As Long Beach Youth Poet Laureate, Ezequiel Correa exemplifies cultural pride

Once a dominant artform for thousands of years, poetry has evolved over time into a niche interest — but not for Ezequiel Correa. 

The McBride High School senior received the honor of 2025 Long Beach Youth Poet Laureate back in May, the first Mexican-American to receive the award.

“It makes me feel incredibly proud of my heritage because I’m big on ‘It takes a village.’ So as an individual, I could be so much but in order to be so much, it takes a lot of pride in where you’re coming from and who you are,” Correa said. “Growing up, the Mexican-American identity is very strong, but it’s disparate from other identities you may find in the United States. But within that, there’s always a feeling of welcome and prosperity and a lot of coalition buildings.” 

Correa found his love of poetry from his Ben Franklin Classical Middle School 6th grade English teacher Ms. Morales and his McBride High School Spanish literature class in his junior year.

The Spanish literature class helped shape his poetry through learning about Latin American poets such as Frida Kahlo and Rubén Darío.

“What I was seeing online was Eurocentric art and you see a lot of Renaissance style so a lot of that wasn’t me and as much as I tried for all to be me, I realized that can never be me,” he said. “I took a Spanish literature class and I realized I had to read so many works for that class, but that’s when I started to realize that my heritage is beautiful.”

He describes his genre of poetry as romanticism through Mexican heritage, grounded in a family-centered focus. Correa’s poem “My Ballad,” in particular, showcases sensory descriptions tied to Mexican tradition, evoking nostalgia and pride in the Mexican-American experience. 

“I am the sizzle of tacos on food trucks,

the scent of frijoles simmering in the home’s heart,

I am Sunday mass in whitewashed iglesias,

and the protest chants that fill the streets.

I am familia—

thick as mole,

and twice as sweet—”

Excerpt from Ezequiel Correa’s poem “My Ballad”

“Growing up, this is all stuff I saw, heard and smelled,” he said. 

Poetry is inherently political. For Correa, this part of his work was largely influenced by his sister, Nancy, and her work in marketing as a social media producer at Univision and as the founder of her non-profit organization Remarkably Us.

Her non-profit organization provides a safe space for current and former foster youth as well as bridge communications gaps through storytelling. 

“She always wanted to uplift culture, specifically Chicano culture, with her work at Univision and she did so in a way that was very poetic,” he said. “I think that ambition to use poetry as a tool from social justice [came a lot] from her.” 

Today’s chaotic political climate, impacted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and President Donald Trump’s rhetoric about Mexicans, frustrates Correa. 

“It pisses me off, it’s very ridiculous [and] it’s so unfactual,” he said. “It’s so hard because you have all these families who have to come to [this place] to bite the bullet and say, ‘Lets go to the place that has colonized us and let’s try to build something here’ [and] despite that, we still get discriminated against when Hispanics make [up] much of the workforce.”

Another way Correa has felt the impacts of the current administration: The cancellation of National Endowment for the Arts grants, which sponsors hundreds of arts groups throughout the nation.

“It makes me feel uncertain about the future of formally recognized arts,” Correa said. “It’s our communities that will be most attacked. Resilient, diverse and inclusive, Long Beach is bound to be the target of artistic suppression — I am a product of this tense relationship. I’ve taken the stress from this environment and channeled it into the arts.”

– Ezequiel Correa

With the growing nationalistic rhetoric, the sentiment that only certain people belong here and everyone else is an illegal alien, has only affirmed Correa’s goal to help preserve Mexican culture.

“People aren’t engaged with the fact that this type of isolating mentality hasn’t been, and won’t ever be sustainable,” he said. “America has always survived off of immigrant labor [Bracero program] and continues to live off diversity.”

The 17-year-old artist said poetry still has the power to unify people. He believes that without poetry, we would fail as a society and lose ourselves. 

“We can begin to understand each other and with that understanding, that’s when we really start to build unity,” he said. “It’s because of our grandiosity and our exclusivity and the nationalism that we are so, but we also are not right? We could start to understand each other through poetry.”

Long Beach served as a perfect backdrop for a Mexican-American creative — a place where a teenager can stumble upon galleries, cultural events and public libraries in every part of the city. Correa said these surroundings heavily impacted his journey as a poet.

Growing up near the Mark Twain Neighborhood Library, Correa was exposed to history and various cultures, including the library’s massive collection of Khmer literature with over 5,000 books, CDs and resources.

“It prompts the question, where does all of this love and community come from?” he said. “You see Black, brown and Asian communities and Long Beach is beautiful.”

His family supports his journey as a poet, which Correa said he’s grateful for, since he’s noticed a lot of Latino families who live in the United States don’t receive support for pursuing the arts. 

Martina Gallardo, Correa’s mother, said she saw her son become passionate about addressing discrimination. Even with the violent ICE raids and mass discrimination, she said her son’s poems are a gleam of what his work can bring into the world. 

“I think having that support from them is a stark reminder of where we can go as Mexican-Americans,” Correa said. “We’re going to move forward as a family and as one unit. Learning from one another and having that support makes me so grateful and it inspires me to invoke a similar unity among my culture going forward.” 

Correa is currently applying for early admission colleges and is driven towards sociology, political service or public service in the future.

This article was updated on Dec. 4 to clarify information about the National Endowment for the Arts grants.