Donato Martinez
Donato Martinez was born in in small pueblo, Garcia de la Cadena, Zacatecas, Mexico and immigrated into the USA at six years old. He teaches English Composition, Literature, and Creative Writing at Santa Ana College. He has also taught classes in Chicano Studies. He has been a co-coordinator of the Puente Program for 25 years. In 2022, he was awarded the Creative Expression Faculty Award and the Transfer Advocate of the Year. In 2024-2025, he was recognized as the Distinguished Faculty of the Year, the highest honor bestowed on a faculty member. He is nominated for the Orange County Teacher of the Year, for the year 2026. He is also a cast member of papah!, a YouTube show that features Mexican dads sharing their unique perspectives through candid conversations, food reviews, and reactions.
Martinez also hosts and curates many artistic events that feature poetry and music on his campus or in the community. He writes about his family, his barrio experience, his community, his Chicano culture, his love of language and hip hop, and the complexity of relationships. He is influenced by the sounds and pulse of the streets, people, music, and the magic of language.
He has a self-published collection with three other Inland Empire poets, Tacos de Lengua. His work has been published in literary journals: City Works, East Side Rose, The Acentos Review, San Diego Poetry Annual, Ofrenda Magazine, Mixtape Literary Journal, Latin@ Literatures, The EAR, Xinachtli Journal (Journal X), La Raíz Magazine and in the anthologies: With Dim Lights & Obsidian Tongues: A Pomona Poetry Anthology, ILL Anthology Vol. 2 and Vol. 3, and Anger is a Gift: An Anthology of Resistance and Response Poems to the 2024 Election. His first full collection of poetry, Touch the Sky, was published by El Martillo Press in 2023. He loves the outdoors and is inspired by books, music, and his children, Gabriel and Abigail.
"There are magical moments and poetic turns in these big wonderful poems that sing of family, of barrio, of dirt, of work, of play, of celestial dreams… of what it is to be Mexican in the United States—ni de aqui , ni de alla, but always landing on solid ground, proof we belong anywhere. Donato Martinez has concocted an expansive and rich collection.”
—Luis J. Rodriguez, author of Always Running: Mi Vida Loca/Gang Days in L.A., Borrowed Bones, and From Our Land to Our Land
“Through his palabras, Donato Martinez presents and pays homage to the many men and women who often are excluded from our history books. He acknowledges their being, their presence, and the many contributions they make to our everyday life. Donato’s poems make sure that we recognize their sudor, their hours of excessive work, and understand that they keep our cities in motion.”
—Angelina F. Veyna, Emeritus Professor of History, Santa Ana College
“Donato Martinez’s poems bring me joy. Like sitting on a porch hearing your elders tell tales, like relaxing with friends shooting the shit, like the best hip hop of the 90s, like family breakfast on Sunday morning. Pull up a chair and treat yourself."
—Tomas Moniz, author of Big Familia
“Donato Martinez successfully gives us back the essence of poetic flow that's been missing from our lives during these uncertain times. His unique style, rhyme and cadence pull me back into the days of giving a damn and living life freely at the same time. Each metaphor serves to bring the reader into Martinez's world of cultura, familia, and comunidad that made him into who he is today. If you've never had days filled with wonderment, fear, laughter, and a sense of urgency all balled into one moment, do yourself a favor and float through his home-grown narration intentionally without pause.”
—Dr. Jessica Ayo Alabi, Professor at Orange Coast College, Founder and CEO of Alabi Community Consulting
“In this debut collection of poems, Donato Martinez continues to captivate and inspire. Recalling memories from childhood, he places us in the middle of the lives of a Mexican immigrant family attempting to carve out their little piece of the “American Dream.” I could visualize scenes of the barrio where he grew up and feel a close connection to the people who called it home.”
—Obed Silva, Professor of English at East Los Angeles College, writer of the memoir, The Death of My Father the Pope
“Touch the Sky is a collection of silent prayers told over the beds of sleeping children, dreams of blacktop crossovers, Doritos sandwiches, and the return of Aztec gods. At once modern and ancient, urban and sacred, Donato Martinez’s debut book Touch the Sky mines the everyday for the profound. Martinez turns his eye just outside the window and finds heaven in the streets and alleys. This is Chicano city writing. And it's damn good.”
—Matt Sedillo, author of Mowing Leaves of Grass and City on the Second Floor
"Imagining the ideal barrio means imagining a better world for everyone in Donato Martinez's new book of poems, Ten Toes in the Earth. The overtime that this poeta: full-time teacher and father, puts in brings the barrio together to share the happiness of the pachanga or the carne asada. Work is not work if you love what you do. Donato loves his gente. Even their heartbreak is celebrated by imagining a Mexican Statue of Liberty where all the Mexicans can lay their pain down and celebrate their hard-earned struggle. Heaven is full of mangos and compas selling tacos on the side of freeway - "but all the compas live in mansions." You have to imagine it first to create and realize it. And Donato's imagination is free and firme like a Sunday cruise."
—Paul S. Flores, HBO Def Poet, author of We Still Be: Poems and Performances, 2024 American Book Award winner
"Resurrected Tupac, Vicks VapoRub and sweet mangos are a few of the many saviors Martinez calls forth to rescue a grief-stricken world. These poems demonstrate how imagination becomes a vehicle for hope without borders. The people living in this collection include truck-driving tías, ghost children, landscaping fathers, and women who buy themselves flowers. They are not merely survivors, but celebrated working-class heroes. These poems are constantly desiring, calling for change, and wanting justice for so many loved ones."
—Karla Cordero, author of How to Pull Apart the Earth
"You will see your family in these poems, your culture, your crazy tias, the hardened men now crying, you will taste the mango dripping, see the tortillas de harina rising on the comal. Professor Donato Martinez—veterano professor of English literature and master storyteller—is a Chicano bard for these turbulent times. There is an aching in each line. A longing to return to the simplicity of childhood and the pulsing adventures of youth. These poems are ode to our barrios, our familias, our cultura, la raza. Read these poems out loud, around fires, in classrooms, and even in the halls of Congress. ¡Orale! ¡Atención! Make way for the Chicano Bard, Donato Martinez! In Ten Toes in the Earth, the work is unyielding—while the corazón is tender and vulnerable. Our hardworking familias, our migrant siblings, and aging elders are the true heroes of these poems. These poems will ground you."
—Brenda Vaca, author of Riot of Roses and publisher of Riot of Roses Publishing House
"Packed with deep emotion, each poem in Donato Martinez's latest collection, Ten Toes in the Earth, is an ode to the resilience of the immigrant. Each word, each verse, each stanza is an act of resistance that stands and pushes back against US nationalism, racism, and oppression. In these troubled times, when Latinos are being violently targeted, kidnapped, and disappeared, Donato's poems are a silver lining in an otherwise dark cloud. Not only do they remind us of the contributions immigrants make to this country, but they give use hope for a better tomorrow."
—Obed Silva, professor at East LA College and author of The Death of My Father the Pope
"Donato Martinez's poems open the door to a family that lives in the everyday—the people we hold close, those we keep alive in memory, and those we imagine into a future worth fighting for. Rich with the colors, scents, and sounds of gardens, kitchens, and shared stories, these poems honor the sweetness of survival without hiding the sharp edges: the long journeys, the restless nights, the places where laughter and loss meet. Here, joy and struggle stand together, reminding us that every story, every song, every small act of remembering is a promise to keep working for justice—and to love fiercely along the way."
—Dr. Anthony Blacksher, professor at San Bernardino Valley College and San Diego Poetry Slam member
"Raised Roman Catholic, Donato Martinez's poems nevertheless take on a Pentecostal rhythm—speaking in tongues-mixing English, Spanish and African American Vernacular English (AAVE)—baptizing the reader and listener in his liberation theology. In "I Hope There Are Mangos in Heaven", Martinez delivers his most powerful sermon for systemic change, calling for an end to borders and war. In "Grandmothers Always Grow the Prettiest Flowers", Martinez grounds the concept of Heaven in the beauty of his barrio, family and community. In Martinez's poetic ministry, Heaven isn't simply a place we go to when we die, it's our happiest memories, it's the love of our parents and children, it's the choices we make to be more accountable to one another, and it's our willingness to transform this day, our daily bread, into a paradise on Earth."
—David A. Romero, author of The Enemy Sleeps, editor-in-chief of El Martillo Press
Buy Ten Toes in the Earth by Donato Martinez
Memories from the Barrio
Performance and Presentation
Description:
In this multimedia presentation, Donato Martinez regales those in attendance with stories from his childhood, beautiful poetry, and plenty of heartfelt moments that paint a picture of a man who has gone far in life. Martinez immigrated to the United States at six years old. As one of seven children, he had to share practically everything. “When we wanted Nikes or we wanted a new backpack, it wasn’t happening,” said Martinez. “If [my father] said yes to one of us, he would have to say yes to six others.” If Donato wanted to do things like play Little League baseball he had to buy all the equipment himself. Selling oranges, mowing lawns and whatever else he could do to get some money was how he got by. “Donato Martinez pays homage to the many men and women who often are excluded from our history books. He acknowledges their being, their presence and the many contributions they make to our everyday life,” says professor Angelina Veyna. Martinez recites poems based on his upbringing, including “We Wanted More,” which speaks to his experiences growing up in “the barrio.” “We always wanted more, all seven of us/We were hungry/We wanted to eat at restaurants/We wanted our own room, our own bed, our own blankets, but we shared everything.”
Watch Memories of the Barrio at Santa Ana College.
Purpose:
Memories of the Barrio paints a vivid picture of the first-generation immigrant experience in a working-class neighborhood.
CATEGORIES: DRAMA, ONE-MAN SHOW, PERFORMANCE, CHICANO STUDIES, POETRY
Memories of the Barrio has been presented at:
Santa Ana College
I'm All the Way Up
Poetry Workshop
Description:
Have you ever encountered conflict, setbacks, negative experiences or even just hateful comments from others that have tried to “bring you down?” In this workshop, students will reflect on experiences within one’s family, in relationships, with work, in one’s life that have been challenging or difficult to overcome. Students will turn this into writing an empowering and inspiring piece about who you are and what you have been through. Think of Biggie Smalls and his opening lines of “Juicy” – “Yeah, this album is dedicated/To all the teachers that told me I'd never amount to nothing/To all the people that lived above thebuildings that I was hustling in front of/That called the police on me/When I was just trying to make some money to feed my daughter”. These lines can help fuel your passion to declare who you are. It will give fire to your struggles. This workshop is inspired bythe poem, “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou.
Purpose:
I'm All the Way Up! teaches participants how to channel the struggles of daily life into the content for powerful poems.
CATEGORIES: CREATIVE WRITING, POETRY, AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDIES, CHICANO STUDIES
I'm All the Way Up! has been presented at:
The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture of the Riverside Art Museum
BOOKING
To inquire about booking Donato Martinez for a paid reading or workshop: