Todos Somos Sagrados/All Are Sacred

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 multiple times and Palabras de Pueblo workshop once. 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.

Javier H. Morrone is a California Certified Court Interpreter and president of Lex Lingua Court Interpreters, Inc., with a distinguished career spanning more than fifteen years across legal, medical, academic, and diplomatic settings. Holding graduate degrees in American History and Economics from California State University Los Angeles, he teaches medical and legal translation and interpretation at UCLA Extension, Pasadena City College, and Moreno Valley College. 

Jose Ramirez is an artist. In the past 30 years, he has illustrated children's books, painted murals and completed commissions for numerous organizations and individuals. Ramirez is also an educator.  His work was exhibited at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington DC, Plaza de la Raza, Avenue 50 Gallery in Highland Park and Homegirl Café in Los Angeles. He is currently working on a children's book titled Mi papa es un agrícola/My Father is a Fieldworker (Lil Libros) and a tile mural for the city of Los Angeles.He is the proud father of 3 daughters: Tonantzin, Luna and Sol.

EAN: 9798295790553   
Publisher: El Martillo Press
Binding: Paperback
Pub Date: May 21, 2026

Pages: 208

- Poetry - Political & Protest
- Hispanic & Latino
- Religious

"Rey M. Rodríguez sheds light on Boyle Heights with this striking collection of illuminating poems of struggle, grit, community, sacrifice, and triumph. In language that is clear, vivid, and haunting, Rodríguez provides the reader with a window into the often-hard realities of city life in Los Angeles. Like Luis J. Rodríguez, Sandra Cisneros, and Pablo Neruda before him, Rodríguez captures our hearts, minds, and souls with lush poems that inspire via the social conscious lens."

-Jose Hernandez Diaz, author of Portrait of the Artist as a Brown Man (Ren Hen Press)

"Todos Somos Sagrados/All Are Sacred, Rey M. Rodríguez's debut collection, moves with the curative force of a sanctuary forged in community-echoing the women of Proyecto Pastoral at Dolores Mission, for whom care was a daily, radical practice. Sanctuary here is collective: Brown communities recognizing one another as fully human, refusing erasure through presence and mutual regard. Set in Aliso Pico and East Los Angeles, these poems bear luminous witness to Brown lives shaped by labor and class, insisting that what grows most urgently-and most defiantly-are people. Written in language that is both beautifully wrought and politically clear, Todos Somos Sagrados advances a vision of love as action, where spirituality and responsibility to others are inseparable. These poems stand as vital testimonios of a time and place, naming the enduring, world-making power of coming together."

-Diana Marie Delgado, author of Tracing the Horse (BOA Editions) and editor, Like a Hammer: Poets on Mass Incarceration (Haymarket Books, 2025)

"Rey M. Rodríguez's Todos Somos Sagrados is social poetry of the highest order. At its center is the Proyecto Pastoral at Dolores Mission-a Los Angeles Catholic Jesuit community that transforms poverty into spiritual flowers, where homeless men teach us what mass means, and where priests, like Father Gregory Boyle, truly practice the teachings of Jesus. Rodríguez's poetry pays ceaseless tribute to the creative energy of "Lupe, Paula, Margarita, / Yolanda, Esperanza, Rita, / Rosa, Sofia," and the countless women who risked their lives-gave their tears, time, and labor-to create joy through dignifying service at the church and its many sister programs. Rodríguez, whose compassion extends well beyond the pages of this collection, sets a shining example against the cobardia (the cowardice) that keeps so many from the profound work of "inclusion, non-violence, unconditional loving, kindness, and compassionate acceptance" that, as Father Boyle explains in his elegant preface, Jesus taught. This book is radical love landing in a desperate moment."

-Jake Fournier, firefighter, scholar of abolitionist poetry, author of Punishment Bag, and instructor at the Institute of American Indian Arts