Copa de Aztlan at Galeria Yasmin

Lorna Dee Cervantes, Matt Sedillo, Ceasar K. Avelar, Margaret Elysia Garcia, Erica Castro and Paulina Cueto read for the Copa de Aztlan at Galeria Yasmin in Downtown Pomona!

Featuring El Martillo Press authors:

Lorna Dee Cervantes

Matt Sedillo

Ceasar K. Avelar

Margaret Elysia Garcia

Born in San Francisco, raised in San José, Barrio Horseshoe, Lorna Dee Cervantes was a self-taught activist by fifteen, taught herself how to run her own printing press and was founding editor/publisher of MANGO Publications at twenty, and author of the American Book Award winning EMPLUMADA at twenty-four.

Matt Sedillo has been described as the "best political poet in America" by investigative journalist and documentarian Greg Palast as well as "the poet laureate of the struggle" by Professor and Hitorian Paul Ortiz.

Ceasar K. Avelar is the second poet laureate of Pomona, CA. His poems speak the truth, not only to people in a position of power, but also to the everyday person that views the working class as a stigmatized identity.

Macondo Fellow Margaret Elysia Garcia is the author of poetry collections Iconistas! (Lit Kit Collective, 2025), the daughterland (El Martillo Press, 2023), and Burn Scars, (Lit Kit Collective, 2022).