Al Martinez

Biography: Al Martinez, Pultizer Prize-winning journalist, author and recently
annointed "Bard of L.A.," brings humor, wisdom and a sometimes quirky, perspective on life to his weekly AARP blog. The former Los Angeles Times columnist riffs about aging, current events, who he is, who we are and everything else. At 82, he's got more than a few things to say.

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Al Martinez 'sPosts

All the Lonely People

Posted on 05/22/2013 by Al Martinez | Latino Life | Comments

Home & Family | Relationships | Your LifeI received word the other day that a long-time acquaintance had died. We had worked together in the beginning years of my newspaper career, and while we hadn’t been that close, he nonetheless had represented a link in a circle of friends that was growing smaller every year. I was losing my history. We were a hard-drinking, cigarette-smoking, fun-loving bunch back then, not eating right or exercising or generally taking care of ourselves. Hell, we were in our 30s and …

A Senior Nursery Rhyme: And We All Fall Down

Posted on 05/15/2013 by Al Martinez | Latino Life | Comments

Personal Health | Your LifeI did not gather you here today to form a circle and lead you in a child’s game of Ring Around the Rosy, at the end of which we all fall down. It was fun when we were kids and could bounce up off the play yard like balloons, laughing and clapping in delight. Well, it ain’t so much fun anymore. The death and injury rate among seniors who take spills has risen steadily over the years to become the …

Fire in the Wind, Heroes in the City

Posted on 05/8/2013 by Al Martinez | Latino Life | Comments

Relationships | Volunteering | Your LifeIt is raining this morning, May 6, over greater Los Angeles. It began tapping at our rooftop shortly after midnight and was still coming down as night blossomed into a gray and gloomy day. I felt like cheering. The rain, with its accompanying low temperatures and high humidity, meant that a fire that had burned through almost 30,000 acres of brush and timber in the mountains 40 miles west of the city had been beaten. We had come through another …

Time to Transubstantiate?

Posted on 04/23/2013 by Al Martinez | Latino Life | Comments

Your LifeIt’s not enough that Latinos are primed to “take over” California, the United States and America’s institutions of higher learning by the sheer growth of their numbers, now they’re threatening to take over evangelical Protestant churches. Sort of. My earlier blogs have noted that Hispanics have become the largest ethnic minority group in the nation and that by next year, we will outnumber California’s Anglo population for the first time in history. Well, add to that a report by the …

Ruben Salazar in Art and Reality

Posted on 04/10/2013 by Al Martinez | Latino Life | Comments

Legacy | Your LifeI never intended a visit to the Museum of Latin American Art to revive memories of an old friend whose stature as an icon of courage began rising the moment his life was ending. In fact, the gallery in Long Beach was filled with far more compelling work than the simple portrait of Ruben Salazar by the noted Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros. But only Salazar’s image managed to stop me in my tracks. It was personal. He was a …

When it’s All in the Family

Posted on 04/4/2013 by Al Martinez | Latino Life | Comments

Home & Family | Legacy | Your LifeWe had a family gathering last Sunday to observe the advent of spring, the second anniversary of our daughter’s death, and the 65th anniversary of my first date with Cinelli. We greeted them all with noise and laughter. It didn’t feel like spring. It was raining on our town in the Santa Monica Mountains and the sky was as gray as steel . But the peach trees in our yard had blossomed into shades of white and strawberry pink and …