf-.45g
Jalapeño chile-.83g
Serrano chile-.41g
Water to make 4 bowls
Butter-.01g

Work at medium heat.

Chop, slice, and dice to your personal preference. Slice the chiles and use only a few slices unless you like it hot. Quarter the tomato so it falls apart better. Chop the celery and carrots into uniform pieces. Smaller is better for flavoring caldo. Cut the kernels off the cob. 

Pour good olive oil into the bottom of the soup pot. 

Chop the onion and garlic.  Get onion and garlic wilting in olive oil with a pinch of salt and peppercorns. Add the bay leaf. Let this steam for a minute or so. 

Add everything else and stir the pot.

Top the vegetable mélange with the frozen cod fillets.

Now add water to cover the fish. Add more water (or canned broth) to make more soup.

Bring to boil then lower the heat. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or more. Fork test the carrots; the tines must readily pierce the solid carrot and rice grains will blossom at the end. Stir in a tablespoon of butter.

Serve with lemon and chile to enhance flavor and add as much chiloso as the diner prefers.

Eaton Fire Survivor: Sculpted Boulder by Smiley Cazarez

I made my first visit since the fire on January 7. Today also is the first time driving contour-following Altadena Drive to Loma Alta then turning onto Hollyslope Road where  rubble covers the places where the neighbors lived. My home was right up against the mountainside where fire whipped by feverish wind devoured the chaparral forest above our house, then descended like the wolf on the fold onto our evacuated neighborhood. A single house remains.

Aluminum flows after melting 
at 1220ºF

Earlier in the day, Cazarez posted a foto of a mother and child stone sculpture asking if this is the one I’d bought circa 1985. Smiley’s foto wasn’t mine, and I wondered if a carved rock mounted on another stone could survive the frightful heat? In places, melted aluminum flowed downhill from a hollowed-out shipping container.

They survived.

When I bought the sculpture from Smiley and gave it to Barbara and Amelia I told them the figures represented them, mother and daughter. 

Now that the sculpture resides at my new home with my daughter and granddaughter, the figures also represent Amelia and Charlotte. 

The sculpture endures like the love of a mother and daughter endures. I imagine the fearful fire that enveloped that sculpture. When my searching eyes fell on the still standing arte, the sight reaffirmed my Truth that love endures. And so we survive and recover. 

Surviving sculpture is in center of photo