Beloved Metro prof passed away, left legacy
by Armando Manzanares
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.”
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