2022 - 2024 Poet Laureate

Robert P. (Bob) Gómez

poet bob gomez playing a stringed instrument in the watsonville city plaza

The 2022 - 2024 Watsonville Poet Laureate Is...

The Watsonville Poet Laureate Committee has announced the selection of Robert P. (Bob) Gómez as Watsonville’s first Poet Laureate. We look forward to working with him to advance poetry and other literary arts in our community. 

Watch the proclamation from the mayor and inaugural poem

Curious what our Poet Laureate has been up to?

Hear Bob Gomez speak at Zoom Forward#79 - Listen to the recording here. 

Read an interview with Bob Gomez in "Poet for the People" by Olga Rosales Salinas from Voices of Monterey Bay.

About Robert P. (Bob) Gómez

A resident of Watsonville since 1984, Gómez brings humility to his art and activism and has a remarkable record of community service and social justice advocacy work, having marched with César Chávez in the 1970s and worked as a PVUSD migrant and bilingual resource teacher for 26 years. He has supported youth as a CASA volunteer, served as a chaperone for 7th and 8th graders to Watsonville’s sister city, Kawakami-mura in Nagano, Japan. In addition to being a poet, Gómez is a singer and musician and has helped direct the music for the Watsonville Buddhist Temple’s Kokoro no Gakko Cultural Summer Program.

Gómez’s published work

Poem “Güelcon Tu Waztlanville” in El Andar, 1990
Poem “Hacia Ti” in Américas Review, 1993
Haiku (multiple) in Watsonville-Santa Cruz Japanese American Citizens League newsletter, 2019-present

About the Watsonville Poet Laureate Committee and Program

The Poet Laureate Committee is comprised of Stan Rushworth, Dr. Adela Najarro, Vivian Vargas, Magdalena Montagne, and Victoria M. Bañales (Chair & Library Board Trustee, District 5).

Information regarding the Watsonville Poet Laureate program, which was founded in 2021 by the Library Board of Trustees of the Watsonville Public Library.