THE LATINA BOOK CLUB

Poetry is like a song, like a psalm, like a prayer. Poetry is different things to many people, and April being Poetry Month, The   Latina Book Club   is celebrating by featuring Latino poets all week long. We welcome to our site former Poet Laureate Thelma T. Reyna ,  who has graciously shared with us an autobiographical poem, a glimpse from her childhood. GROWING UP DUSTY IN A SMALL TEXAS TOWN Our ankles were always gray, caliche dust swirling like guardian angels around twiggy brown legs leaping potholes, tripping on dirt clods. Nine children oblivious to what it meant to be growing up dusty. In winter, rivers of mud separated us from Licha, Juan, Susie. Dripping mesquite trees beckoned. Black puddles dotted our ‘hoodscape far as child eyes could see, little lakes navigated house to house as we grew up dusty. When morning light tickled our bedfaces, dervishes danced through cracks and chinks in sills and walls and f...

      The month is not over yet and neither is the Celebration. The Latina Book Club is proud to welcome Poet Laureate of the Altadena Library District, Dr. Thelma T. Reyna , who urges us to celebrate Women year round not just one month a year.  As Women’s History Month comes to a close, it is easy for many of us to return to other issues that consume our attention daily. Women have been extolled throughout this special month of honoring, women’s “firsts” have been recognized and commemorated, and our collective desire to see women gain greater equity in all spheres of society has been duly expressed in various media throughout March. But our awareness of women’s status in all nations, not just in ours, for the purpose of averting discrimination and expanding egalitarianism in all facets of existence must never be delimited to a certain slice of time. We need no boundaries--of time, place, emphasis--to further any worthy cause, and th...

   The Latina Book Club is proud to welcome back author Thelma T. Reyna, newly named Poet Laureate of the Altadena Library District.   We’d also like to congratulate Thelma on her new poetry collection.   We want to hear all about its debut in Italy.   Read on! Thelma T. Reyna with her Poet Laureate Award Box. Q:  Congratulations on being selected Poet Laureate.  Tell us about this honor and how it has changed your life. Thank you, Maria. I don’t know how long the Altadena Library District has had a Poet Laureate, but this year I decided to answer a call for applications. Once chosen, I was surprised to learn that 12 poets had applied! It was pretty competitive, with a detailed application form. We also had to submit five poems, a bibliography of our publications or a resume, and a description of how we’re active in the community regarding poetry and literary events. A select committee reviewed all the applications and made their choice...