Chicana/o Latina/o Internet Community Alliance

CLICA Mailing

2005-09-18T10:54:00.000-07:00

September 2005

"We're still struggling with developing a literary and intellectual appreciation in our culture in this country. We can appreciate getting a nice house and a two-car garage, but we don't appreciate the value of reading in our homes and reading with our children." Ana Castillo in El Paso Times

"Local news - Poet finds 'Cielito' in NM desert"To view this article on The El Paso Times Web site, go to:http://www.elpasotimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2005509180358

Book Reviews (for more reviews, visit www.rigobertogonzalez.com)

Ilan Stavans, DICTIONARY DAYS
http://elpasotimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050918/LIVING/509180305/1004

Ana Castillo, WATERCOLOR WOMEN AND OPAQUE MEN
http://www.elpasotimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2005509110309
Rose Castillo Guilbault, FARMWORKER'S DAUGHTER
http://elpasotimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050731/LIVING/507310311/1004

Tim Z. Hernandez, SKIN TAXhttp://elpasotimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050306/LIVING/503060304/1004

Katrina UpdatesRandom House also announced that they will make a $500,000 donation to the American Red Cross's Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund, along with matching employee contributions to "qualified relief aid organizations." Additionally, Random House Children's Books is donating 250,000 copies of their titles to First Book, "the great organization which is distributing reading to kids in the hardest-hit areas."
At Simon & Schuster, Adam Rothberg indicates they are "planning on making a substantial donation of books for the benefit of individuals and institutions affected by the Hurricane and flood."

First Book currently indicates on their web site that they are "providing books to children affected by Hurricane Katrina. Every $5 donated to First Book will be matched with 1 book that will go to children in the devastated areas."

Organization head Kyle Zimmer has been speaking to major publishers about taking a lead role in organzing a national book drive, with the goal of collecting 5 million books. Their plan is to distribute books widely to people currently in shelters, school systems taking in displaced children, and the schools and libraries that will need to rebuild their collections. First Book expects to have promotional support from the Library of Congress and is hoping to formally announce the drive later this month.First Book: http://www.firstbook.org/site/c.lwKYJ8NVJvF/b.674095/k.CC09/Homehtm

More on Katrina and Publishing
In addition to the contribution from Random House announced yesterday, Bertelsmann CEO Gunther Thielen announced this morning that the parent company will make an additional donation of $500,000 to the Red Cross Relief Aid Fund.

The American Library Association has an extensive page with status reports from libraries all over the affected areas, along with some requests identifying libraries' greatest needs [e.g. the state library of Louisiana really needs printers and computers to help evacuees search for information and print and file assistance forms; ALA

The Texas Library Association is collecting financial donations, which can be earmarked for libraries in Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi.TLA

Martin Espada is quoted quite nicely in this article on the race aspects of Katrina in New Orleans.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/02/national/nationalspecial/02discrim.html?th&emc=th

(Thank you to Steven Cordova for this important article)

* Latino/Latina Writers Issue * Indiana Review ~ Summer 2006
The deadline for submissions considered for this special issue of IR will be Postmark date: December 31, 2005.

Submission Guidelines: Indiana Review is proud to announce a call for work by Latino & Latina writers. We are seeking Poetry, Fiction, and Non-Fiction by Latino & Latina writers that that is well-crafted and lively, has an intelligent sense of form and language, assumes a degree of risk, and has consequence beyond the world of its speakers or narrators. We also welcome interviews with established writers. Content that addresses political, social, and cultural aspects of the Latino and Latina identity and community are welcome but not a pre-requisite for consideration. Our intent with this issue is to showcase the vibrant and diverse voices of new and established Latino and Latina Writers.

Full Details: http://www.indiana.edu/~inreview/general/latinoissue.html

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CLICA is an e-newsletter for theChicana/o & Latina/o literary community.
This is a free service offered by Richard Yañez.
Please submit literary announcements and requests
to join the list to theclica@hotmail.com.

from Dorinda Moreno

2005-02-08T20:31:00.000-08:00

brothers and sisters, hermanos y hermanas. friends of diversity and multiculturalism, i recommend we all take this seriously, via buying the censured book, 'bless me, ultima', by ordering it at all the libraries and book stores, reading it to your classess, children, grandchildren. writing letters to the editor, and for the talented screenwriters and aspiring film makers, support taking this book into a film, play... this classic book of the chicano people, pueblo nuevo mexicano, stands as tall as the highest mountain and is a cultural treasure. we will not allow colorado superintendent of schools or any other institution of learning to ban this book by one of our cultural icons, rudolfo anaya.

'bless me. ultima', stands side by side with the film 'salt of the earth', the only american black listed film, and in the l00 films depicting americana in the library of congress... and we must defend the book as we did the film, with all the fight back we've got. we will not allow those who holdracist attitudes to provoke the banning of this book. for those writing a letter to the editor, please cc me. also, i will get all the information necessary and will post it for followup and welcome any comments and suggestions from all. we each take this personally, don't mess with our abuela's!!ya basta, con esta censura de nuestra herencia, abajo con el racimo atonteado.

vamonos recio!!!!!!!

dorinda moreno

"Bless Me Ultima" Banned in CO

2005-02-08T20:27:00.000-08:00

Superintendent bans novel from Colorado school

By The Associated Press 02.03.05

NORWOOD, Colo. — The superintendent of schools has banned Rudolfo Anaya's acclaimed book Bless Me, Ultima at Norwood High School, saying it is too profane for the 96 students there.

Superintendent Bob Conder said some parents were offended by obscene language and paganistic practices in the 1972 coming-of-age novel about a 7-year-old boy and his life with his Roman Catholic mother, Luna, and Ultima, who uses herbs and magic to heal.

"It's less a matter of censorship than a matter of sponsorship. That's not the kind of garbage I want to sponsor at this high school," Conder said yesterday.

Conder — who hasn't read the entire book — gave more than two dozen copies of Bless Me, Ultima to a parent to destroy. The teacher who ordered the book has apologized in a letter to parents and won't be disciplined, he said.

Conder has not pulled any other book from classrooms during his six years as superintendent.
He said just one parent in the southwestern Colorado community has complained, but Norwood Post editor Margo Roberts said she has been inundated by messages from people angry about Conder's action.

Norwood High School junior Christian Skyler Kelley wrote a letter to the editor criticizing Conder.

"I never knew this book existed," Kelley said. "Now I feel it is my obligation to read it and see what our superintendent found so dangerous that it must be destroyed."

Anaya, widely considered the founder of modern Chicano literature and a professor emeritus of English at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, said he wasn't surprised parents and educators who haven't read the book would be frightened by its harsh language.

"My suggestion is: Read the book. The language is not gratuitous. It fits with the scenes," said Anaya, 67. "I have hundreds of letters from students from all over the country who have been moved by this book. I would love to go to Norwood with my box full of letters."

Other Colorado communities have embraced Bless Me, Ultima. The book is part of the English curriculum at Montrose High School and has been chosen for community reading programs in Boulder and Mesa County.

From http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=14785

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Sit-in planned, author invited after Norwood official bans book
posted by: Dan Viens (Web Producer)

NORWOOD (AP) - Several students say they'll have a sit-in this morning to protest the banning of "Bless Me, Ultima" at Norwood High School.

They've also invited the book's author, Rudolfo Anaya, to visit the school in southwestern Colorado.

Meanwhile, a professor in the Department of Chicano Studies at Metropolitan State College of Denver is offering to pay a thousand dollars to the Norwood School District to retrieve two dozen copies of the book banned by Superintendent Bob Conder for its profanity.
Professor Luis Torres says he's trying to rescue copies of "Bless Me, Ultima" because the book is a treasured tome central to Chicano culture.

Conder says he handed the books over to a parent who complained about the novel's profane language, which he agreed was inappropriate.

Conder doesn't know if they were destroyed.

Anaya is widely considered the founder of modern Chicano literature, and is a professor emeritus of English at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

Norwood is about 33 miles southwest of Montrose.

*****
CLICA is an e-newsletter for the
Chicana/o & Latina/o literary community.
This is a free service offered by Richard Yañez.
Please submit literary announcements and requests
to join the list to theclica@hotmail.com.

CLICA Mailing

2005-01-09T14:39:00.000-08:00

December 2004

IN MEMORIAM
New Mexico State University Spanish professor Ricardo Aguilar-Melantzon died September 24,2004, at Providence Memorial Hospital in El Paso, where he had been hospitalized for about a week after a heart attack.

Aguilar, the 2003 New Mexico Professor of the Year and an NMSU Regents Professor, had been a faculty member in the languages and linguistics department for more than 10 years. He served as department head for languages and linguistics and as a member of the board of directors of the New Mexico Hispanic Cultural Center during 1994-97. He also was acting director of the Center for Latin American and Border Studies in 2002-03.
He was known internationally for his research in Chicano literature and for his own creative writing.

"As an acclaimed writer, Dr. Aguilar-Melantzon had a distinguished national and international career," said Waded Cruzado-Salas, dean of the NMSU College of Arts and Sciences. "On behalf of the College of Arts and Sciences, I express my deepest condolences to his family, friends and colleagues."

"Dr. Aguilar-Melantzon was a gifted, caring teacher and mentor who combined high expectations from his students with great support for thei! r work," said Jeff Brown, associate dean of the college. ! "He will be greatly missed by his colleagues, by his students and the staff members who worked with him and by his many friends."

Aguilar received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Texas at El Paso and his Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico.

ANUNCIOS

RUDOLFO AND PATRICIA ANAYA PREMIO ATZLÁN LITERARY PRIZEDeadline: December 31, 2004The Rudolfo and Patricia Anaya Premio Atzlán Literary Prize is a national literary prize, established to encourage and reward emerging Chicana and Chicano authors. A prize of $1,000 is given for a work of fiction published in the 2004 calendar year. Authors who have published no more than two books are eligible for the prize. For guidelines and more information, visit http://elibrary.unm.edu./ Questions may be directed to Teresa Marquez at tmarquez@unm.edu, (505) 277-0582 or Dina Ma'ayan at dinam@unm.edu , (505) 277-7197 at the University of New Mexico General Library.

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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Mexican Literary Fiction in Translation
Mexico: A Traveler’s Literary Companion,
an anthology of contemporary Mexican literary fiction
to be edited by C.M. Mayo
for Whereabouts Press, 2005

Need translations of quality contemporary literary Mexican fiction with a strong sense of place (e.g., Oaxaca, Sierra Tarahumara, Guadalajara, the border, etc.). Reprints welcome. Novel excerpts OK if can stand alone.

Please include both translation and the original work; author’s bio; translator’s bio; contact information for translator, author; and— this is especially important— any other contact information that would be needed for securing permissions. Please also include a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) for reply. (Please do not send unsolicited e-mail attachments; because of viruses, such attachments are automatically deleted.)

C.M. Mayo is the author of Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico (University of Utah Press, 2002) and Sky Over El Nido (University of Georgia Press, 1995), which won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. A long-time resident of Mexico City, Mayo is also a translator of Mexican poetry and short fiction and founding editor of Tameme, the bilingual literary journal. For more about C.M. Mayo, visit http://www.cmmayo.com/

Whereabouts Press is the publisher of the highly regarded Traveler’s Literary Companions series which includes Chile, edited by Katherine Silver; Costa Rica, edited by Barbara Ras; Cuba, edited by Ann Louise Bardach; and Spain, edited by Peter Bush and Lisa Dillman. For more about Whereabouts Press, visit http://www.whereaboutspress.com/
DEADLINE: December 30, 2004

Send to:
C.M. Mayo Editor, "Mexico" P.O. Box 58063, Washington DC 20037**

Call for Submissions
Pluma Fronteriza is a nationally distributed publication that covers news on Chicana(o) and Latin(o)a writers from the El Paso, TX/Las Cruces, NM/Cd. Juárez, Chihuahua, Mex. tri-state region.

Main SubmissionsWe are currently accepting submissions of open letters, essays, poetry, and short memories in honor of Abelardo B. Delgado and Ricardo Aguilar, both passed away this year.

Guidelines for writers
Poetry: No more than two 8 ½ x 11 pages on a Microsoft Word or WordPerfect format.Essays should be no longer than 400-500 words on MS Word or WordPerfect format.Short memories (remembranzas) should be no longer than 100 words on the formats listed above.We are hoping to dedicate two issues to these great fronterizo writers. Submission deadline for the spring issue is March 15, 2005.

Submissions for the winter issue should be postmarked Jan. 3, 2005.

Non-writers on Abelardo DelgadoWe will accept letters and 200-word memories from non-writers. By non-writers, we mean individuals who do not write creatively, academically, or journalistically but were somehow influenced by Abelardo Delgado as students, farmworkers, or members of the many organizations he founded and ran.Special call for current high school students and Denver-area collegesWe are accepting submissions of letters, essays, poetry, or short memories honoring Abelardo Delgado as an educator. If you had Delgado as an instructor in Upward Bound or a Chicano Studies class, we invite you to submit. Note, in this category, submitters must be either current high school or college students. We will accept submissions from high school graduates who have not started college. We ask you write something on how Abelardo Delgado influenced your life or education. Please include the name of your college, university, or high school as well as your age.

We are accepting visual art and photo submissions as long as they are placed onto a digital format (*JPEG). Must relate to the themes of honoring Lalo Delgado or Ricardo Aguilar.Submissions selected will be featured in our winter and spring issues.

Send submissions to:Pluma Fronteriza1510-J Greenway Dr.Eudora, Kansas 66025E-mail submissions are accepted as attachments to plumafronteriza@msn.com or rayrojas@sunflower.com

If sent by postal mail, please include a copy on a 3"-diskette or CD; however, we do not require submissions be on a computer disk. All visual arts or photo submission must be on a computer format.All submissions should include your postal address, phone number, and e-mail address.

PLEASE LET US KNOW OF LIBRARIANS YOU MAY KNOW
THAT SHOULD BE RECEIVING PLUMA FRONTERIZA

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CALL FOR ABSTRACTSPanel session on Chicana/o Environmental Writingat the Sixth Biennial Conference,Association for the Study of Literature and EnvironmentJune 21-25, 2005, University of OregonWalden Pond in Aztlán?: Chicana/o Writing and the EnvironmentChicano activists in the 1960s and 1970s drafted plans to establish anation within the territories taken from Mexico by the U.S. in 1848, andthey agreed to call the place Aztlán. Treated like second-class citizensin the U.S. and no longer claimed by Mexico, the Chicano community longedfor a homeland after more than a century of alienation andoppression. Though nationalistic fervor no longer rules the movement,present-day Chicana/o writers, activists, and scholars alike still consider
Aztlán an imaginary ideal, consisting of a social justice agenda that willachieve decent living and working conditions, access to educationalopportunities, and attainment of political leadership positions, as well as strategies for building alternatives to exploitative social and economicsystems. Still, the question remains: what place does environmentalismhold in the Chicana/o vision? Is there space for a "Walden Pond" in Aztlán?This panel will showcase the significant but little-noted contributionsthat Chicanas/os have been making to environmental thought ever since, atleast, the conquest of northwest Mexico by the U.S. in 1848. Henry DavidThoreau built his log-cabin retreat at Walden Pond when the U.S. was on the brink of waging war against Mexico, and his famous act of civildisobedience was, in part, to protest this war: "Witness the presentMexican war, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for in the outset, the people would not haveconsented to this measure," (Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience"). Thus, in themiddle of the nineteenth century, U.S. imperialism reaps two significantchallenges: how to deal with the gente (people) that accompanied theconquered Mexican lands, and how to respond to critiques from its attentive citizens, like Thoreau. This common chronology might suggest a possiblealliance between Mexican American thought and environmentalwriting. However, this connection remains largely unexplored-by ecocritics and Chicana/o literary scholars alike. Why? This panel will attempt tointerrogate various aspects of the possible connections and critiques thatemerge when considering Mexican American and Chicana/o writers alongsideenvironmental thought--not only in the nineteenth century, but into thetwentieth (and twenty-first) century as well. Some questions to considermight include:* Where do Chicana/o and environmental writing meet?* Does the Chicana/o imaginary homeland of Aztlán make space for a"Walden Pond" within its borders, or at its borderlands?* How has Mexican American thought historically addressed environmental issues?* How does contemporary Chicana/o writing speak to current ecological crises?* Must the categories of nature and environmental writing makefundamental changes to accommodate nineteenth century Mexican Americanwriters and twentieth century Chicana/o authors? Would Mexican Americansand Chicanas/os want to be considered "nature" or "environmental" writers?Papers may consider: discussions of specific works by Mexican American and Chicana/o writers in an environmental context, such as María Amparo Ruiz de Burton, Jovita Gonzáles, María Cristina Mena, Américo Paredes, CherríeMoraga, Ana Castillo, Denise Chávez, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Ray Gonzáles, and others; or, reflections on specific challenges and/or insights resultingfrom considering Chicana/o writers in an environmental context, includingbut not limited to environmental justice, land rights, bioregionalidentity, political activism, traditional environmental knowledge,environmental citizenship, and more.Please submit 1-page abstracts to Priscilla Ybarra at pybarra@rice.edu
Priscilla Solis YbarraPh.D. Candidate LecturerRice University Yale UniversityDepartment of English American StudiesPhone: (713) 294-1278 Fall 2004
For more info: http://www.asle.umn.edu/conf/asle_conf/2005/cfp.html

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The editors of Ventana Abierta, at UC-Santa Barbara, Luis Leal and Víctor Fuentes, have issued a call for poems, essays and short stories dedicated to the diverse aspects of today's Latino Literature, to be published on February and August 2005.
(6-page limitation, double space). The deadlines for submitting a piece to these issues are Dec.31 and June 30, respectively.Center for Chicano StudiesUniversity of CaliforniaSanta Barbara, CA 93106FAX (805) 893-4446

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Dear Artist and or Poet,You might remember "FacingFaces", the international art- and poetry project against violence towards women and children.
The project now being in its fourth succesive year it proudly announces D.I.S.A. a new project called D.I.S.A. which stands for Direct Individual Support Action.
C.A.U.S.E., through its website and real time activities and on a tri-monthly basis, will directly support a victim of domestic i.e. sexually orientated violence through donation campaigns, this apart from offering artworks and E-books in further support of the D.I.S.A campaigns and C.A.U.S.E..
Core goal of the D.I.S.A. campaigns is to help victims of domestic i.e. sexually oriented violence to, through educational programms, (re-) gain self-confidence and independency.
Please visit the website http://www.the-cause.org/ for more info on the first campaign.Your support is highly needed and appreciated. Domestic i.e. sexually oriented violence is a huge social problem and any support for C.A.U.S.E. and/or D.I.S.A. is one more voice helping. Thank you!Sincerely,Gino d'ArtaliDirector C.A.U.S.E.**

BOOK REVIEWS
Marcos McPeek Villatoro’s "On Tuesday, When the Homeless Disappeared"
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20041128-200173.shtml
Ernesto Quiñonez's "Chango's Fire"
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20041121-197363.shtml
Luis A. Lopez's "Warrior Poet of the Fifth Sun"
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20041114-194394.shtml
Carlos Morton’s "Dreaming on a Sunday in the Alameda"
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20041107-191410.shtml
"Alambrista and the U.S.-Mexico Border:Film, Music, and Stories of Undocumented Immigrants"
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20041017-182312.shtml
Valerie Martinez’s "World to World: Poems"http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20041010-179134.shtml
Daniel A. Olivas’s "Devil Talk"http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20040926-173286.shtml
E.A. Mares’s "With the Eyes of a Raptor"
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20040926-173284.shtml
Benjamin Alire Sáenz’s "Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood"http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20040919-171019.shtml
Ernesto Mestre-Reed's "The Secibd Death of Unica Aveyano"
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20040905-165026.shtml
Lolita Hernandez’s "Autopsy of an Engine"
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20040829-162203.shtml
Albino Carrillo's "In the City of Smoking Mirrors"
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20040822-159107.shtml

NOTICIAS
Luis Alberto Urrea Wins Prestigious Lannan Literary Award
CHICAGO, Nov. 11 (AScribe Newswire) -- Luis Alberto Urrea, a University of Illinois at Chicago creative writing professor, has been named winner of the $125,000 Lannan Literary Award for non-fiction.
The awards, presented by the Lannan Foundation, recognize writers who have made significant contributions to English-language literature through poetry, fiction and non-fiction.
Full Announcement: University of Illinois at Chicago Writer Luis Alberto Urrea Wins ...

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MacArthur Recipient
Rueben Martinez Bookseller, Owner and Founder, Libreria Martinez Books and Art GallerySanta Ana, California
Rueben Martinez has elevated bookselling from a business to a campaign in support of underserved populations in California and throughout America. His Santa Ana bookstore, Libreria Martinez Books and Art Gallery, was originally a barbershop and is now among the largest commercial sellers of Spanish-language books in the country, serving as the cornerstone of cultural events and community activities that promote the benefits of reading to Hispanic-Americans and Spanish-speaking immigrants.
More Info:
http://www.macarthur.org/programs/fel/winners_overview.htm
NPR interview con our latest MacArthur winner Martinez:
http://www.theconnection.org/shows/2004/10/20041005_b_main.asp
(Thanks to Manuel Muñoz for the links)

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Renato Rosaldo, author of "Prayer to Spider Woman/Rezo a la mujer araña"received an American Book Award Prsented by the Before Columbus Foundation
Full Listing: http://www.bookweb.org/news/awards/1293.html

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Abelardo "Lalo" Delgado Denver’s First Poet Laureate
Announcement Made at Memorial Tribute For Celebrated Chicano PoetMayor John Hickenlooper announced the establishment of a new post of Poet Laureate of Denver and posthumously named Abelardo "Lalo" Delgado the first to hold the honorary post. The announcement took place at a memorial tribute for the nationally-known poet who passed away at the age of 73 on July 24, 2004.
Full Story: http://www.hispanianews.com/archive/2004/09/16/04.htm
(More tributes to Delgado archived at http://clica.blogspot.com/)

PUBLICATIONS
"Loosing My Espanish A Novel" by H.G. Carrillo
A fiery, accomplished literary debut, Loosing My Espanish chronicles the struggles and vicissitudes of the men and women of a tiny Cuban-American community in Chicago who are haunted by history, memory, and myth as they encounter the American dream.
More Info: http://www.randomhouse.com/pantheon/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=0375423192

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"Arroyo" by Lisa Gonzales.
Helena Maria Viramontes writes in her introduction: "There is nothing more exciting than discovering a rising light in American literature. No doubt, the work of Lisa Gonzales will shine bright. It already dazzles."

Visit their http://www.momotombopress.com/ to read an e-interview with Lisa Gonzales—conducted by Maria Meléndez.

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"Warrior Poet of the Fifth Sun" by Luis A. Lopez
More Info: http://www.aztecpoet/

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Hello teachers/friends. Over the past year I have been working with some high school students in Kyle Texas to help write a college hand book for young students. "Wiley's Way" is the book.
Already folks from the Rio Grand Valley have ordered class room sets for schools in Edcouch Elsa and McAllen.
Please visit the website: http://www.wileysway.net/
The book is bilingual and very colorful. I think it will be a good book to get our students to start thinking about college at a very early age.
thanks,
david rice

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Voices of the New Sun: Songs and Stories / Voces del Nuevo Sol: Cantos y Cuentos: the 155 page anthology contain the works of 38 local authors, some very well-known, e.g., Jose Montoya, Francisco Alarcon, Olivia Castellano and others, as well as some for whom this will be their first work published. It contains the tribute poem, Las Murales, by the late Phil Goldvarg. Order it by mail, sending a check for $13.50, made out to Aztlan Cultural; mail to: Escritores del Nuevo Sol, P.O. Box 162714, Sacramento, CA 95816-2714. For more information, call (916) 456-5323, or (916) 451-1372.Website: http://www.galeriaposada.org/escritores.htm

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Literal, Latin American Voices today offers its pages with a dual purpose: as a forum where the most important Latin American creative expressions converge and as a vehicle for the expression of new voices.
Thus Literal provides a medium for the critique and diffusion of the Latin American literature and art, recognizing its potential strength as a point of departure for understanding that the broad cultural universe is not overshadowed by any single language, but is bathed in the light of a unified spirit.
For Guidelines and a free year subscription visit: http://www.literalmagazine.com/
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Literal, Voces latinoamericanas, abre hoy sus páginas con un doble propósito: convertirse en un foro donde confluyan las expresiones artísticas latinoamericanas más importantes y, a la vez, abrir un espacio que permita a las nuevas voces encontrar un sitio donde expresarse.
Así también Literal dará cabida a la crítica y difusión del arte latinoamericano en su sentido más generoso, atisbando la posibilidad de convertirse, también, en una voz de referencia obligada para la comprensión del amplio universo cultural que se reúne ahora ya no bajo una misma lengua, sino cobijados a la sombra de un espíritu similar.

En nuestro primer número acogimos voces como las de Gonzalo Rojas, Sandra Cisneros, Gioconda Belli, Malva Flores, Benito Pastoriza Iyodo, Rima de Vallbona, etc. Para recibir el próximo número gratis que sale en primavera y obtener más información de cómo participar en esta revista bilingüe, favor de comunicarse a Literal. 770 South Post Oak Ln, Suite 530, Houston, TX 77056. Tel. (713) 6261433, fax (713) 960 0880; ó visitar nuestra página web:
http://www.literalmagazine.com/

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"The Blood Cake Vendor and Other Stories" by J. L. Navarro: This collection of 43 stories has just been released and includes pieces published in Cafe Irreal, BIGnews Magazine, 3AM Magazine, Angeleno Stories, Suspects Thoughts, Shadowkeep, Margin, Aphelion, Bastard Fiction, Gang Related, Con Safos, XhismeArte, The Murder Hole, The House of Pain, Blue Food, Savage Night, Apocalypse Fiction, and The Dream People. The book is 522 pages in length and is available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats. For more info: http://www.jlnavarro.com/

CLICA is an e-newsletter for theChicana/o & Latina/o literary community.This is a free service offered by Richard Yañez.Please submit literary announcements and requeststo join the list to theclica@hotmail.com.

2004-11-12T11:48:00.000-08:00

TUMBLEWORDS PROJECT PRESENTS NOVEMBER WORKSHOPS
Where: Armijo Library 620 East Seventh Avenue, El Paso, Texas
When: All events are Saturday afternoons from 3:00 to 5:00 pm
Cost: Free, but donations accepted
Contact: Donna J. Snyder 328-5484
Nov 6 Armando Soto Teatro Bienestar
Soto has been acting and dancing for thirteen years, including as a performer in Viva! El Paso and Shakespeare on the Rocks. As a student of the Triana School of Spanish Dance, Soto has performed at the Abraham Chávez Theater in the opera production of "Carmen" and in many other productions in Texas, New Mexico, Florida, and Chihuahua. He has also been a featured guest artist with Flamenco Duende. Soto enjoyed a rewarding internship with the Globe Theater in San Diego, going into inner city schools to use theater to build at risk youths’ self-esteem. After two years he decided to counter the trend of talented people leaving El Paso, and so he returned to head an effort to develop a theater program for students at the Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe. Part of his job includes writing original plays involving health issues. He is also working with an adult theater group, which recently performed at a national conference on AIDs at the La Fe’s Culture and Technology. Soto plays guitar and trumpet and is developing his interest in writing. His goal is to become "an artist of the soul, creating at every level and at all times with the best intentions in mind and with great love."

Nov 13 Ruth Peña On Secrets and Secretos
Peña is a native Paseña but was reared in Los Angeles until middle school. Some of her poetry deals with the dual nature of being a Paseña and Angelena. She writes about family and general observations on life. Each year she reads at the annual crime victims memorial services and the Carly Martínez Race for Awareness. She teaches English at EPCC. Her work has been published in Chrysalis, BorderSenses, and Sin Fronteras, and featured in an article in La Pluma Fronteriza. She has presented readings and workshops for Tumblewords Project and performed her work at EPCC’s Springs Arts Festival and Poetry Jam. She recently presented a reading entitled "Our Heroes, Ourselves" at the VOLAR Center for Independent Living disability conference and ADA anniversary celebration.
Nov 20 LALO DELGADO MEMORIAL MARCH meet at
Nov 27 NO WORKSHOP
COMING UP!
Dec 4 Jim Sparks Blues Haiku
Dec 11, 18 Donna Snyder Writing for the Dark Time

2004-10-17T23:59:00.000-07:00

CLICA is an e-newsletter for theChicana/o & Latina/o literary community.

This is a free service offered by Richard Yañez.

Please submit literary announcements and
requests to join the list to theclica@hotmail.com.

CLICA--October 2004

2004-09-29T14:57:00.000-07:00

Test

Abelardo (Lalo) Delgado Beloved Metro prof passed away, left legacy

2004-08-06T23:49:00.000-07:00

by Armando Manzanares
Volume 27, Issue 1, July 29, 2004
The Metropolitan

The sound, of what seems like a mission bell, resonated across the cityscape and valley beneath the purple mountains. This sound moved like a wave filled with self-determination in, around and through anything in its path.

The sound came from a bell atop the front steps of the state capitol. This bell was rung for the liberty of La Raza, the race of Chicanos.

10,000 Chicanos, young and old, convened there after marching through the streets of downtown Denver in protest of the educational system and its failure to recognize, accommodate and respect their culture.

This happened on a day symbolic of the cry for independence and the defiance of the oppressive supremacy, September 16 or Dies y Seis.

The crowd tamed its rage and let a proud poet get up before the vast brownness and recite his accounts of struggle, activism and bigotry through eloquent and peaceful prose.

This is one of many stories that will be forever told, etching Abelardo (Lalo) Delgado into history; Chicano history, American history. Anyone who took Delgado’s "Introduction to Chicano Studies" class in his 17 years at Metro would have heard this story, along with many others.

Delgado wore many hats throughout his life. He was an activist, author, family man, historian, initiator, poet and teacher. Delgado died Friday, July 23, 2004, at the age of 73.

He was a part-time instructor of Chicano Studies at Metro. He was scheduled to teach two classes for the upcoming Fall semester. Chicano Studies department chair Luis Torres said as recently as two weeks before his passing, Delgado had expressed concern for his classes.

"As a part-time instructor that got little pay—to have a commitment literally on his death bed saying ‘I’m concerned about my classes’ is beyond compare," Torres said.

This is representative of Delgado’s life; his dedication, his priorities and his passion which were recognized by the students in his classes.

Metro evaluates their faculty every semester. On these evaluations, the students are asked to rate their instructors on various factors with 6.0 being the high mark on the scale.

Torres was kind enough to share the results of Delgado’s most recent evaluations.

Delgado consistently received high marks on his 2004 Spring evaluation, Torres said.
"If there is one question the faculty looks at, it is the professor’s contribution to the course. Lalo received 5.6 out of 6.0. That is overall higher compared to the rest of the Metro faculty," he said.
"The results are so positive."

Positive defines how Delgado lived his life.

Torres reflected on Delgado’s disposition when he would walk into work.

"He was always coming into his office right across the hall, with a song in English or Spanish," he said.

Delgado was on campus last month to teach for Metro’s Upward Bound program for high school students. That was his last time on campus.

"He was one of the most complete men I ever knew," Torres said. "He could go from being a community organizer, to being an instructor with some of the highest student evaluations that you can get, to going to read his poetry and always had the same spirit and energy every time he did it."

Torres said Delgado never needed a microphone when he would recite his work. All others would use a microphone and when it was his turn, he would put it to the side.

Beyond academics, Delgado came to realize the power of media and the lack of content for the Latino community, by becoming involved with Denver’s KUVO FM 89.3 radio station.

In 1985 he became one of the founding board members of KUVO and remained on the board for the next few years.

KUVO President Florence Hernandez-Ramos said his involvement during this time was instrumental in raising the initial funds to get the station on-air and operating.

She said as soon as Delgado stepped on board, he helped organize a zoot suit party fund-raiser that was attended by prominent Chicano figures such as Edward James Olmos and Daniel Valdez. Rich Castro, past Denver Chicano activist, was the emcee.

"He donated the sales from his poetry and would make small contributions," Hernandez-Ramos said. "Had it not been for the Latino community in the area, and Lalo’s involvement, there would be no KUVO."

Both Hernandez-Ramos and Delgado came to realize the power of media during a fund-raising effort. Around the same time as the zoot suit fund-raiser, the station had put a call out for donations of music.

By the end of the week the station had received 5,000 hours of music from its listeners.
"This made us realize the power we had through the use of media. Lalo had said if we had something like this in the 1960s, can you image what could have happened?"
Hernandez-Ramos said. "Lalo helped shape the mission of the station—to create a multicultural radio station. It is something that has happened over time."

She said Lalo had mentioned there were a lot of non-Latinos listening and wanted to give the radio station more of a multi-cultural feeling, so they started doing Public Service Announcements for and about people of color.

Delgado’s life was far reaching and working seemingly non-stop with the commitment to his Raza.

He and his mother migrated from Chihuahua, Mexico in 1943 and took up residence in El Paso, Texas. He excelled though his academics as a teenager and graduated from high school with honors.

He continued on and graduated from what his wife Lola. In 2003 they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

Delgado had organized and implemented various community programs while living in El Paso. Working with his community Catholic church, he set up food, clothing and job banks for those with less or nothing at all.

In 1968 Delgado endured a 30-day fast in protest of the treatment and conditions of the Latino community of El Paso. His list of reasons included, "So that children of south El Paso do not have to grow up in tenements and employers, merchants and professional people deal with him and his Latino community justly." He was the father of seven children at the time.

A former colleague said of his fast, "This man is one of our unsung heroes, a man who believes in sacrifice."

Soon after his efforts went toward farm worker and migrant worker rights, working along the side of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta of the United Farm Workers of America. He then moved around the Western United States working with universities either helping establish their Chicano Studies programs or developing them as well as instructing courses.

Delgado wound up in Boulder for a short time. There he worked for The University of Colorado in a program designed to attract Chicanos to higher education.

Both Hernandez-Ramos and Torres crossed paths with Delgado during his time at the university in the early 1970’s.

Both were undergraduates and all three of them were a part of the Education Opportunity Program (EOP) the government had instituted due to the civil unrest experienced after the Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination and civil rights movement.

At the time, many of the young activists went down the path of violence because it was seductive, Torres said. Delgado inspired him to take the path of non-violence and scholarship.
"I went the other way and followed Lalo and others like him," he said. "Lalo told us we have to commit our life to the Chicano movement. I have dedicated my career toward it as well."

While Delgado was giving a presentation at CU-Boulder, Hernandez-Ramos remembers his passion and call to action against the discrimination and bigotry she and the rest of the Chicanos in the nation were experiencing.

She said it was there that she became enlightened and culturally conscious and was instilled with pride of who and what she is, a Chicana with deep cultural roots that have made significant contributions to the American society.

"Lalo showed us how to celebrate the activism we were doing. Taking the anger of our experiences and our protesting and infuse it with justice through art. It became socially relevant to see a man like Lalo that had such a big heart, embracing those concepts in a peaceful manner," Hernandez-Ramos said.

"He was one of the most gentle and menacing, in the terms of being able to make a point strongly and loudly," she said.

In a life lived for 73 years, Delgado’s contributions, accomplishments and people he touched were plentiful. His accolades are numerous and one rarely mentioned was an honorary Doctorate of Literature he received in 2001 from the World Academy of Arts and Culture out of California.

Delgado worked to improve the situation for those who were in desperate need.

He worked under very difficult conditions and tried to change entrenched poverty and discrimination, yet he was always able to do it optimistically.

"He was one of the true community leaders in Denver and Colorado and was truly loved," Torres said.

"He helped set the tone and commitment to both the academic and Chicano community at Metro," he said. "Be involved in the community in very meaningful ways and being respectful of the community," is what Delgado asked of his students.

"That as a whole is a very significant part of our department," Torres said.

His humanism, his philosophy, his optimism are some of what makes up his legacy at Metro, Torres said.

"When he looks down at me and others he influenced, I want him to feel proud," he said.
Delgado was known of having a very good sense of humor. People were always made aware of his presence by his loud, boisterous disposition. Through his prose he was able to draw attention to the injustices experienced by his Raza and to react—peacefully and proudly. He had been dubbed "The Poet Laureate of the Chicano Movement" for his work in documenting his experiences and the movement with his spoken words for well over 50 years.

"To me Lalo’s legacy is changing people’s perceptions," Hernandez-Ramos said. "The only anger I saw in him was righteous anger, or anger directed to unjust aspects of our society. He was full of caring and the world is better off for him having been in it. People become icons when they die. Lalo had already achieved that status and recognition."

Teaching at Metro for 17 years, his influence reached and touched many students. He was willing to help in any demonstration and was always asked to read his work, on- and off-campus.

"He loved people and people loved him. He loved his students," Torres said.
He took a moment as his eyes filled with tears while looking across the hall at the empty desk where Delgado sat and tended to his scholastic duties.

"I’ve been holding this in since Friday."

Delgado greeted life with a smile

2004-08-05T22:59:00.000-07:00

Chicano poet, activist recalled as 'happiest person you ever met'
By Jerry Roys,
Rocky Mountain News
July 29, 2004

Family and friends of Lalo Delgado - poet, activist, teacher - packed Our Lady of Guadalupe Church on Wednesday to say goodbye to a man they remembered for his laughter, his love and his wisdom.

"Viva, El Lalo," came the cry from the back of the church, and the crowd of several hundred mourners rose and applauded in unison.

Full article:
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3072174,00.html

Lalo Delgado: Chicano writer who gave Mexican-Americans a voice

2004-08-05T22:53:00.000-07:00

Christopher Reed
Wednesday August 04 2004
The Guardian

When Abelardo "Lalo" Delgado started writing about the American-Hispanic experience, there was no recognised literature dealing with the lives of Chicanos, as Mexican-Americans call themselves. Indeed, Delgado, who has died aged 73 of cancer, was credited with giving the genre its name.

He wrote 14 books of poetry, mostly self-published, as US literary houses have only recently become aware of Chicano literature. Many of his verses, written in English, Spanish and the hybrid Spanglish, were also included in anthologies. As a part-time teacher for 17 years at the Metropolitan State College, in Denver, Colorado, he lived to see his culture widely established in the academic world. Many Chicano writers were first inspired by his recitations.
Devotion to poetry with social-justice themes, and decades of volunteer work in left-liberal causes, including early participation in the farm labour movement founded by the late Cesar Chavez, left Delgado in poverty all his life. Despite this, however, his influence stretched across the west.

His best-known poem, Stupid America, reflected his frustration with his adopted country, where, in his youth, people of Hispanic origin suffered similar racial discrimination to African-Americans, and where he himself experienced school segregation.
Written in 1969, it goes in part: "stupid america, hear that chicano/ shouting curses on the street/ he is a poet/ without paper and pencil/ and since he cannot write/ he will explode./ stupid america, remember that chicano/ flunking math and english/ he is the picasso/ of your western states/ but he will die/ with one thousand masterpieces/ hanging only from his mind."

Delgado was born in rural Chihuahua, in northern Mexico, to a Hispanic soldier father, who already had American citizenship, and a Mexican mother, who only took hers at the age of 83. When Lalo - the usual nickname for boys called Abelardo - was 12, his family moved to the US border town of El Paso, Texas, and he grew up in a tenement occupied by 23 families sharing three bathrooms. He knew hardly any English, but quickly learned, and worked at a boys' club after leaving high school.

At 21, Delgado met the love of his life, Lola Estrada. Finding work in a luxury hotel in California, he bought her a diamond engagement ring on credit and sent her a $1 bill every day - inscribed with a brief love poem - so she could buy a wedding dress. In his late 20s, already married and with children, he managed to get into the University of Texas at El Paso, graduating in Spanish studies.

During the 1960s, in the civil rights movement in Texas, he wrote and read his poems everywere - on protest marches, at meetings, to picket lines and in the streets. Metropolitan State College colleague Luis Torres would sometimes pick them up, mimeograph them, and hand out copies to his students. "They were supposed to be English classes in those days, but we were trying to turn them into a literature course," he recalled.

Delgado and his family moved to Denver in 1970, and he worked briefly at the University of Colorado. Among his better known collections of poetry were Chicano: 25 Pieces Of A Chicano Mind (1969), and The Chicano Movement: Some Not Too Objective Observations (1971).
Delgado, who thought of himself as a people's poet, loved writing verse for special occasions, and distributing it at anniversaries and weddings, where he read in a booming voice, without a microphone. Every Mother's Day and Father's Day, he read a special new poem at his Catholic church.

Lola survives him, as do his two sons and six daughters.

Abelardo 'Lalo' Barrientos Delgado, poet and political activist, born November 27 1930; died July 23 2004

Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited

To see this story with its related links on the Guardian Unlimited site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk

"Who is a Chicano and what do Chicanos Want"

2004-08-03T12:14:00.000-07:00

From Eastside Reporter
Commentary
Jul 29, 2004

By Joe Olvera

Ruben Salazar was a Chicano.

Salazar, a pioneering Chicano journalist who started his career at the El Paso Herald-Post, was intrepid, committed, dedicated and totally involved in being a Chicano and a journalist. He knew who he was, and he made sure that others also knew. Although he was born in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, he accepted the philosophy that would make him a Chicano. That philosophy meant accepting the fact that Chicanos were a disenfranchised group of people who only wanted to live the American Dream but were discriminated against and shoved into depressing barrios.

As a reporter for the Herald-Post, Salazar was fed up with police mistreatment of Chicanos. So he set out to prove there was abuse based on racism and discrimination against his people. He once pretended to be drunk and placed himself in a position to be arrested because he'd heard about mistreatment of Chicano inmates at the El Paso County Jail. When he was released, he wrote a scathing exposé of the violence and deplorable conditions that existed in the jail.
Later, when Salazar left El Paso for sunny Califaztlan, he worked for the Los Angeles Times, where he began writing a column giving vent to the problems and concerns of Chicanos in East L.A. After being assigned to Vietnam to cover the war, he returned to Los Angeles two years later, wherein he was assigned as the first Chicano to be the Mexico City Bureau Chief for the LA Times.

In 1968, he returned to Los Angeles with a special assignment to cover the rapidly growing and developing Chicano Movement. After leaving the Times to work for KMEX-TV, he continued to write his powerful column. Considered a political moderate, he still articulated and condemned the racism, prejudice, and segregation against Chicanos. In one of his most remembered columns, Salazar wrote:
"Who is a Chicano? And what is it the Chicanos want? A Chicano is a Mexican-American with a non-Anglo image of himself. He resents being told Columbus 'discovered' America when the Chicano's ancestors, the Mayans and the Aztecs, founded highly sophisticated civilizations centuries before Spain financed the Italian explorer's trip to the 'New World.' Chicanos resent also Anglo pronouncements that Chicanos are 'culturally deprived' or that the fact that they speak Spanish is a problem. Chicanos will tell you that their culture predates that of the Pilgrims and that Spanish was spoken in America before English and so the 'problem' is not theirs but the Anglos who don't speak Spanish."

This, of course, is just one sample of Salazar's hard-hitting columns on behalf of Chicanos. It is no wonder that he was murdered during the Chicano Moratorium Against the War in Vietnam on Aug. 29, 1970.

The late Ricardo Sanchez was a Chicano.

Sanchez, who became one of Chicanodom's greatest writers and a pioneer in the process, was an El Pasoan who lashed out at society's uncaring and murderous attitude towards Chicanos. Attaining his Ph.D. at a late stage in his life, Sanchez used to say that he was a "Pinto Highly Developed" because he was an ex-con. In fact, he polished his writing craft while doing time en la pinta.

Sanchez, who was born in New Mexico but raised in El Paso, became a writer out of necessity. He used to say when he was in high school at La Jeff he told one English teacher he wanted to be a writer. The teacher only laughed at him. She told him that Chicanos couldn't be writers because they had nothing to say. That only encouraged Sanchez to concentrate on proving the teacher wrong. And of course, he did.

His books are testament to the brilliance he exhibited in bringing Chicanos to light in poetic form. He was also a pioneer publisher of Chicano Literature with his publishing house, Mictla. The first book in his fledgling career as a publisher was his famous tome, "Canto y Grito Mi Liberación, Y Lloro Mis Desmadrazgos." He also published a first book by Jose Angel Gutierrez, "El Politico" and the first book by yours truly, "Voces de la Gente."

Sanchez, who taught at various universities across the country, was considered the premier Chicano poet who railed with a vengeance against efforts to keep Chicanos poor, uneducated and ignorant. When he died of cancer, he left a void in Chicano letters that has yet to be filled. Sanchez was a fearless and daring writer who wrote about life without apology but with a great deal of understanding and love for his people.

Abelardo Delgado was a Chicano.

The beloved Don of Chicano Literature and Poet Laureate of Aztlan is no longer with us. Even as I wrote this, he was on his deathbed. He succumbed to cancer of the liver on July 24, 2004. Abelardo had been one of the few surviving Chicano writers of the old school. He and Ricardo Sanchez were both poets in the late 1960s, shaking the staid U.T. El Paso to its very roots with their tough, uncompromising, angry and intelligent poetry.

I remember Abelardo - que en paz descanse - reading his diatribes against an abusive America, while a crew of Brown Berets stood at parade rest behind him offering a protection certainly needed in those early days of the Chicano Movement. Although he was more conservative and less aggressive than Sanchez, Abelardo nonetheless wrote a true classic of Chicano Literature. His poem "Stupid America" set the nation on its heels and reinforced our belief that we were on the right course, challenging the status quo, demanding equality and no longer allowing abusive practices towards Chicanos.

Someone once described Abelardo as being like a bowl of menudo - comforting, a picker-upper and un poco picoso. But mostly, Abelardo loved to laugh at life. His poems often recorded the incongruities of a society that refused to accept Chicanos. He used laughter like some people use bullets. His wit was disarming, his charm was palpable and he made you laugh. Lalo, carnal, we're going to miss you, ese. Me saludas a Ricardo, y a Ruben. Ya que los vas a guachar. ¡Órale!

Sin Fin

Joe Olvera is an El Paso-based freelance writer. He can be reached at jolvera@aliviane.org. Eastside Reporter accepts letters to the editor at cbriano@eastsidereporter.com.

Abelardo Barrientos Delgado(1931-2004)

2004-08-03T12:11:00.000-07:00

Abelardo Barrientos Delgado nació en el 27 de noviembre 1931 en la Boquilla de Conchos en Chihuahua, México. El nombre de Delgado para sus amigos es "Lalo." Su padre se llama Vicente Delgado y su mamá se llama Guadelupe Barrientos, su papa´ era un ganadero. En 1944, cuando tenía trece años, Delgado y su mamá inmigraron a los Estados Unidos de México. Es obvio que Delgado es un chicano si mismo y este es la influencia más grande y una tema muy popular de sus obras: la cultura, la lengua (una mezcla de inglés y español) y los barrios chicanos.

Cuando se mudaron a los Estados Unidos de la Boquilla de Conchos en Chihuahua, México, Delgado y su mamá llegaron a en El Paso, Texas. Delgado se quedo´ allí por veinticinco años.
Se casó con Dolores Estrada en 1953. Ellos tuvieron ocho niños: Ana, Alicia, Auturo, Alfredo, Angela, Amelia, Abbie y Andy. Todos los nombres empiezan con la letra "A," Abelardo también. Qué casualidad!

Delgado asistió a la escuela secundaria de Bowie en El Paso, Texas. Era un estudiante excelente y el vice-presidente del Bowie National Honor Society. En 1962 se graduó en educación secundaria de la Universidad de El Paso. Cursó asignaturas superiores en la misma universidad por un año y por tres años en la Universidad de Salt Lake City, Utah.

http://www.hispanianews.com/archive/2004/07/30/11.htm

Lalo Delgado walks on

2004-08-03T12:07:00.000-07:00

Lalo Delgado, 73, passed away last Friday morning. There are 2 columns that recount some of his accomplishments which we will post excerpts from.

Lalo was an ally of Colorado AIM and stood by our side at our protests, read his poetry at our events and participated in some of our projects. He was always upbeat and positive in his words as well as in his outlook.

You could often find Lalo volunteering at the Escuela Tlatelolco. He had a very loud voice and became animated whenever sharing his poetry in classes that he voluntarily taught. Walking into the school, you always knew what room Lalo was teaching in.

Lalo often got requests from the audience whenever he was attending an event as a spectator. Reluctantly, he would stand up and launch into one of his poems, energizing the event and provoking appreciative rounds of applause from the audience. He always livened up events like that.

He was a friend and an ally and he will be greatly missed.

American Indian Movement of Colorado
http://www.coloradoaim.org/blog/
Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Una Despedida to Lalo Delgado

2004-08-03T10:52:00.000-07:00

A rosary for Abelardo "Lalo" Barrientos Delgado was held on Tuesday, July 27th at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church located in North Denver, a church whose historical limelight showed brightly with activism during the height of the Chicano Movement. It was also the place where the Delgado family attended mass faithfully for years. They had a special place where they sat every Sunday, a space that they will continue to use, but where el gran abuelito will be missing.

Fr. Marshall Gourley, long time activist, sarcedote and personal friend of the Delgado’s, led the community in reciting the rosary. Lalo Delgado was a very spiritual and religious man who recited the rosary on a daily basis. Marshall masterfully tied in the 5 mysteries of the rosary into how Lalo lived his life in communion with the community.

Although, everyone knew Lalo and could have shared a story or two about him, five persons were selected to speak about la vida de Lalo Delgado. Tep Falcon, long time activist shared un cuento about Lalo and his inability to navigate on the road without getting lost because he believed that "all roads led to Denver and perhaps to Heaven." Tep had everyone in tears, both from humor and from the pain of loss, as she shared her experiences with Lalo reminding us of his gregarious personality.

Ramon Del Castillo, fellow poet and activist who traveled the poetry road with Lalo for 24 years, likened Lalo to his mentor. Ramon shared a story where he had been invited to read poetry at a Hispanic Republican meeting. Confused and needing consejos, Ramon called Lalo. Lalo told Ramon, "to go and read and make sure that they never invite you back." Incidentally, he was never invited back to read for the confused carnales. But Ramon was also given advice that when he read at the pulpit to read with honor and humility. He ended his presentation with a poem entitled, "Lalo’s Velorio."

Jim Allen, co-founder of the Colorado Migrant Council spoke of the many years he and Lalo visited the migrants in the fields and the continued support of the many boycotts that were characteristic of Cesar Chavez’ tactics in achieving social justice. Lalo was always there with a poem for the struggling campesinos.

Magdaleno "Len" Avila, compadre to Lalo in his usual prophetic voice, led the crowd in the Chicano ovation that is, clapping in unison. He paid deep respect to Lola Delgado and thanked her for sharing Lalo with the community for decades. He dedicated a poem "Chicana," to Lola and the women who had come to say goodbye to Lalo.

Another compadre and minister in his own right, Mike Garcia, shared his history with Lalo at the University of Colorado at Boulder in the 19660’s and 70’s. His poem, "Just Lalo," was a tribute to a renaissance man. He shared a prayer at the end of his presentation, stating the Lalo would continue to write poetry in Heaven.

As community members entered the church for the funeral they were given a tribute to Lalo from "Here Lies Lalo, with "Stupid America," his signature poem on it. During the Mass, five family members including Alicia, Raymundo and Vanessa shared personal stories and poems about their father and grandfather. The message was loud and clear. Lalo shared his wisdom and consejos with his offspring, writing poems for all of his 19 grandchildren for special occasions. It was apparent that writing and oratory are in the genes as each family member articulated their love and respect for their loved one. Granddaughter Vanessa Delgado, young upcoming poet and student at Metro State College, shared a poem about her grandfather.
The 90 car solemn procession to el pantion was greeted with mariachis that opened the ceremony with Lalo’s favorite Mexicano music. On behalf of the Colorado legislature, Dr. Estevan Flores presented the family with a Colorado flag. Estevan closed with a poem on "Who will be reading Lalo’s poems now? Sadness permeated the pantion, lagrimas flowed freely and flowers were thrown into the casket as a termination ritual. Adios Lalo.

Ramon Del Castillo, Ph.D.
Independent Journalist
Denver, CO

Lalo Delgado, 73; Poet Was Seminal Figure in Rise of Chicano Literature

2004-08-03T10:09:00.000-07:00

By Elaine Woo, LA Times Staff Writer
August 1, 2004

Lalo Delgado, an activist and poet who was considered el abuelito, or the granddaddy, of the Chicano literature movement for pioneering writing that reflected a commitment to social justice and illuminated Latino heritage and struggles, died of cancer July 23 in Denver. He was 73.

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-delgado1aug01,1,3378198.story?coll=la-news-obituaries

2004-08-02T22:51:00.000-07:00

Like many from my generation, I came out of the cotton fields out in West Texas, cerca de El Paso and became a "college boy" as camaradas would call me to try to put me down, as if what the system tried to do to us was not enough. El Upward Bound at UTEP became la entrada to college. Yale University opened its doors to some of us as they tried to sift through "La Creme de La Mud" as they made us feel by defining us as deprived because our culture and language. Almost fell victim to the trappings. Gracias a Dios que el poeta orador, Abelardo, helped me find the new identity que sigo protegiendo - Chicano. Our challenge to honor his work, life and memory is to challenge the persisting anguish caused by "Stupid America."

Descansa en Paz y gracias for por la esperansa que con trabajo y obras nos dio esperanza.

Alfonso Lopez-Vasquez
Tornillo, Texas to Pacific University, Oregon

From San Jose Mercury News

2004-08-02T22:49:00.000-07:00

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/9300321.htm

From New York Times

2004-08-02T10:56:00.000-07:00

Lalo Delgado, 73, Vivid Poet of Chicano Literary Revival, Dies
July 30, 2004
By SIMON ROMERO

Lalo Delgado arrived on the literary scene in 1969 with thepoetry collection, "Chicano: 25 Pieces of a Chicano Mind."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/30/books/30delgado.html?ex=1092180451&ei=1&en=aa7f226d59415b57

From El Paso Times

2004-08-01T22:13:00.000-07:00

http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20040801-150043.shtml

http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20040801-150034.shtml

http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20040801-150041.shtml

http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20040801-150037.shtml

Abelardo “Lalo” Delgado: Tristemente

2004-07-30T18:15:00.000-07:00

Del Editor, HISPANIA NEWS

I met Lalo in 1976 when he came to Fort Carson as a featured speaker for the Hispanic Heritage week celebration. He arrived a little after 9 am and quietly spent time with the members of the task force that was planning, supporting the event. Some of the soldiers came form California, some from Texas, some Puerto Rico and other western states.

He mingled with these soldiers while he waited to speak. He spoke a little after noon. He had in that short time; written a poem about the soldiers he met. He captured most of their character and indigenous upbringing in prose, delivered it eloquently, from that short visit. I was amazed.

Needless to say, Lalo not only impressed me, but also was a total success with all present at Fort Carson that day. We kept running in to each other over the years, about twice a year, he traversed the North of Denver, I of course the South. He wrote a few articles for this newspaper from time to time. He was a subscriber of Hispania News; I think he just wanted to keep tabs on me.I hadn’t seen him in a couple of years; then we met at the 2004 UCCS Cinco de Mayo luncheon.

He greeted me with an especially strong abrazo, stronger than normal. We spoke just minutes. Like many, I wish I had utilized the opportunity to spend more time speaking with him that day. We don’t have the luxury of meeting down to earth, real gente everyday, that’s why we tend to miss people like Abelardo “Lalo” Delgado, profoundly. Que descanses en Paz amigo.

Hasta pronto Lalo.
May he rest in peace. Que descanse en paz.

http://www.hispanianews.com/archive/2004/07/30/01.htm

Donations for Delgado Family

2004-07-29T13:34:00.000-07:00

At this time of Lalo's passing, when our hearts are heavy and we remember nuestro amigo y colega, we may wish tohelp the family out with expenses for the funeral and related costs. If you wish to help out, please send donations made out to the following:
Lola Delgado
1700 Orchard Dr.,
Wesminster, CO
80221

Mil gracias,
Estevan

Estevan Flores, Ph.D.
Executive DirectorLatino/a Research & Policy Center
University of Colorado at Denver
1380 Lawrence Street, Suite 1100
Denver, CO 80204
Phone: (303) 352-3700
Fax: (303) 352-3715
www.itera.cudenver.edu/lrpc

Reflections on Lalo

2004-07-29T13:31:00.000-07:00

Ya murió Lalo Delgado, Webones. He died Friday, July 23, in the morning. Burn some copal, throw some slow chancla, y tomen un juguito de cebada for the last of the four original poetas retóricos chicanos of "Los Cuatro" fame, meaning declamadores atm whose powerful voices moved the Movement in its early stages. De los cuatro, Lalo was the most sane and sincere, the one with the tiniest ego though he was a big man, the most committed to improving the lives of los pobres...because he was one of them.

Al bato lo conocí in the early years of la movida when todos andábamos en chinga. Siempre ready con una palabrita inspiradora, una sonrisa amplia, y una vaisa pal que la necesitara, no matter who. And for going on forty years now, he would always send me a copy of his hojas sueltas, collated collections of verbal chorizo just to keep me honest, for the vato never once danced with the devil.

What I'm trying to say is that el vato fue gente decente, which is hard to find these days when many of us have price-tags dangling from la nariz como moco verde. Pero ya estufas y calentones. . . . let me just say: Ese, Lalo, llévatela suave, Guy. And keep pointing the way, vate, porque pa ya vamos. Haznos campito.

¡Que Viva Lalo Delgado! ¡Presente!
clyde torres

*

Om Mani Padme Hum..for Lalo,gracias mi querido hermano...Juan Felipe

*

If Lalo's ready to go, then he's ready. I will pray he has a good passing into the Spirit World and that his memory provides the rest of us a good guidance. I had the blessing of having worked with Lalo on several activities here in El Paso and have enjoyed his presence and poetry years before and after. My prayers are with his family and friends and all of us who will miss him.

Carlos Aceves

*

Que descance en paz. Tey Diana Rebolledo

*

Sorry, to hear Lalo is gone.

Lalo visited Milwaukee a few times in the 70's and became friends to many of us. and for now all we can say is give his family our best and let them know that** Lalo have many friends in Milwaukee.

Siempre,
Ernesto Chacon

*

The sky is overcast and the air is still today as it has been for the lastseveral days here in El Paso. We've even had a little rain. This is fittingweather for reminiscing. I am filled with the memories of the Lalo. I ofcourse saw him present his work many times. I also was part of theater groupthat performed some of his work. "Stupid America" was a favorite.

Siempre,
Irma Camacho,
UT El Paso MEChA Alumna and EPCC Counselor

*

Yes, Lalo and his wife were genuine. So many of my friends have died this past year that I am beginning to realize that now that I am almost 60, I better start living.

Juan Sandoval,
UTEP Library

*
Ricardo pull up a chair Lalo is coming with word of magdaleno!... Ahora!

Michael Evans-Smith

Fallece en Denver prominente poeta méxico-americano

2004-07-28T11:04:00.000-07:00

por Francisco Miraval

El laureado poeta méxico-americano Abelardo "Lalo" Delgado, autor de "Stupid America", falleció esta mañana en Denver luego de una corta enfermedad a los 82 años.

"Es con profunda tristeza que debo informar a la comunidad chicana y latina que nuestro poeta, guerrero por la paz, líder de la comunidad, padre de familia y amante de la vida, Lalo Delgado, dejó este mundo", dijo el doctor Estevan Flores, director del Centro de Estudios y Política Pública Latinos de la Universidad de Colorado en Denver, y amigo personal de Delgado.

Delgado fue director del Concejo de Trabajadores Migrantes de Colorado y del Centro de Información y Justicia en Denver.

Hasta el lunes pasado, a pesar de su edad y de su dolencia, se mantuvo activo, trabajando como voluntario en un programa de prevención del cáncer entre los latinos de Colorado.
Hasta principios de este año, enseñó inglés y estudios chicanos en el Colegio Estatal Metropolitano de Denver.

El poeta comenzó a escribir hace 55 años, y durante resto de su prolífica vida produjo más de 25 libros de poemas, siempre usando nada más que un antigua máquina de escribir.

Su poema más conocida, su "firma poética" como él la llamaba, es "Stupid America", escrito en inglés en 1968 usando pronombres masculinos, y reescrito un año después en su "versión femenina".

La "estupidez" de Estados Unidos consiste en que al ver a un "chicanito" (joven méxico-americano) con un cuchillo, se ve a ese joven como a una amenaza, sin pensar que lo único que quiere es tallar su nombre y el de su novia en un banco de plazo.

Según Delgado, ese jovencito que no aprende matemáticas o que tiene problemas de integración quizá sea "el próximo Picasso". "Pero morirá con mil obras de arte sólo dentro de su cabeza", concluye el poema.

Delgado también escribió innumerables poemas en español, entre ellos "La Araña", en los que usa casi con exclusividad palabras que llevan la letra "ñ".

Entre sus numerosos reconocimientos, en 1978 obtuvo el Premio Quinto Sol por su novela "Cartas a Louise". En 1993 ganó el Premio El Sol a los Derechos Humanos. En 1995 recibió el Premio a los Derechos Humanos de Colorado, y en 1997 el Premio Martin Luther King Jr. por Servicios Comunitarios.

En 2002, el entonces Alcalde Wellington Webb designó al 2 de noviembre de cada año como el "Día de Abelardo Delgado" en Denver.

Quienes lo conocieron aseguran que fue un pionero y que sus trabajos trascienden a la comunidad hispana.

Por ejemplo, Delgado escribió "Una carta abierta a Carolina, o las relaciones entre el hombre y la mujer" mucho antes que se popularizase en EEUU escribir libros sobre este tema.

Por otro lado, su cuento "Apolonio Neverez Jackson" es una excelente muestra de su mezcla de humor y ciencia ficción, al asegurar que Albert Einstein se inspiró para su conocida teoría de la relatividad luego de comer chile en un restaurante de Nuevo México.

"Fue uno de los padres de la literatura chicana, pero nunca se olvidó de sus orígenes en Chihuahua, México. Su partida es una pérdida irreparable para la comunidad latina de todo el país. Que descanses en paz, Lalo, como seguramente lo harás", expresó Flores. EFE

fm/ma
23 de Julio de 2004, 05:55PM ET

From Calaca Press: raúlrsalinas y Manuel J. Vélez remember Lalo

2004-07-27T22:48:00.000-07:00

Calaca Press poet Abelardo "Lalo" Delgado, author of the legendary Chicano poem Stupid America, passed away Friday July 23 at the age of 73.

He was welcomed to Mictlan by the Lord of the Underworld himself, Mictlantecuhtli and his wife, Mictecacihuatl, as well as the recently departed Pedro Pietri, Gloria Anzaldua, and Phil Goldvarg.

Though we mourn the loss of our literary comrades we know that their words, spirit and bones will continue to feed generations of Latino artists and activists.

We at Calaca Press would like to extend our heartfelt condolences to Lalo's familia and to anyone who has read and appreciated his lifework.

Con todo respeto,

Brent E. Beltrán
Consuelo Manríquez de Beltrán

p.s. Below are a few pieces on Lalo:

1) After hearing the news of Lalo passing Xicanindio poet raúlrsalinas dug through his archives (this brother could have an entire museum dedicated to his archives alone) to find an Introduction he had written in 1974 for a book that Lalo was putting together. After finding the piece he contacted a few people, including the Calacas, and shared it with us. Raul asked us to share this with you.

2) The second piece was written by La Calaca Review editor Manuel J. Vélez (Lalo was featured in La Calaca Review). It reflects on meeting Lalo for the first time last year at a series of readings Manuel organized in El Paso. It includes two poems that Lalo wrote while in El Chuco.

+++

INTRODUCTION

Llego al canton de Antonio y Linda (& Monica) Cardenas to bum my monthly cena, which allows the hungry poet to function (survive!) on hotdogs the rest of the time; y me salen con que hay un manuscrito which awaits an intro . . . by me!

Se trata de que el prolific Gordo has just dropped in from the wilds of Oregon with a new (again?) publication Bajo el Sol de Aztlán, hot off the press, ready for distribution, and fiercely clung to by massive arms. Y como se esto no fuera suficiente, he unloads the manuscript of 43 Costales . . . mas, for me to deal with! ¡Orale, pues! Le hago el try.

So here i am, now, not merely producing poemas in frustrating creativity, pero tambien writing introductions to Raza (inspiring) poets’ books. Poets who have tread poetic grounds longer than i have tried hooking up my versos, los unos con los otros. ¿Y porque no? If WE are to define (acknowledge) Chicano Literature as the unique reality (vida) that it is, entonces vale mas salirle al toro.

The writings of Abelardo came to me behind 40 foot walls. Occasional copies of Chicano Press publications accidently received in (or smuggled into) the U.S. Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, laid heavy classics on us. Pintos reading “Stupid America,” that mini-manifesto of profound indictment, came to grips with their personal situations for the first time; the realization of being colonized & criminalized by an insensitive and corrupt system of government. Many of our beautiful young poetas (yes, ameriKKKa, we’re coming at you from every rincon/rendija of Aztlán!) cut their eyeteeth on “25 Pieces of a Chicano Mind” and “The Chicano Movement: Some Not Too Objective Observations.”

Then came “el encuentro” en Idaho. Ricardo lo dijo primero . . . /but i too saw/ un gigantesco grizzly/ Bear bronceado/ come charging down/ las avenidas del amor/ He came/ tumbando obstáculos/ esos obstacles que hacen/ keep our ríos (de aqua fresca) from flowing/ nuestras florestas brillantes from blooming/ our canciones (gritos del alma) unsung. /LALO, acompañado con/ su osito (future poet-crónico de Aztlán). /iva derrumbando mitos/ long existent/ Mitos que hasta las mejores mentes (gentes)/ have so scholarly embraced/ Myths that lend a further credence/ to magnanimous/ Social Lie;/ that mentira fostered & festered by decadent/ político regimes.

Abelardo “Lalo” Delgado is an enigmatic figure en el movimiento. La area de activism en cual el Gordo hace operate es la de migrant health y migrant education; su dedicación is nonetheless, bien firme. Considered a moderate by some, others find his ideas (visiones) to be of a radical nature. One obtrusive “observer” has called him a religious mystic, his more intimate compas say que es “muy carbon.”

En su vida personal tambien, Lalo ever appears as the jolly ho-ho-ho-ing poeta. Pero en realidad, lleva sus viejas cicatrices y heridas frescas, ondamente . . . que siempre duelan. He has painstakingly been a father . . . many times in absentia. He has also been a husband . . . remains a husband . . . with the same ambivalent intensity of joy and hurt. He is seldom mistaken for an intellectual, but the cachitos of wisdom he offers us througn his poemas, are of a substance that would make an “intellectual” cringe with shame. He has become more cynical and satirical in later years (who can escape it in this society?), yet he continues to have faith; faith en la gente. He is seriously committed to effecting social change. His humanist manner is FOR REAL!

The body of this new colección covers the entire range of Lalo’s obra poética . . . ! y más! Por su vía religiosa-naturalista-erótica-filosófica-satírica-cínica-simple-profunda-política y humanista, se ve una dirección fija, mucho mas encompassing que antes. Seattle le hizo bien al Fats, and the Queen City will never again be the same when Lalo has left for other places, away from our midsts.

Because of Sr. Delgado’s paciencia (i’ve been on this intro casi un año!) and his unselfish attention to carnales in the pintas throughout the country, where he is allowed to enter, i am totalmente convinced that his cora is . . . without duda ninguna . . . as big as the tire (la llanta) which makes up his rotund midsection.

In these tiempos tormentosos, times of Watergate, of no more Terán introductions (because of that bastard bomba in Boulder) . . . of Carrasco dead en Las Paredes de Hons’vil (instinctive refusal to be caged) . . . tiempos when social change viene en tortuga/ taruga . . . when many of us grow tired by the day, nos resbalamos, cachuquiámos or, at least, nos quedamos patinando for a while, wondering if there’ll ever be time to sit and write and think. La lucha sigue, and through all this storm and turbulence, i am relieved to know we still have Lalo, to flash de vez en cuando, these essential espejos/ reflejos of our souls.

raúlrsalinas
seattle, washington
julio del ‘74

+++

I met Lalo last October at EPCC. I had arranged for him to come to El Paso and do some readings at EPCC, Bowie High and The Clinica La Fe's Cultural Center. All three events were wonderful and Lalo was so full of energy. The vato came out of Bowie High mas cansado after an hour of poetry at the top of his lungs and still gave an amazing performance in Segundo the next night. That's why the news of Lalo's passing continues to leave me stunned even twenty-four hours after I heard the news.

I guess because I invited him, I had the honor (and I mean that sincerely) to drive him around town between various events and his relatives' homes. Some memories of those days still remain vivid in my mind, and I know now they'll never fade:

I can still hear the conversations in my car on Friday, on our way to Bowie High School. Lalo is sitting shotgun in my little nissan sentra and behind us are Henry Irigoyen and Mario Chavarría, two of Segundo's veterano activists who, through the whole trip, call over to Lalo and remind him of some desmadre that happened years ago in the barrio. "Ay. Te acuerdas cuando nos robamos el kegger from your daughter's wedding?" and they would laugh for a few seconds before moving on to another story.

I still remember the morning I met Lalo. I had arranged for him to come and speak to one of my English classes at EPCC. The class began at nine and Henry Irigoyen was supposed to bring him over to the room. But as the clock moved closer to 9:00, no one had heard anything from Lalo. When 9:00 o'clock finally came around, I figured Lalo had decided to spend time with his family instead. Shrugging my shoulders, I grabbed my bag and walked out of my office, piediendole disculpas from an older vato who happened to be standing in the hallway by my office door. I walked into the classroom, explained to the students that Lalo wasn't going to make it, and realized I had left my book in my office. I told my students I would be right back and I ran to get my book. In the hallway, the same vato stood, kinda looking this way and that until he finally fixed his look upon me. I slowed down. It still hadn't hit me at that point (that early in the morning my senses haven't completely hit 100%) when I asked him if he needed some help. He kinda looked at me and asked, "Manuel Vélez?" Right then I realized that this man, holding a folder and some books in his hand, looking as lost as a freshman on the first day of high school, was Lalo. He had decided to eliminate the middle man and called EPCC to get my office number hoping to meet me before class. But for reasons that I just can't explain, the vato made it to my office but never knocked on the door, choosing instead to wait for me to come out. When I finally did, again for reasons I could never explain, he just let me walk past him without saying a word.

Later on I asked him about it and he told me my office door was locked and he didn't want to disturb me. Me. Disturbed by Lalo Delgado. His poem "It's Bicentenial Time, Carnales" hung on the walls of the MEChA office at UTEP while I was a student there. I read it everyday for three years. I wanted to write like that. Me. Disturbed by Lalo Delgado. Todavía no me entra.

While I was driving around with Lalo through El Paso's light brown streets, I would notice that he would take a yellow legal pad from his bag and write some lines down. Later on he shared with me what he had been writing. They were two poems; one about/for EPCC and one about/for Bowie High School. He read them out loud to me in the front of his hotel then tore out the pages from the pad, handing them over to me. I have, I swear, intended to take the Bowie High one over to the campus, but instead it sits in my file drawer, safely tucked into some folders (I want to think that I've been just been waiting for a good moment to take it down, maybe type it up nice for them; but I think the closer truth is that I just don't want to give it away). The truth is, I just remembered that I had them. I live about three blocks away from Fort Bliss and every night, it seems, at about 11:00 the slow notes of "Taps" floats onto the air and falls on my yard like fog. I'm sure it's in honor of the soldiers dying in Iraq, but tonight while I smoked my cigarette and heard the trumpet begin its first note, I could only think of Lalo. That's when the poems came into my memory. I pulled them out, read them several times, and decided I wanted to share them with you. I'll probably send the Bowie poem over to Bowie this week. I haven't decided yet but in the meantime I offer them in his memory. So all of you can get a glimpse of the Lalo I got to know on a few days in October last year.

Manuel J. Vélez

At Bowie High
Lalo Delgado

When Liz and Loui,
who go to Bowie,
sing, “We’re loyal to you, Bowie High”
they don’t sing a lie.
More than fifty years ago
I was a student
in this historic institution
and I’m still loyal to Bowie High.
When this school touches students
Its finger prints
remain forever.
There’s glory
and pride
in that four year journey
through Bowie’s
halls and classrooms.
Bowie’s teachers are unique,
one of a kind educators
with balanced hearts and minds
who share wisdom
with the knowledge they impart.
Those brown and dark eyes
of Bowie students
shine bright in the night
always ready to fight.

October, 2003
El Paso, Texas

At EPCC
Lalo Delgado

It’s Fall at EPCC
And Re living is easy
It’s Valle Verde
Of the growing family
Of El Paso Community College
Who now cast a large
Academic shadow.
EPCC’s humble birth
Is now ancient history
And the future beckons
A determined cadre of students
And a committed faculty.
Among the students and profes
Are some with a common [?] heritage,
Are Mechistas, Si Señor,
Who won’t look back anymore.

October, 2003
El Paso, Texas

Lalo gone but won't be silenced by Cindy Rodriguez

2004-07-27T10:41:00.000-07:00

Lola Delgado leaned into his chest, gripping his hands. "Don't go yet, Lalo," she pleaded to her husband of 50 years. "I can't live without you. You are my life."

Tears streamed down her face. Lalo couldn't speak. He lay beneath white sheets, his eyes roving a room packed with his children, grandchildren and great- grandchildren.

There, in Room 308 of St. Anthony's Hospital North on Friday, Lola Delgado was losing the only man she's ever loved.

And the world was losing a man who was the fiery voice for Chicanos and Latinos of every stripe, the poet laureate of the mystical Aztlan.

The words penned by Lalo Delgado have been read by children in grade school, recited in high school auditoriums, dissected by grad-school students and translated into a dozen languages.

His most famous poem, "Stupid America," offers an explanation of what happens to a child whose dreams are quashed by oppression and racism. It was written in 1969, when Chicano students attended essentially segregated schools, and remains piercingly relevant today.

Those who got to know Lalo learned that though he spoke with passion and conviction - with his booming voice - he was gentle, playful and quick to smile.

Even at 73, he was hip, always riffing on politics with a Latin- jazz delivery. He spoke like a poet, concocting frothy rhymes that mixed Spanish, English and Pachuco slang.

A lifelong activist, Lalo fought for the rights of farm workers who were treated like indentured servants. He spoke out against injustices of all kinds.

"He taught us not to be prejudiced, to accept everyone, blacks, gays, to respect everyone, from the busboy to the people who clean toilets," his eldest daughter, Ana Dran, said.

When I spoke to Ana on Thursday night she said her father was holding on. She invited me to visit him Friday morning at the hospital. The plan was he would leave midday to return home, where he would receive hospice care and could say goodbye to friends planning to fly in from Texas, California and Canada.

I didn't expect he'd die that morning. No one did.

It happened too soon.

Three months ago, Lalo was diagnosed with liver cancer, but he thought he could fight it with his spirit. He continued to teach classes at Metro State College, to give presentations, to recite poetry, to give a five-hour interview to PBS for a documentary on the farm workers' struggle.

A month ago, his body started giving out. He and Lola stayed at the home of daughter Amelia Crz.

He tried to force himself to read "The Da Vinci Code," but he couldn't. Grandson Angelo Crz then started reading to him; one was a book of quotations from Oscar Wilde. One quotation particularly resonated: "I wrote when I did not know life. Now that I do know the written, life can only be lived."

It's clear Lalo accepted he was dying. He wrote about the "monster" that was attacking his body in a journal he called his daily "Command Post." The monster that started in his liver spread to other organs, including around his heart.

"No one was prepared for this," Angelo said. "We signed him up to teach in the fall at Metro.

"Friday morning, still keeping his role as family patriarch, Lalo held on to say goodbye to his whole family - eight children, 19 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. The last of his children, Alfredo "Pat" Delgado, arrived around 10:30 a.m.

The family prayed. And, finally, Lola gave her permission."I'm letting you go now," Lola told Lalo, still holding his hands. It was 10:48 a.m.Just then, he drew his last breath. Lalo was gone.

Family members wailed in the hallway, hugging each other. Lola stayed by Lalo's side, weeping.

Within minutes, word spread. Calls came into the hospital waiting room as e-mails began crisscrossing the Internet.

"The Don of Chicano Poetry passed away" read one e-mail's subject line. Another wrote of his demeanor: "Remember well this cat, pure salt of the Earth."

Another wrote of his legacy, "La muerte es fuerte (death is strong), but it will not take his words or lines, or his voice out of my ears."

We miss you, Lalo.

Denver Post Column, Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Cindy Rodríguez's column appears Tuesdays and Thursdays in Scene.
Contact her at 303-820-1211 or crodriguez@denverpost.com

2004-07-27T10:38:00.000-07:00

It was 1976 in San Antonio at a festival that I first met Lalo. But it was during the Canto al Pueblo in Corpus 1978 after two years of reading his words that I declared on live tv that Lalo was my poetic model. It was my first declaration of admiration I made for Lalo's talents. I had a subscription to the late Cecilio Garcia Camarillo and his ex-wife's Mia monthly arts and Chicano news review "Caracol" and I would find frequent poems by Lalo in its pages. My compas aqui en Chicago del MARCH would bring Lalo to perform at Casa Aztlan in the mid 1980's where he filled the house and made hundreds happy they were there. In 1990 I came to Denver and had the honor of reading with him and Greg Greyhawk and Bill Lazo at the CHAC gallery. I would not see Lalo again but through the grapevine hear of his doings and occassionally I would read a new poem by Aztlan's first ambassador of Peace. Lalo will be remembered by many in Chicago, I know Jesus Negrete the Chicano troubadour of the corrido will write one for nuestro carnal Abelardo "Lalo" Delgado.
Que Viva Lalo!
Let's have readings on his birthday in his honor.
I'll organize one in Chicago will anyone join in this?
Carlos Cumpian

2004-07-26T19:36:00.000-07:00

Not everyone gets to meet their heroes, but I was fortunate to meet Lalo last August. With my carnal, Ray Rojas, we ventured to Colorado for the primary purpose of exploring the state and drinking beer at the numerous breweries.

Before commencing on this journey, we went to a modest Latino coffee shop in Denver. To my amazement, Lalo was there. He was gracious and warm. The conversation was a history lesson in Chicanismo and literature; Lalo never tired as we indudated him with questions. After coffee and some burritos, we decided to leave despite our hunger for more knowledge from Lalo. We saw Lalo getting tired, but he would never admit it.

Before we left, Lalo graciously gave me copies of his poetry. He wanted nothing in return. His payment was having his words live on with every reading and the joy in my eyes at his kind gesture.

Gracias, Lalo,

Alberto Mesta, Jr.
El Chuco

Legendary Chicano artist dies of cancer

2004-07-26T09:48:00.000-07:00

By Ramón Rentería, El Paso Times
Saturday, July 24, 2004

Abelardo "Lalo" Delgado, a social activist, educator, philosopher and one of the most passionate poets of the Chicano movement, died of cancer Friday in Colorado. He was 72. Delgado's poem "Stupid America," one of his most anthologized poems, speaks of the Chicano artist and his frustration over being ignored by mainstream society. Delgado used his literary skills to become a powerful advocate for migrant farmworkers, Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans. Born in the state of Chihuahua, he later settled in El Paso's Segundo Barrio.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/archive.html

Abelardo "Lalo" Delgado by Trinidad Sánchez, Jr.

2004-07-25T22:49:00.000-07:00

I don’t recall the first time I met met Lalo, but I know it was the first time I came across his poem Stupid America. For years, I could not recite this poem without crying or feeling the emotion with which the author had must of felt when he wrote it. It became one of my favorite Chicano poems. I have since made it part of my repertoire of poems to be taught while I was an Artist in Residence in the San Antonio, School District, San Antonio, Texas because I strongly feel that it is a poem that young Chicanos/as should know.

S.W. Detroit Mental Health Facility was opening a new center and being I was on the Board of Directors and the local poet, I was asked to read some poems as part of the opening ceremony. I chose the poem Stupid America, which I had just come across and two of my own.

A year later while walking out of services at Gesu Church a woman approached me and said she want to thank me for that poem I had recited at the open house for S.W. Mental Health. Not sure which poem she was referring to and thinking it might be my poem Why Am I So Brown? I asked. She then informed me that it was the poem Stupid America! Oh, I said, that poem is by Lalo Delgado. I then asked what it was about the poem that she remembered. She said "The last line, I remember the last line . . . He will die with 1000 masterpieces hanging from his mind."
She then went on to explain that she realized that she was that person in the poem it inspired her to return to college and complete her education and this year she was teaching. I thanked her and told her that I would share this story with Lalo. (Which I did do a few years later at the Guadalupe Cultural Center Bookfair, when he read at the Incarnate University Auditorium.)

For years, I have shared this story with students and making a point of how poetry can change our lives if we are listening to it. Adding that "when we read poetry it stay in our head, when we listen to poetry, it can go into our ears down into our hearts and we can change."

The other lesson is the importance of the last line of the poem. It wasn’t the poem but it was the last line of poem! As poets we must make sure that the last line of the poem is said as clearly as the fist line. We need to stay at the mike until the last line has been spoken . . . not walk away from the mike leaving the audience to ask "What was the last line?, What did he say?"

Another favorite memory was when Ghada Elturk had arranged for the Boulder Library to honor Lalo and hung his portrait in the library. Many dignataries and professors had already presented their good words and alocades for Lalo.

I was then called to the mike and told the story how I first met Lalo, that he had come to San Antonio, Texas and wanted to go to the border to buy some tequila, I agreed to take him and on the way we saw this sign that said HELOTES. Lalo said were coming to Helotes, with emphasis on the "he" of Hellotes. I was sure if I should do this or not being he was my elder, but I corrected him and said the "h" was silent and that it was pronounced Elotes. Well, he did get a little upset and insisted that it was ‘He’lotes the way he had pronounced it. I then remembered that he was from Denver, so I let it go!

A mile down the road I saw this road stop and challenged him by saying let’s stop and ask. He agreed. As I turned off the engine, we both rushed to get out of the car and went rushing through the door, but I got there first. The bell on the door rang and we had scared the young lady behind the counter! But I got there first and I said: We know where we are going and wh know where we are from, but I want to know where we ARE AT?

I then pointed to Lalo and said my compadre is sorta s l o w, so can you articulate ‘where we are at" very clearly and slowly!

She looked at Lalo and said in a very slow and deliberate voice "D A I R Y Q U E E N!"
Of course the audience of family and friends had a hearty laugh. On my way out one of the family member came to thank me, she said "you made him human, again!" She then added "everyone else had put him on a pedestal so high that she didn’t recognize him!"
Lalo, will always be human, the humanitarian and hero for many of us.

Trinidad Sánchez, Jr.
Author "Why Am I So Brown?"
Denver, Colorado

He will sit with Huitzilopochtli, He is Tecpaltzin [ “a distinguished man” ]

2004-07-25T11:33:00.000-07:00

He has crossed to that homeland north of the Colorado River.
He will sit with Huitzilopochtli on a chair of reeds and rushes.
His image will lead other souls migrating in caravan to their Aztlan homeland.
To be tested at the fountain head of the Colorado River…with two bundles…
one of sticks and one with jewels.
The wisest will choose the bundle of sticks, knowing that utilityis better than beauty.
As he, those wisest will be allowed to enter Aztlan heaven,
“ the place within the ring” [ or the crescent - Anahua ].
To be rewarded with dazzling whiteness, of a white cypress tree from which issued a fountain, with white willows, with white reeds, and bull rushes, with white frogs, with white fish, and white water snakes.
He is the first poet laureate of Aztlan and he is at his final home.

Al Soto 7/24/2004

REFLECTIONS ON LALO DELGADO

2004-07-24T16:41:00.000-07:00

Querido Lalo --I will never forget the first time I heard you read poetry in El Paso with Ricardo Sánchez. He was like a sharp spear, but you were like a hot bowl of menudo that made everybody feel good.

Get well, hermano, te manda saludos tu compa,
Carlos MortonSanta Barbara, Califas
*
Lalo:
I'm sorry you're ailing, old friend. At 78 God is not yet through with me;and God still has many things for you to do. Todavia queda mucha lucha.During Summer I semester at UT Brownsville I had the students read StupidAmerica, and they responded to it just as we all did when you first wrote italmost 40 years ago.Your work in Chicano poetry will stand as a testament to struggles we'veendured as Chicanos in proclaiming our presence and your poetry will standas the legacy you've bestowed on our progeny.

You are in our prayers and in our hearts.

Tu fiel amigo,Felipe
Dr. Felipe de Ortego y Gasca,
Kingsville, Texas Email: felipeo@usawide.net
*
La Calaca anda suelta otra vez, Webones.

Esta vez le anda rodando el chante a un vato realmente bueno y comprometido al movimiento. No se vendió como muchos de esa época de chinga en la cual le dimos un riatazo bien dado a Jim Crow y sus secuaces. Es gacho ver a los buenos despedirse de esta manera tan retegacha. Me duele su dolor. Préndanle una velita al gran Lalo y a su familia. Y Lalo, dale unos buenos filerazos a esa flaca hija de la tiznada. Paz les deja Clyde.

Lalo Delagado, gran poeta y activista honesto, ha pasado a su casa para pasar sus últimos días en su casa rodeado de su extensa familia. Sufre de diabetes, corazón, y pulmones. Recuerden bien a este vato, pura sal de la tierra.

clyde torres
*
Colleagues:
I'm saddened to inform you that Abelardo (Lalo Delgado) has just passed away, after a bout with cancer. His untimely death truncated the prolific artistic production of one of El Paso's outstanding literary figures. He was a part of the vanguard of writers and poets of the Chicano Renaissance that lived through the tumultuous days of the Chicano Movement here in El Paso.

May he rest in peace and may his beautiful work kept alive in our minds.

Dennis J. Bixler-Márquez, Ph.D.
El Paso, TX
<dbixlerm@utep.edu>
*
Trino,
Lalo passed away today, around 10:50 a.m. at st. Anthony's. I was there... So very sad. He was waiting for this son Pat to come so he could say goodbye and then he did. His last words were, according to one of his daughters, "I have to go." Then he shut his eyes and was gone.

Let your friends know... I am writing a tribute to this life; will run Tuesday in the Post. We're running an obit in Sunday's paper, as well.

Cindy Rodriguez <CERodriguez@Denverpost.com>
*
Trinidad, I lost my breath for a moment...and my heart skipped several beats...it is with great unhappy weight on my soul...that I bear this knowledge...and that my eyes swell with mournful tears...that I don't believe...I hugged him...this Spring...when I was in El Paso and he was presenting at the El Paso Community College - Valle Verde campus...and we had lunch at Cafe del Arte...at the Marcus Art Gallery...then later that night...at La Fe Auditorium...in "El Segundo Barrio"....of El Paso...not thinking it would be the last time I would see, touch, and experience this happy spirit...My world stood still for a moment...just now...and my moments with him at Metro State College at Denver...flashed before me...His times at Our Lady of Guadalupe on Kansas Street and 4th - El Paso, Texas...were his fondess memories...that I heard him talk about and I related our common experiences there...although in different time worlds...I will light a candle...and leave a path of marigolds...hoping his soul will know its way back to his happy times...for this November....Condolences to the family...Denver, Colorado - El Paso, Texas...and Aztlan...Al Soto <atlatlal@yahoo.com>
*
Dear Chicano/Latino community and all others who knew and loved Lalo:

It is with deep sadness and tears that I inform you that our Colorado Chicano poet laureate, peaceful warrior, leader of the community, family man and lover of life, Abelardo "Lalo" Delgado passed away this morning around 10:50 A.M. I talked to Ramon and he and Dorothy visited with Lalo last night.

It was as if he was saying his "good bye" to them. As soon as the family informs us of the funeral arrangements I will post it as well.

Please look for Tina Griego's column in the RMN tomorrow as she will be having a column on Lalo.May he rest in peace, and he surely will.... Vaya con dios Lalo.

Dr. Estevan Flores, <EFlores@lrpc.cudenver.edu>
Denver, CO

Two Newspaper Articles on Lalo Delgado

2004-07-24T16:22:00.000-07:00

Lalo Delgado: beloved icon, poet" on the Rocky Mountain News Web site:
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86_3061081,00.html

Poet, activist Delgado dies:
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%7E53%7E2290902,00.html

In Memoriam: Abelardo B. "Lalo" Delgado

2004-07-23T20:58:00.000-07:00

From: Ray Rojas, Editor,
Pluma Fronteriza <plumafronteriza@msn.com>
Friday, July 23, 2004 1:58 PM

Lalo Delgado died a few minutes ago. I first came across Lalo Delgado's name  in a book about "famous" "Hispanics." It mentioned he was from El Paso and from that point began my fanhood of the Poet Laureate of Azltan, the Don of Chicano Poetry. I researched his life and did everything I could to bring him back to his hometown, El Paso.

When I finally succeeded, Lalo came down for a reading. When I arrived at the hotel to pick him up, he was sitting on a bench outside the hotel writing in notebook. I know it was him because of the picture. I approached him and somehow he knew it was me, and gave me a big hug. Delgado was born in La Boca del Concha in Chihuahua, Mexico, later moving to  Cuidad Juarez Chihuahua and then to the Segundo Barrio (Second Ward) of El Paso. Lalo was raised by a single, yet strong mother who kept him in line. When I asked Lalo who he survived the barrio and why he didn't join gangs, Lalo laughing, told me, because he was a chicken and that his mother had him by the ears. Lalo grew up at La Quinta (5th Street and Oregon).

He attended Bowie High School where he served on the school newspaper. While in high school, he won various playwrighting awards and magazine contests and even wrote advice columns for local Spanish-language newspapers, some of them not knowing he was just a kid. Some of those writing can be found in El Continental, also known as El Quentamentiras.

Delgado graduated from highschool and married his wife Lola. Last year, in 2003, the celebrated their 50 Anniversary with a big pachanga. Lalo began working for the bicycle priest, Father Harold Rahm working in the Our Lady Youth Center at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in the Segundo Barrio. He began  organizing groups, setting up employment services, food banks, and clothing bank. He even, humourouly told me that he set up a woman's Catholic organization against communism. "I didn't even know what a communist was, vato," said Lalo Delgado.

Delgado also began attending Texas Western (now the University of Texas at El Paso) where he received his degree. Lalo helped out as a translator and interpreter for the Chamizal Commission. In the early 60s, he began working with El Huevo Ramirez in the Juvenile Delinquency Program in the Segundo Barrio organizing such groups as the Mexican American Youth Association and Mexican (MAYA) American Committee on Honor... and (MAChOS). In the late 1960s, he did a fast for better housing in El Paso. Lalo also helped organize one of the first large marches in the city. Lalo Delgado also worked as a teacher, employment consultant, and manyother  jobs. After working in El Paso, he went to work with migrant workers in Las Cruces, New Mexico, then going on to be the executive director of the Colorado Migrant Council.

He returned in El Paso in the early 1970s to work at UTEP with their recently founded Chicano Studies Program. He led the Special SErvices department and also served as an instructor. One hilarious event was when the MEChA organization took over the UTEP administration building and Lalo had to pick up his paycheck because he was signing a mortgage that day. Though more than 50 chotas could not pass the MEChA blockade of the administration building's front doors, Lalo somehow got in and retrieved his  paycheck.

Delgado left UTEP and did work in the Northwest organizing health clinics and migrant program. He then moved with his family to Utah where he served in their Chicano Studies program before returning to Denver to lead the CO Migrant Counsel once more. Delgado, in between jobs, also served as a consultant, helping to reorganize California's's rural legal aid and to report on legal services for Chicanos in Kansas. Lalo Delgado also worked at various universities in the Denver area. At the time of his death, he had just finished the summer Upward Bound. When looking at the history of the Chicano Movement, if you are trying to find some one who had his hands in barrio organizing, farmworkers issues, immigration, literature, the student movement, look no further than Lalo Delgado.

His contribution to the literature is immense. Lalo helped open up the Chicano Renaissance for poetry with the first collection of Chicano poetry in that era: "Chicano: 25 Pieces of a Chicano Mind." Delgado wrote for morethan 1/2 a century. He wrote more stuff than Cervantes or Shakespeare. He was not afraid to show you his good poems, nor his bad, he would say"poemas are like your kids, you need to show the ugly ones just like you show the pretty ones. Seeing other writers perform, I have heard them say that Lalo was a great influence. When he performed in El Paso with Denise Chavez and AliciaGaspar de Alba, both credited Lalo as an influence. The same goes for Lorna Dee Cervantes, Juan Contraras, Ricardo Sanchez, Sal Barcorta, Trindad Sanchez, Jr., and many more. Well, hope this gives you a small dose of Lalo's life. He lived a very big one. Afterall, he was big guy with much corazon. Carlos Morton told meabout the early readings in the 1970s. He said "Ricardo Sanchez would get up and read and he would make people mad. People would even throw chairs. But when Lalo Delgado go up to read, he was like a big bowl of menudo. The air all of  a sudden felt calm. And with his loud voice, Lalo made you feel good."

Sincerely, Raymundo Eli Rojas,
Founding Editor, Pluma Fronteriza