by Geneva Toland
Todos Somos Sagrados/All Are Sacred is a light in the dark—a north pole found from a spinning compass. Written as a dedication to the Proyecto Pastoral at Dolores Mission community in Boyle Heights, CA, this debut collection by Rey M. Rodríguez urgently shows us what is possible when people live, work, and treat each other as if all lives are sacred. Window by window, Rodriguez allows us to witness the devotion, brilliance, and unrelenting fortitude of the women who have led and served their community for 40 years with this ethos. As readers, we leave renewed—in faith, in gratitude, in love, in devotion to justice—for all we can do when we move from a center of boundless compassion and fierce action.
Proyecto Pastoral at Dolores Mission is a sanctuary, as in a sacred place that offers safety to all who enter: immigrants, gang members, children, elders, single parents, houseless folks, working mothers, and devoted disciples. However, this place, like all places, is only a sanctuary because of the people who offer this sanctuary first in their hearts. Through lyrical, narrative form and within the lineage of social poetics, Rodríguez tells the story of these people—each poem a snapshot that coalesces into a mosaic of resilience, kindness, courage, and grassroots activism. A mother forgiving the killer of her son because "enough killing / more love," a group of women putting their bodies in danger to ensure a "Camino Seguro" to school for children, a church congregation laying beds down on the church floor for houseless community members, an elder offering guidance after the passing of a father, a priest riding his bicycle through the streets to offer counsel to those who need it—story by story this picture of radical love emerges. Rodríguez names them: Lupe, Paula, Margarita, Yolanda, Esperanza, Rita, Rosa, Sofia…the unsung heroes who risk their lives daily to restore justice and peace within their families, neighborhoods, schools, and churches. Rodríguez also outlines the litany of injustices these women are up against: redlining, immigration "police," prejudice, government-sanctioned poverty, urban apartheid, housing crisis—"Few outside Boyle Heights cared," Rodríguez writes, but "Dolores Mission cared / Proyecto Pastoral cared / The women in the community cared" and through their strategy of "discern, reflect, and act," they forged keys "in pain and suffering" to "unlock poverty" and build a future "better for our children and their children."
Rodríguez recounts this inspiring story bilingually, with Spanish and English versions of each poem laid side by side to honor the primary languages of those who call this community home. Even in the English versions, however, some lines remain untranslated, to acknowledge the central, untranslatable importance of Spanish language and Latinx culture and history in the work of this community. One of the keystone poems of this collection, "Hay un jardín creciendo en Boyle Heights/There is a Garden Growing in Boyle Heights" demonstrates this craft choice: "There is a garden growing in Boyle Heights. / It isn't filled with plants and flowers… / Instead it is filled with jardeneros, meceras, albañiles, carpinteros… / Nurturing love in a place where few could imagine anything could grow." The effect of this translation choice is a collection that is by, of, and from the people of Boyle Heights—yet throughout Rodríguez consistently shows us how much we all can learn from this community. "Come inside this garden," Rodríguez beckons, where we too can learn what it is to build and tend a garden where "all who enter bloom."
While most of the book is in third person point of view to paint this expansive collective portrait, Rodríguez offers a few poems in first person point of view to bring the transformational power of Boyle Heights closer to the reader. In the poem "Por qué dejé de llorar y, en cambio, empecé a vivir/Why I Stopped Mourning and, Instead, Started Living," the speaker reveals a tender moment of witnessing their father's death, offering a tribute to this resilient man's life: "The strongest man I knew / All five feet two inches of him / Death could not conquer him / He had survived the Great Depression / Five D-Days in World War II…/ Life had made his time on this rock / Hard." The poem continues in these short, powerful, grief-filled, three-line stanzas to describe the moment of the father's passing. Towards the end of the poem, we return to Boyle Heights, to Rosa, to a woman who "knew grief" and knew exactly what counsel to offer the speaker in this most vulnerable moment: "his passing was a blessing / I had been loved, many may not feel such love / I should honor that love by living." In this, Rodríguez brings the reader face to face with Rosa at one of the most emotionally intense moments of the book, where we are greeted once again with wisdom, a smile, and a warm hand—and we leave, once again, changed by the power of a love that knows no bounds.
I do not know of a book more needed at this time. Surrounded by violence, hopeless news, and daily attacks against people and land, it is hard not to lose belief in each other, in ourselves, to find pathways to peace, justice, and healing. "The people of Proyecto Pastoral have much to teach the world about love," Rodríguez states in his Acknowledgements, and he is right. Through these women's stories, we are reminded what real love looks like. Not empty words, not turning away, not protection of our own at the expense of others—but love that takes radical action, that fights hate and violence with an ever-expanding generosity. "If we are all sacred," Rodríguez offers in the titular poem, "¿Son Todos Sagrados?/Are All Sacred?" then, "we choose peace over violence / Joy over envy / Reciprocity over selfishness / Kindness over cruelty / Solidarity over division…/ Love over hate." That is the world I want to live in. That is the person I want to be. Thank you to Proyecto Pastoral and Rodríguez for reminding us what is possible when we choose to live as if all are sacred.
Geneva Toland is a writer, editor, song leader, naturalist, and educator with an MFA in Poetry from the Institute for American Indian Arts. Her debut poetry collection, Council of Thunder, is the winner of Wayfarer Book's 2025 Homebound Poetry Prize and is available now.
