Translucent: permitting the passage of light.
Matter: the substance of which a physical object is composed; a subject under consideration.

Translucent Matter is a blog where I write about what fascinates me, especially the transformative power of art and making.

I am the daughter of a hairdresser and an airline mechanic, immigrants from Ecuador, and Czechoslovakia who settled in Los Angeles in 1952. My parents met in Ecuador in an English class. My father’s family left their home days before the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia, and were given asylum in Ecuador. My grandfather was Jewish, and my grandmother, Catholic. My mother was dynamic, wicked-smart and adventurous. She could dance you under the table, discuss Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and pick a perfect scarf.

Growing up in a household with parents of two different cultures, the third child with way older siblings, in a suburban house in, like totally, the valley, and spending my high school years in Ecuador has helped me reconcile my complex identities, such as being queer, and a white passing Latinex.  

I am a poet, meditation instructor, craftivist, feminist, and senior museum educator at LACMA. My work has appeared in journals and anthologies such as Grand Street, Blue Mesa Review, Mischief, Caprice, and Other Poetic Strategies (Red Hen Press). I am a member of Macondo Writers Workshop, the writers group Lezerati, and I was in residence at Hedgebrook, a retreat for women writers. I am the author of  the chapbook The Day I Wore the Red Coat (VCP Press, 2001) and translated poet Mariano Zaro's book, Tres Letras (Walrus) into English. I've performed throughout Los Angeles, most recently as part of "the sincere and fabulous community celebrations" of The Secret City. My home is in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. I live with my cat companions, Otto von Kat and Fritz von Kat, (named for Otto Dix and Fritz Lang) where I make things like bread, hats, kombucha, and poems.

All photos on this site were taken by Alicia Vogl Saenz unless otherwise noted.