By Ariana Maldonado
Staff Writer 

In celebration of National Poetry Month, Chicana artist Gloria Enedina Alvarez organized a poetry workshop at the Vincent Price Museum, inspired by Ofelia Esparza’s storytelling through visual art.

The workshop, held on April 18, guided participants through several writing prompts, allowing them to explore deeper understandings of art and self-identity.

Ofelia Esparza and her daughter, Rosanna Esparza, both made an appearance and joined participants throughout the workshop.

Alvarez began the workshop with a short walk-through of the ‘Ofelia Esparza: A Retrospective’ art exhibit, where they examined her altar “My Family Tree of Life.”

The altar includes photographs of her family surrounded by marigold plants attached to an agave plant.

Esparaza’s altar inspired one of the writing prompts of the workshop, where writers wrote and shared a brief poem about their perception of the altar and their family history.

Participants also wrote and shared a poem that Alvarez prompted, where they discussed the origin and meaning of their names.

The writing prompt describes how one pronounces one’s name, the color or shape the writer thinks it would be, the possible smell or taste it would have and of any person, object or moment that reminds them of that name. 

During this writing prompt, Ofelia shared a brief story about the pronunciation of her name growing up, which many participants who have a name pronounced in Spanish related to. 

Ofelia said that growing up, she always heard and pronounced her name in Spanish as O-feh-lia, but she would always correct her teachers, who would pronounce it in English as O-phee-lia.

“On my first day of kindergarten, the teacher called my name, but I never raised my hand, I just kept quiet. The teacher said, ‘Don’t you like your name?’ It’s from Shakespeare. I thought that must be something good, but I never heard my name like that.

“When I got home, I told my father and he said ‘That’s good, but tell your teacher that Mr. Shakespeare will like your name, but when you say it as Ofelia (in Spanish),’.”

For the last writing prompt of the workshop, Alvarez was inspired by the “Autobiographical” poem by Spanish poet Gloria Fuertes and an excerpt from “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros, “My Name.” 

The participants were prompted to write a poem written as an autobiography and timeline of their life, highlighting the important and meaningful moments that occurred and shaped them. 

Victor Gastelum, a participant at the workshop, wrote and shared a poem about his childhood in the ‘70s, to being a teenager in the ‘80s. 

Growing up, Gastelum was surrounded by an environment where his peers were gang affiliated and became drug addicts, but despite his circumstances, he worked to become an artist.

Julieta Garcia, another participant at the workshop, wrote and shared a poem for this prompt, expressing her personal trauma and ending generational cycles in her family.

Alvarez has organized poetry workshops for over 50 years, often presenting them in schools, libraries and art museums. 

Through her poetry workshops, Alvarez hopes writers can discover their true selves and use their voice to speak up about topics that need awareness. 

She also said she uses her workshops to promote the art of writing and to support other artists, as she didn’t receive support during the beginning of her writing career, often experiencing racial prejudice from her teachers.

“I knew as a child that I wanted to be a writer. Even in college, I told my English teacher I wanted to be a writer, and I asked if she could guide me. 

“She said ‘Well, you speak Spanish and you have an accent, you’ll never be a writer,’” Alvarez said. 

In a place where aspiring writers may feel intimidated to share their work or don’t know where to start, Ofelia encourages artists to leap in and understand that the art space is safe.

“I always tell students before sharing, I know you’re vulnerable, but you’re safe here. We’re just exploring your thoughts.

“Even if you don’t pursue it as a poem, you still tap into your own capacity for expression and creativity,” Ofelia Esparza said.