Ten Toes in the Earth Book Celebration at Art Space HP

Donato Martinez celebrates his latest collection, Ten Toes in the Earth, at Art Space HP in Huntington Park!

Art Space HP

3382 E Florence Ave, Huntington Park, CA 90255

7 - 9 pm

Donato Martinez

Alejandra Roggero

Rey M. Rodríguez

Jesenia Chávez

Ten Toes in the Earth

"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

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.

Alejandra Roggero is a Whittier College graduate and the author of four collections of prose and poetry, including The Town and La Matriarca. She is the owner of Guerita Vintage and works as a television producer for Fuse Media. She’s also one of the founders of Poetry for the Masses, a monthly workshop and collective in South Pasadena open to writers of all levels. Her work seeks to soften readers — perhaps even to the point of dissolution. Her forthcoming book, soft serve, is set to be published in 2027. 

Rey M. Rodríguez is a writer, advocate, and attorney. He lives in Pasadena, California. He is working on a novel set in Mexico City. He attended the Yale Writers’ Workshop and Palabras de Pueblo workshop. He participated in Story Studio’s Novel in a Year Program. He received his MFA in fiction from the Institute of American Indian Arts in May 2026. His poetry is published in Huizache, Anger is a Gift, and Altadena Poetry Review. His interviews and book reviews can be found at La Bloga, Chapter House’s Storyteller’s Corner, Full Stop, Pleiades Magazine, and the Los Angeles Review. He is a graduate of Cornell, Princeton, and U.C. Berkeley Law School.

Jesenia Chávez is a proud Chicanita, public-school teacher, poet and storyteller. Her writing is inspired by her parents’ migration to Los Angeles from Chihuahua, México, her teaching career, her sense of loss in the rapidly changing landscape of the city, and all the small moments in between when she can catch her breath and put pen to paper. She is the author of a poetry collection titled, This Poem Might Save You (me) by Alegría magazine. She co-hosts Que Me Cuentas: A mostly Latinx storytelling podcast. She is currently working on her MFA at UCR. IG @chabemucho @quemecuentaspod.

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Art Space Huntington Park is a consulting agency and creative space dedicated to repositioning the role of the arts in daily life. We use culture, the visual and performing arts, and arts education to inspire creativity in our communities.

https://www.artspacehp.com/

El Martillo Press publishes writers whose pens strike the page with clear intent; words with purpose to pry apart assumed norms and to hammer away at injustice. El Martillo Press proactively publishes writers looking to pound the pavement to promote their work and the work of their fellow pressmates. El Martillo is the builder of bridges and the destroyer of walls.