Lalo Delgado walks on

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.

Funeral Services will be at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, Wednesday 28, at 2 pm.



Poet, activist dead at 73
Delgado's pen gave voice to Chicanos

By Claire Martin
Denver Post Staff Writer

Denver poet, professor and activist Lalo Delgado, who died Friday at age 73, was widely regarded as one of the Chicano movement's premiere authors. His poems and essays were taught, and sometimes banned, internationally.

Services will be held Tuesday and Wednesday.

Through his writing and his work at various human rights organizations, Delgado crusaded for better treatment of immigrants and their families.

"His name was synonymous with the Chicano movement," said longtime friend Ricardo LaFore, director of U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell's Denver office.

"Lalo's name is a thread that runs through the women's movement, the children's rights movement, through the entire human rights movement."

Abelardo Delgado was born in Boquilla de Chanchos in Chihuahua, Mexico, the son of a U.S.-born Hispanic soldier and a Mexican woman who became a naturalized American citizen when she was 83. full article

Lalo gone but won't be silenced

By Cindy Rodriguez
Denver Post Columnist

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 full article