La Bloga Spotlights Poets Laureate

Keeping Poetry Alive: Poets Laureate Across the Nation

Michael Sedano

La Bloga launches a series spotlighting Poets Laureate and their work to foster literacy and poetry in their community or state. Inspired by the Laureate program in Altadena, California, La Bloga encourages other communities to establish a Laureateship.

Who Are Laureates?

The United States Congress supports a Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, more readily known as the US Poet Laureate. The Consultancy, dating to 1947 (link  https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/who-are-the-united-states-poet-laureate-consultants-in-poetry) features a roster of esteemed poets. The US Laureateship has bestowed its honor recently on leading voices such as Juan Felipe Herrera, Ada Limon, Joy Harjo. 

Fifty US states and the Navajo nation appoint Poets Laureate. Numerous communities recognize local writers as their Poet Laureate. There’s a widespread poetry community in our culture, as this roster of state Laureates illustrates (link  https://poets.org/text/current-us-and-state-poets-laureate )

Spotlight on:

Today, La Bloga-Tuesday is happy to feature José B. González, Poet Laureate of Connecticut. The state has a State Troubador and a Laureate. According to the state’s website, 

Connecticut’s State Troubadour and Poets Laureate are ambassadors of the arts. These inspiring artists are nominated by Connecticut residents and evaluated by a peer panel and the Connecticut Office of the Arts (COA) for their distinction within their fields, portfolios of work, and contributions to the arts community. The COA is committed to building a community that is respectful and responsive to the diverse talents, skills, and abilities of all people.

González’ recognition is well-earned. A Macondo alumnus, José founded the notable Latina Latino  literary resource, Latino Stories (link https://latinostories.com ), which has been sharing literary news and insights for twenty years. La Bloga reached out to Laureate González and he shares the following:

When I first got the news about being a state poet laureate, I heard the ancestors rejoicing in their native tongues. I hope to remind those who need reminding that "immigrant" is not a dirty word, but that it is a word full of honor, sacrifice and dignity. I am proud of running LatinoStories.Com and celebrating La Raza authors for over 20 years. La Bloga is the only site that has done it for longer. And the way I see it, when I get an honor like this one, it's because someone took the time to say let's take a moment to read and listen to him. This is all a round-about way of saying, thank you to La Bloga for all you do.

Meet the Laureate

Connecticut’s Poet Laureate, José B. González is one of the most sought after speakers in the U.S today. He was born in San Salvador, El Salvador and immigrated to New London, Connecticut at the age of eight.  He knew no English and now holds a Ph.D. in English. A nationally known speaker, Dr. González has presented at various colleges such as Harvard, Rutgers, and Cornell University; countries including Mexico, Spain, and El Salvador; and institutions including the Smithsonian Latino Center and the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian. He has been a featured Moth storyteller, a contributor to National Public Radio and has published poetry in such journals as Boston Review, Quercus Review, Callaloo, and Acentos Review, and anthologies including the Norton Introduction to Literature,  Theatre Under My Skin: Contemporary Salvadoran Poetry, Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the United States, and Latino Boom: An Anthology of U.S. Latino Literature, which he also co-edited. His poetry was a part of the first ever Latino exhibit at the Smithsonian American History Museum.

A Fulbright Scholar, he has received national and regional awards for his teaching, for his efforts to improve the conditions of Latinos pursuing a college degree or a career in higher education, and for his poetry. One of the major Salvadoran-American poets in the U.S., he is the author of the poetry collections, Toys Made of Rock (Bilingual Press), and When Love Was Reels (Arte Publico), and is the founder and editor of LatinoStories.Com.

Dr. González infuses his presentations with a mix of poetry, humor and social commentary. He holds a Master’s in Teaching English from Brown University and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Rhode Island and is an alumnus of Sandra Cisneros’ Macondo Writers Workshop.

Connecticut Poet Laureate Online Floricanto

English Words from https://www.splitthisrock.org/poetry-database/poem/english-words

By José B. González

my mouth agape           for these english words          made of stone
their sharpness              could split my tongue,            but one by one
i’ll use them                     to build a wall,                           one by one
i’ll stack them                 on top of each other                smooth them
and scrape way              the sounds that                         silence me.

 

Breaking away to the u.s. from https://poets.org/poem/breaking-away-us

José B. González

finally,
a day so perfect that
this morning’s awakening bombs
are overtaken by a woman’s wind chimes
of “tamales, tamales.”

on the way to the airport
iguanas hang upside down,
even they smile.

along farms and fields
rotten bullet seeds
are overtaken by flowering weeds.

on the side of the highway
a tall Maquilishuat tree gives
birth to premature pink petals
&
inside a plane headed north,
yani & i fly so high
that we can’t tell
cornfields from fences;
it’s such a perfect
final day.

From Toys Made of Rock (Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingüe, 2015). Copyright © 2015 by José B. González. Used with the permission of Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingüe.

 

Read more of José B. González work at this page (link).https://josebgonzalez.com/sample-publications/

 

Twenty Years Of Altadena Poets Laureate

Altadena Poet Laureate Program At Twenty+ 

Michael Sedano

April and early May  2026 brings significant poetry celebrations to the upper reaches of California's San Gabriel Valley with Poetry & Cookies in Altadena and LitFest in the Denas in Pasadena. 

In Altadena, a changing of the Laureates is a highlight of Poetry & Cookies (link), along with the impending distribution of the published anthology. In Pasadena, the new Altadena Co-Laureates activate their office by joining eight Laureates-emeriti in a happy reunion at LitFest in the Denas, allowing a rare portrait opportunity. Sadly, the portrait series fails to capture the 2010-2021 Laureate, Alene Terzian.

Alene Terzian | May 2010 — April 2012, Thelma T. Reyna | May 2014 — April 2016, Elline Lipkin | May 2016 — April 2018, Teresa Mei Chuc, Hazel Clayton Harrison | May 2018 — April 2020, Carla R. Sameth | May 2022 — April 2024 (with Peter J. Harris, Presente!), Sehba Sarwar, Lester Graves Lennon | May 2024 — April 2026. Standing, Rhonda Mitchell, Altadena Poet Laureate for Community Events,  Shahe Mankerian, Altadena Poet Laureate Editor-in-ChiefThe Altadena Poet Laureate program owes its ongoing existence to Altadena Library District's commitment to poetry. Initially a gathering of a handful of writers at the behest of librarian Pauline Pauli Dutton, the gathering published first with photocopied sheets, then spiral bound booklets titled Poetry&Cookies. Growing community involvement grows and they name several Laureates, and now as literary opportunities multiply, Co-Laureates. 

During the Laureateship of Carla R. Sameth and the late Peter J. Harris, Altadena's Laureates were recognized with a $50,000 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship (link). It was the first and now a second. Sarwar and Lennon, too, are recognized with a $50,000 fellowship to support the Co-Laureates' community programs. 

Thelma T. Reyna, whose family-owned publishing house Golden Foothills Press, publishes the 2026 edition of Altadena Poetry Review: Anthology 2026, shares this history of the program's origins and particularly spotlights Pauli Dutton's founder's role. This is from Reyna's Foreward to the collection, about to enter distribution via the publisher, local independent booksellers, and a conglomerate. La Bloga's Michael Sedano has a poem in the anthology as well as the cover photograph. Thelma Reyna shares La Bloga's Friday column with Melinda Palacio.

FOREWORD

By Thelma T. Reyna

Poet Laureate Emerita, Altadena Library District, 2014-2016.

Publisher, Golden Foothills Press

 

HOW WE GOT HERE

This Altadena Poetry Review: Anthology 2026 is the eighth edition of an anthology birthed in 2015 as part of my Poet Laureate contribution to Altadena. That seminal year, our book contained 105 poems written by 60 poets. This 2026 anthology showcases 180 poems written by 158 distinguished and emerging poets—a testament not only to our community’s stalwart advocacy of poetry, but also to the depth and breadth of our commitment to nurture and expand access to it, and visibility of its power and beauty.  

This is a heavy lift for any anthology. But the fertile ground we now till and inseminate was laid and well-prepared for us by a longtime Altadena librarian and visionary poet: Pauline (Pauli) Dutton, to whom I refer, with much admiration and gratitude, as “The Godmother of Altadena Poetry.” This 2026 anthology stands on her shoulders.

Pauli Dutton and Michael Sedano

Pauli brought poetry by, of, and for the people to Altadena during her 29-year tenure as Principal Librarian, then as Acting District Director of the Altadena Library District. She blazed new trails that helped solidify Altadena as a poetry mecca in Southern California by engaging like-minded community members in fulfilling her goals, as follows:

• In 2003, Pauli established the now-renowned “Poetry & Cookies Reading Event”—an annual gathering of poets reading their poems to packed audiences.  Now, the participants are specifically poets whose poems were published in that year’s anthology. This event has run continuously since 2003, including via Zoom in 2020 during Covid.

• In 2004, Pauli established the first local anthology, Poetry & Cookies, and produced it unfailingly for 12 years until she retired. (It was replaced by the Altadena Poetry Review.)

• In 2006, she founded the Poet Laureate Program, which continues unabated to this day, with some Altadena Laureates distinguishing themselves on the national stage of poet leadership. Fourteen poets, to date, have held this distinction.

When Pauli retired in 2014, she could have “rested on her laurels,” as the old saying goes, since these programs she created were well-received and firmly established by then. But fortunately for our poetry community, she didn’t. She remained in her role as leader of the Poet Laureate Selection Committee, e.g., insuring the rigorous process stayed intact and Laureateships continued. She remained active, energetic, and devotedly engaged in the readings, workshops, committees, festivals that were and are hallmarks of Altadena’s loving embrace of poetry writ large. Her influence and legacy continue to inspire us. (For more details, visit https://www.altadenalibrary.org/poetry)

ABOUT THIS ANTHOLOGY

This collection showcases 180 poems of varying styles, themes, lengths, and formats by 158 culturally-diverse poets primarily from Southern California, but also from across the United States and internationally.  Authors include past and present Poets Laureate of local, regional, and state levels, including two Los Angeles (CA) Poets Laureate, Luis J. Rodriguez and Lynne Thompson. Some poets are at the beginning of their careers, but most are experienced authors with publication experience and name recognition. Many are award winners at local, regional, and higher levels; others are affiliated with colleges and universities; and others are mentors and poetry leaders in their communities.  Overall, the poets published in this anthology are distinguished and markedly skilled in their art.

Advance praise of this anthology underscores the depth of sentiments expressed in the poems, especially compassion, humanity, strength, and resilience regarding the "fire poems" in the book: poetry bearing witness to the devastation caused by the horrific wildfires that swept through Altadena, CA, on January 7, 2025, one of the most destructive fires in California history. This anthology attests to the human will to overcome, to be reborn, and it does so with poetry that is lyrical, solemn, thought-provoking, insightful, and full of heart and soul.

===

2026 is a great year for poetry and poetry anthologies. Copies for participants are now in distribution, and public sales commence when the poets have been served. Órale, to Altadena Poet Laureate program.

Altadena's Co-Poets Laureate 

Shahe Mankerian, Altadena Poet Laureate Editor-in-Chief, 2026 - 2028
Rhonda Mitchell, Altadena Poet Laureate for Community Events 2026 - 2028

Altadena's Immediate Past-Laureates

Lester Graves Lennon, Altadena Poet Laureate Editor-in-Chief 2024 - 2026 Sehba Sarwar, Altadena Poet Laureate for Community Events, 2024 - 2026

Readings by Laureates-Emeriti

Carla R. Sameth, Altadena Co-Poet Laureate with Peter J. Harris QEPD, 2022 - 2024 Hazel Clayton Harrison, Altadena Co-Poet Laureate 2018 - 2020   

Teresa Mei Chuc, Altadena Co-Poet Laureate 2018 - 2020   

Elline Lipkin, Altadena Poet Laureate 2016 - 2018

Thelma T. Reyna, Altadena Poet Laureate 2014 - 2016

Laureates' Farewells

Lester Graves Lennon delivers his farewell reading. Lennon edited the Altadena Poetry Review: Anthology 2026.

Sehba Sarwar delivers her farewell reading. Sarwar organized community poetry events over her two-year co-Laureateship. Readings engaged audiences with spotlighted poets and open mics. Workshops stimulated creativity and generated numerous poems and several La Bloga columns.

The Co-Poets Laureate wrapping their two-year service to the Altadena, California and greater Los Angeles poetry community.

Sarwar and Lennon flank Nikki Winslow, Altadena Library District Director. Winslow's support is the heartbeat of Altadena Library District's community involvement, including the twenty-year legacy of the Altadena Poet Laureate Program.  Órale, Nikki.

Anthology & Poetry & Cookies, A Mother's Knife

Poetry is Community: Anthology & Poetry & Cookies.

Michael Sedano

The call for poems circulates in December 2025. In early April 2026 the publisher, Golden Foothills Press, predicts hard copies in-hand at the April 25 “Poetry & Cookies” Altadena poetry celebration now in its 20^th year. Click here for more history.

That’s fast turn around, but it's even more pressured. The Editor-in-Chief sends in January his selections to the publisher. That's three months to produce hard copies in each published poet's hands and a supply to sell at the book launch, "Poetry & Cookies. Meeting a demanding schedule like this reflects professionalism and experience. the publication--and the laureate program--offer a role model any community can emulate.

The anthology comes out of the two-year terms of Altadena Library’s Co-Poets Laureate. The Laureate program itself grew from librarian Polly Dutton’s initiative. In early years, Dutton held a poetry and cookies reading celebrating the laureate’s service. 

In 2015, Laureate Thelma T. Reyna published the first Altadena Poetry Review: Anthology. Since that first book, Reyna's family-owned press, Golden Foothills Press, has published all but two issues in the series.

Of the 2026 number, publisher Reyna observes:

In the 11-year history of the Altadena Poetry Review: Anthology the 2026 Anthology is the largest ever. Our debut edition, in 2015, had 105 poems written by 60 mostly local poets. 

This edition, the 8th book (none were produced in the COVID era), has 180 poems written by 158 poets from across the state and nation, and down under. The book has 325 pages, vs. 178 pp. in 2015. 

One might say that the visibility and renown of our Altadena poetry community, and its literary gem, is growing. 

Kudos to all the poets in this book; to its Editor-in-Chief, Co-Poet Laureate Lester Graves Lennon ; and to Assistant Editor and Co-Poet Laureate in Altadena, Sehba Sarwar.

A year ago, thousands of people fled their homes as miles of Altadena neighborhoods burned to the ground in the Eaton Fire. Today, the region slowly rebuilds its structures while it strengthens and rebuilds its spirit. Altadena Poetry Review Anthology 2026 captures what fire cannot destroy and what poetry affirms and sustains: a community’s spirit and hopefulness.

Here's a link to Golden Foothills Press where pre-orders are soon in the offing. For now, browse the publisher's catalog for its lineup of contemporary views and arte. Attend Poetry & Cookies and buy copies of the Altadena Poetry Review: Anthology and listen as selected readers and open mic'ers share their work.

Altadena Library and Poets Laureate Lester Graves Lennon and Sehba Sarwar, along with publisher Golden Foothills Press, welcome you to this year’s 3:00-6:00 p.m. Poetry & Cookies on April 25, 2026 at Bob Lucas Memorial Library & Literacy Center, 2659 Lincoln Ave, Altadena, CA 91001.

https://altadenalibrary.libnet.info/event/16132810

 

He Finds Mom’s Knife

Mom used that long blade to test the doneness of the barbacoa, the star of every familia pachanga. Of course, the beef isn’t the only feature. When la familia shows up for a party they load the serving tables with side dishes like potato salad, beans, moles, arroz, handmade tortillas from a distant tortilleria, and the always hit of the fiesta, Stella’s chile.

I owned too much stuff when I left my Pasadena home and since it didn't fit in Altadena, I rented a storage locker, so when I lost everything I ever owned in the fire, fifty boxes of random stuff were what I had left.

I lost Mom’s handwritten recipe for the 3-day barbacoa marinade in the Eaton Fire, along with most of my fotos of familia pachangas. That stuff in a storage locker escaped the fires and that’s where Mom’s knife turned up. 

I imagine Mom selecting the knife back before I was born. 

Dad is riding a tank to Leipzig, winning WWII. Mom  lives in Berdoo, a  soldier’s 18-year old expectant wife. 

She can afford one knife and she buys this one. Maybe she found it at Cuatro Milpas on Mt. Vernon? Maybe she walked into town to Sears or Montgomery Ward? 

It’s the knife I remember from as far back as I remember watching my mother cook, using the cuchillo slicing calabacitas, tomatoes, round steak, papas, nopales. 

And barbacoa.

Dad gathers leña enough for a big hot fire in the pit long before first light. The coals are ready at sunrise. 

The meat sits in a tina wrapped in tinfoil, swaddled in a bedsheet, burlap sacks, and banana leaves. 

Dad lowers the tina into the hole using precarious rebar hooks then covers the pit with layers of sheet metal and sealing it all with a layer of dirt.

At four or five in the afternoon, Mom declares it’s time. 

Gente have been singing and laughing, reminiscing, snacking on preliminary food. Tacos of someone’s fabulous frijoles, kids emptying a KFC bucket, there’s a taste test of competing potato salads. This chile is really picoso! Is there more? Stella rattles off her recipe but it’s all in technique, no one makes chile like Stella.

Dad scrapes away the dirt, wisps of escaping steam carry aroma. Stand back, Dad advises, prying away the sheet metal releasing a steamy cloud of deliciousness. The tina tilts precariously, it's hot unsteadying work, leaning over that pit, hauling up a tina awash in red swirling jugo. Two men balance the tina at the ends of those rebar hooks, meat juices sloshing into sizzling ash as the tina tips. Ultimately, the tina goes up and out and onto the wheelbarrow.

Mom approaches the exposed chunk of meat. She thrusts the length of the blade into the unresisting moist tender meat--as it should. She twists the handle and extracts the blade, a sliver of beef sticking to its length. 

Mom’s fingers bring the first bite to her mouth. A sniff, a nod, a bite, a satisfied smile. Her knife carves a layer of carne into taco-size slices and chunks for the first servings. Diners will cut off their own after the top layer's eaten.

When I find the knife its stainless steel length bears scars from many an off-angled filing. It's not a sharp edge. I take Mom's knife to the sharpener guy in Altadena who restores the edge to paper-shredding precision and oils the handle. 

Of all the stuff I did not lose in the Eaton fire, mira nomás, I still have my Mom’s knife. 

Poetry Connection: Connecting with Family and Friends at Thanksgiving

 

Melinda Palacio, Santa Barbara Poet Laureate 2023-2025

2025 marks another quarter of a century without my mother at Thanksgiving. She would have been 76 this today, December 5. I was happy to have spent the holiday with her best friends, Mary and Eddie, and their son and grandson. Mary’s grandson needed help with his homework assignment: an ode on any subject. I had heard about this assignment a few days ago when Mary telephoned to ask if I could explain what an ode is to her grandson, Moctezuma. I was more than willing to help. After all Mary Rose had helped me with my English homework when I was in high school. I recall the frantic phone calls when I had spent too much time procrastinating on an English essay. Mary Rose was great at calming me down and letting me know that I could get the assignment done in time. My mother and Mary used to teach at the same elementary school. Sometimes, it is easier to get advice from someone who is not immediately related to you.

Moctezuma already had a pretty good idea of what an ode was. We talked about its greek origins and how the form is a praise poem that can be on any subject. He chose his favorite food: guacamole. Over the phone, I prompted him to do some free writing and jot down any words related to his subject, beginning with an avocado plant to the fruit to the making of the dish. I wanted him to have at least a page or two of notes so he wouldn’t come to the page or computer empty handed. This is very much how I approach any kind of writing assignment. I always start with paper and a pen or pencil and simply write down ideas. On rare occasions, when I am on a very tight deadline and am offering a review or writing on a subject that I know very well, I will skip the free writing process. It’s very comforting and makes any assignment more manageable to have ideas, words, and phrases that will make it into your final draft.

While we were waiting on the turkey, I asked to see his ode and was surprised that he hadn’t written it. Although, given that I am a grand procrastinator, I understood that he had other things to do on his holiday. He pulled out his handwritten notes and found a quiet corner to write. From his quick draft, it was obvious he had been thinking about his poem over the past couple of days. Because he had a few pages of notes and ideas, the process of writing was quick and easy. It may have looked like procrastination, but his mind was doing the thinking and organizing in the background. I think we have another poet in the family.

We worked through three drafts of his ode before he pressed the send button and turned in his assignment online. I asked him if he was nervous working with me but he said that my enthusiasm made him enjoy writing poetry. It was a special honor to tutor someone I’ve known since birth.

This week’s poem comes from 17-year old Moctezuma Ortega, a senior at Franklin High School in Los Angeles. He enjoys Cross Country and Track and Field. This is his first published poem.

Ode to the Guacamole

by Moctezuma Ortega

Oh guacamole, how long I’ve waited

for your body to ripen

so you can be seasoned

and enlighten my body with nutrients

I await the day

that you age

from a grape-sized ball

to a plump oval fruit

split in two

reveal your yellowish-green inside

along with the core

a temporary separation

Its flesh I mash

until its texture becomes smooth 

not like the chunky puree preferred by my father,

whose nickname is Guacamole

next comes the lemon

its citrus flavor infuses

with the avocado mush

at last

I sprinkle in the spices

add the garlic salt

grandma Mary introduced me to

With the dip ready

I devour it with tortilla chips

the taste reminds me

of my favorite childhood restaurant

El Arco Iris

* an earlier version of this column was published in the Santa Barbara Independent

Wondrous Weekend of Arte, Poetry, Zuppa, Honoring A Poet, A Book Review

 Michael Sedano

Mid-September brings a rich cornucopia of arts events, a surprise award, and oncoming cold weather demands hearty, gluten-free soups. La Bloga-Tuesday is happy to share the week's joys.

Pintor de Poemas: Unseen Works by Alfredo Ramos Martínez Exhibition at Scripps College

Among the best other-than-classroom elements of institutions of higher learning are the diverse contributions to community arts and culture. In Claremont, California, Scripps College exemplifies the best of these with an involving exhibition of a foundational Mexican muralist, Alfredo Ramos Martínez.

Detail: Pareja India. Alfredo Ramos Martínez, 1932

The exhibition features unseen studies in life-size scale of Ramos Martínez' notable paintings and outdoor works. Assembled from private collections and a Los Angeles gallery, the compact gallery thronged with visitors from across the region during the opening reception 

Claremont, California's Scripps College has the final mural Alfredo Ramos Martínez painted, Las Vendedoras de Flores. In connection with the exhibition, Ramos Martínez'  hundred-foot long treasure will be honored with an altar created by Ofelia and Rosanna Esparza, on October 23. 

Scripps College has put together an impressive program to celebrate the exhibition, including a deluxe catalog, and lectures on the muralist's paint compounds, as well as a lecture on Ramos Martínez' distinctive style paying homage to laborers and indigenous gente. For details on the events, here's a link.

The Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery at Scripps College 

251 E. 11th St. Claremont, California 91711

September 13–December 14, 2025

The Gluten-free Chicano Cooks Comida Italiana

Zuppa Con Polpette, Lee's Green Soup

.

The Strouds were an Air Force family who’d moved next door. My Mom shared Mexican/Chicano cooking with Lee, who’d been all over the world, acquiring a repertoire of foods wherever Colonel Stroud was stationed. As a special treat, Mrs. Stroud promised us real Italian pizza.

The year was 1956 or 1957. Pizza had yet to enter the food chain in my part of Califas. The only pizza I’d tasted was a delicious, and expensive, tomato sauce-covered treat at the drive-in theatre. Now, I was going to eat, for free, the genuine article.

Lee made a rectangular pizza pie that fills the air with wondrous aroma. But before serving us pizza, a first course.

The first course arrives in a bowl—a green soup with tiny meatballs exuding its own rich aroma of parmesan cheese, garlic, and the je ne sais quoi of great cooking. The soup is so tasty I ask for seconds, which Lee gladly ladles into my empty bowl. 

I’ve eaten so much soup I have room for only a single square of that wondrous pizza. Lee laughs and explains, that’s the idea:

Pizza takes a lot of work, and time. Yeast dough has to rise, get beaten down, and rise again. Tomatoes get cooked down and pulverized with herbs and spices to make the sauce. Cheese needs grating; then the baking. Feed people soup and you have to make only one pizza!

We Celiacs and other gluten-intolerant gente know the rarity of a good gluten-free pizza. I know of only two restaurants in California making edible gluten-free pizza, Giuseppe’s in Palm Springs, and Settebello in Pasadena. Pero, ni modo, I’d rather eat this soup. 

Zuppa Con Polpette - Lee’s Green Soup.

Ingredients to serve four with second helpings, or good left-overs (carb counts are approximate for your own soup, as quantities reduce or increase the gram content. Some of us diabetics count carbs, so remember to divide the total carb count by the number of servings. )

Polpette/Albondigas/Meatballs:

½ lb ground beef (0g)

½ lb ground pork (0g)

1 lg egg (.4g)

Parmesan cheese (1.15g per oz or 5 TBS)

4 cloves or more garlic (1g /clove)

1 brown or white onion (11g)

salt (0g)

black pepper (.06g / dash)

Zuppa/Caldo/Soup:

frozen chopped spinach 11g)

3 or 4 carrots (6g/carrot)

4 stalks celery including tops (1g/stalk)

½ bell pepper (7g/cup)

flat rice noodles (120g/cup)

olive oil (0g)

chicken stock (1g/cup)

red chile flakes (1g/tsp)

½ lemon to squeeze (1g)

Meatballs:

Wash hands and under nails.

Squish ingredients in hands making a homogenous mass

Use three fingers to pinch meat mixture

Roll in palm of hands to form spoon-size bolitas

Soup:

In a generous soup pot over medium flame/level 4 on electric range 

Wilt the onion and garlic in olive oil

Add carrots and bell pepper

Add the meatballs

Add canned or homemade chicken broth and equal volume water

Add the celery

Cover, lower heat, simmer 20 minutes (meatballs will float to surface)

Add frozen chopped spinach

Add a bit more parmesan cheese

Add a pinch of red chile flakes

Squeeze lemon juice into pot

Stir

Cover, simmer ten minutes

Ladle into bowls, distribute four or five polpette per bowl. Squeeze a bit of lemon juice. Dust with parmesan cheese.

On the table, serve a bowl of dried parmesan and another of chile flakes for garnish.

Make your own broth, boxed gluten-free broth is a good shortcut.

Use the celery root and all the carrot. Lots of extra flavor in those.
Use good olive oil to wilt the first batch of vegetables.

Layering ingredients builds flavors.

Wilted veggies under meatballs and liquid, ready for the next layer.

25 minutes cooks everything just right. Spinach finishes it off for color and taste.

A second helping in that empty bowl!

Some cooks make soup the day before to take advantage of the fact that soup flavors blossom overnight, left-overs prove the point.

La Bloga-Tuesday will feature diverse gluten-free soup recipes in coming weeks. Cold weather approaches, and that's hot, hearty soup weather.

Review: Ron Arias. Gardens of Plenty

When I laid grateful eyes on Ramos Martínez' La Pareja India, at the Scripps reception, my thoughts immediately went to Ron Arias' new novel, Gardens of Plenty (link) given the novel's principal setting is Mexico, spanning over twenty years and ending in fifteen eighty-eight.

This first-person novel traces the career of an English boy who goes to sea on a slaver ship, goes overboard to be captured and enslaved by indios. He escapes with another slave, a teenage girl. They find shelter and marry. He flees the inquisition only to be enslaved again by a red-bearded nemesis from the ship. Escaping again, he sails to Spain, makes his way to Portugal, returns to Mexico. The New World is ravaged by a lethal disease, perhaps syphillis, and the man finds empty villages and black clouds of vultures feasting on human carrion. Finally he's reunited with his wife and children bringing the swashbuckling tale to a satisfying conclusion. It's a far cry from Errol Flynn or Horatio Hornblower but equally imaginative, heroic, and thrilling.

Arias spins an excellent and exciting tale, crafting admirable characters, giving the hardships a feeling of authenticity with a caveat: readers need a generously willing suspension of disbelief. The boy learns a few words of Spanish from a chained slave and in short order holds elaborate conversations with the slave and gente in Mexico, including his indio captors via the teenage slave he eventually marries. He adapts quickly to indio values and becomes a skilled archer.

The historical context adds to the novel's interest. Gritty shipboard details, people burned at the stake for being Protestants, crypto Jews hiding in plain sight as merchants, sailors, soldiers--the boy learns he himself is a hidden Jew. A variety of indigenous gente populate the plot. Food consists in insects, snakes, lice, mules, and birds shot out of the air with arrows, as well as tamales and barbacoa. Gardens of plenty, indeed!

I'm happy to recommend Gardens of Plenty to readers of all ages, YA to jaded adults. Moreover, I recommend ordering copies from the only Chicano bookstore in Orange County, Libromobile in Santa Ana (link). Libromobile's service is fast and the community-based store needs support.

Thelma T. Reyna Lifetime Achievement Award 

The announcement arrives the day after the Altadena Poets Laureates reading marking the release of the 2025 Online edition of the Altadena Poetry Review, Dr. Thelma T. Reyna is Recipient of the 2025 Armando F. Sanchez Production Lifetime Achievement Award.

Reyna's books have collectively earned 22 national and international literary awards. She is an Altadena Poet Laureate Emerita, having served as the sole Laureate from 2014-2016. As Altadena Poet Laureate, Reyna expanded the program's community outreach and launched the publication of the Review. Such productivity demonstrated the need for two Laureates and the program now appoints Co-Poets Laureates.

Reyna's Golden Foothills Press (link) publishes the Altadena Poetry Review. Her collections include short fiction, and poetry such as When The Virus Came Calling, and her memoir in poems, a eulogy for her late husband, Dearest Papa. La Bloga-Tuesday reviewed the latter two, linked above.

Marking the award, producer Armando F. Sanchez invites poets and Reyna's former students to share their best wishes and thoughts on Reyna's generosity and artistry. Only a select number appear on the video; many more offered to record messages. Click this link to view the extended tribute video on YouTube.

La Bloga is pleased to announce the award and congratulate Dr. Thelma T. Reyna and recognize her 30-year career contributions to numerous journals and online resources. Congratulations, Thelma. Ajua! and ¡Órale!

2025 Altadena Poetry Review Online and Free for All

One of the nation's most active community poet laureate programs lives in the down but not out Southern California community of Altadena. Hundreds of homes were leveled by the Eaton Fire, but the conflagration spared the Altadena Library, host of the Laurate program.

Laureates, appointed for two-year terms, distinguish themselves with an active program of readings and workshops, and for the second consecutive year, Co-Poets Laureate Sehba Sarwar and Lester Graves Lennon are recognized by the Academy of American Poets with the organization's Poet Laureate Fellowships.

Click here to read the online edition--a virtual book--of Altadena Poetry Review Anthology 2025, edited by Lester Graves Lennon, Associate Editor Sehba Sarwar.  This is a beautiful work of book art, opening with Before the Fire, in memory of Peter J. Harris, and a second half, From the Ashes, dedicated to the victims and survivors of the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire.

Lennon and Sarwar will issue the Call for Submissions for the 2026 Altadena Poetry Review anthology in December. 

In coming weeks, Sarwar in her role as Poet Laureate for Community Events, will host workshops and readings. Saturday, September 20, Xitlalic Guijosa leads Poetry and Garden - Poetry and Zine Workshop. October 11, Teresa Mei Chuc conducts Fire and ICE: A Haibun Poetry Workshop. Both run from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in the library's community room. On Tuesday, October 14, Sarwar and Lennon host a reading, Fire and ICE, with open mic, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30. November 8, 2-4 p.m., Queer Poets Resist and open mic. November 15, in the commuity room, Writing About the Difficult: Borrowing A Form to Break into Your Story, with Carla Rachel Sameth, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, December 10, A Wall is Just a Wall and open mic comes to Loma Alta Park Gymnasium from 6 p.m. to 7:30. 

Poetry readings are livestreamed at the library's YouTube channel.

Celebrating the release of the virtual book, the Altadena Library hosted an afternoon reading featuring an open mic and spotlighting eight voices from the anthology, each of whom you can view on the library's YouTube channel (link). 

Here are portraits of the spotlighted readers. You can read their work in the online anthology, and view each at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WTFSrW7VvM :

Anna Mixtlan

Lynne Thompson

Sehba Sarwar

Lester Graves Lennon

Pam Ward

Alene Terzian-Zeitounian

Ron Koertge

Don Kingfisher Campbell

Thelma T. Reyna

Final Words: Invitations

La Bloga welcomes guest columnists on subjects dear to the writer's heart. La Bloga is the oldest Chicana Chicano Latina Latino literary y más blog in the universe. 

In November we celebrate our 21st year sharing poetry, short fiction, critical essays, gluten-free comida, foto essays, community events, new books for children, YA, and general readers. Y más.

Click the mug shots at the top of the page to email your ideas.

La Bloga especially welcomes community dialogue on issues raised by one of our seven regular writers. There's a link at the bottom to join in with your commentary. Be sure to check the Notify Me box to follow yours and others' comments.