Notes and Links to Adolfo Guzman Lopez’s Work
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez has been a reporter at LAist 89.3, the Los Angeles NPR affiliate since 2000. He reported and hosted Imperfect Paradise: The Forgotten Revolutionary, a true crime podcast looking into the death in 1994 of Chicano college activist Oscar Gomez. He has reported on L.A. politics, education, art, museums and other topics. His stories have also aired and published nationally on NPR, The Washington Post, and other media. His awards include the LA Press Club’s “Radio Journalist of the Year.” He was born in Mexico City, grew up in Tijuana and San Diego, and lives in Long Beach.
Buy California Southern: writing from the road, 1992-2025
Listen to Adolfo’s “The Forgotten Revolutionary” Podcast Series
KPCC/LAist Article about Adolfo’s Visit to Pete’s Classroom, 2012
KPCC/Laist OnRamp Article about Adolfo being referenced on The Simpsons
At about 2:20, Pete and Adolfo talk about the wonderful experience Adolfo provided for Pete’s students during a 2012 class visit
At about 5:15, Adolfo recounts great stories and lessons learned (especially “collective voice”) from time with The Taco Shop Poets
At about 9:00, Adolfo gives background on growing up in San Diego and Tijuana, "bicultural and bilingual”
At about 11:30, Pete and Adolfo reflect on the book as “a road trip book”
At about 13:30, Adolfo discusses what he recently learned about earlier family immigrants to the US
At about 15:40, the two discuss of National City and San Diego in discussing the wonderful “binaries” that Mike Sonksen compliments in blurbs for the book
At about 20:50, Adolfo describes the “sadness” in the writing of Jack Kerouac and connections to ideas of “home” for himself and Kerouac
At about 23:10, Pete and Adolfo shout out Tim Hernández and his great work with Mañana Means Heaven
At about 24:00, “The Spine of Califas,” the book’s first poem, is discussed, and Adolfo discusses the “personification” of the border
At about 27:50, Pete highlights the POV and “myriad stories” in a poem about
At about 28:40, Adolfo responds to Pete’s questions about poems that focus on the border crossing and questions from immigration authorities
At about 29:40, Adolfo explains a dynamic phrase he uses-”milquetoast bilingualism" and how he played with language, especially with regards to “proper” Spanish and English
At about 34:55, Adolfo reads some of his work, meditating on ideas of possessions, tangible and not
At about 38:00, The two discuss “SanDiegotijuana” and its “negative definitions” and Adolfo reflects on the “set of feelings” that differ depending on where he is
At about 41:00, Adolfo reflects on his “footprints still [being] wet” in San Diego and its implications
At about 43:40, Pete compliments Adolfo’s work in tracing the histories, military and not, of San Diego and LA
At about 47:00, Adolfo responds to Pete’s asking about his poem(s) about Pacific Beach Junior High School
At about 48:55, Adolfo expands on his word play, especially using various permutations of “Sal” and talks about adopting Jewish religious practices and writing about a meaningful story from the Torah
At about 53:25, Adolfo responds to Pete’s questions about “The Words I’ve Lost” and ideas of remembered and forgotten language
At about 55:45, The two discuss gentrification as a topic in the poetry collections, particularly in San Diego
At about 1:00:25, Adolfo recounts the story behind his poem on the opening of the National City Library
At about 1:03:40, ideas of “passing the baton” and transitions between immigrant communities and migrant communities are discussed
At about 1:06:20, Adolfo reads the poem “Prudence”
At about 1:07:45, Adolfo talks about writing in response/in honor of Ginsberg and Chicano/a history
At about 1:10:35, Adolfo talks about the Chicano Student Movement, which he covered for his podcast, “The Forgotten Revolutionary”
At about 1:11:50, Adolfo talks about continuing various movements, and how he has written a “sequel(s) for “The Movement” poem
At about 1:14:00, Adolfo responds to Pete’s questions about the term Chicano and its changing meanings
At about 1:18:00, Adolfo reflects
At about 1:20:30, Adolfo reflects on continuing activism and misogyny within activist circles
At about 1:24:10, Adolfo expands on writing and a changed viewpoint on life after a horrible injury caused by police at a protest
At about 1:26:40, Pete shouts out “Those Winter Sundays” in highlighting Adolfo’s strong ending with a question
At about 1:27:40, Adolfo expands on a poem that highlights the building of the LA Philharmonic
At about 1:31: 30, Pete highlights a favorite poem in the collection, “Trucks” and shares a little Italian bone to pick with Adolfo
At about 1:35:15, Pete compares Adolfo’s “Trucks” and love for home to Hemingway’s “Old Man at the Bridge”
At about 1:37:30, Shifra Goldman and her mentorship and activism are referenced, as well as the “Tercera Caida”
At about 1:39:00, Adolfo reflects on dreams and their impact on writing and learning
At about 1:41:10, Adolfo reflects on how he was cognizant of tone at the end of the collection, and he reads “The Treaty”
At about 1:43:00, Adolfo shares how he ended “The Treaty” with a reference to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
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Please tune in for Episode 328 with Tom Junod, ESPN senior writer who has written some of the most enduring and widely read longform journalism of the last 30 years.
He joined ESPN in 2016 and has specialized in deeply reported stories on subjects ranging from Muhammad Ali’s funeral to Tom Brady’s desire to play forever. He has been nominated for an Emmy for his work on “The Hero of Goodall Park,” an E60 program on the ancient secrets that were revealed when a car drove on a baseball field in Maine during a Babe Ruth League game in 2018.
In a 2022 piece, “Untold,” he and ESPN investigative reporter Paula Lavigne spent nearly two years uncovering the horrific crimes of Todd Hodne, a Penn State football player who in the late 1970’s terrorized State College PA, and Long Island, NY, as a serial sexual predator.
Before coming to ESPN, Junod wrote for GQ and Esquire, where he won two National Magazine Awards and was a finalist for the award a record 11 times. For Esquire’s 75th Anniversary, the editors of the magazine selected his 9/11 story “The Falling Man’ as one of the seven top stories in Esquire’s history. In 2019, his story on beloved children’s TV host Fred Rogers, “Can You Say…Hero?,” served as the basis for the movie “A Beautiful Day in The Neighborhood,” starring Tom Hanks and Matthew Rhys.
His work has been widely anthologized in collections including The Best American Magazine Writing, the Best American Sports Writing, the Best American Political Writing, the Best American Crime Writing, and the Best American Food Writing.
The episode airs on March 10 or thereabouts, Pub Day for In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man: A Memoir.
Please go to ceasefiretoday.org, and/or https://act.uscpr.org/a/letaidin to call your congresspeople and demand an end to the forced famine and destruction of Gaza and the Gazan people.
