Abelardo Delgado

Abelardo Barrientos Delgado, aka Lalo (November 27, 1931 – July 23, 2004), was a Chicano writer, community organizer, and poet.[1]

He was a major contributor to the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 1970s.[2] A professor in Metropolitan State University of Denver's Chicano/a Studies Department for 17 years, he was honored by the city of Denver posthumously in 2005 with the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award.[3] In 2004, he was posthumously named Denver's first Poet Laureate.[4] Metropolitan State University hosts the annual Lalo Delgado Poetry Festival; which celebrates Delgado as a social justice poet and "the grandfather of Chicano and Chicana poetry in this country."[5][6][7]

Delgado was awarded the Tonatiuh-Quinto Sol Award for literature in 1977.[1]

Personal life

Born in Boquilla de Conchos, Chihuahua, Mexico, Delgado moved to El Paso, Texas in 1943.[1] He grew up in a tenement occupied by 23 families sharing three bathrooms, learning English from a boys club after school.[8] Delgado organized his first protest while in school, refusing to sing the National Anthem and eventually convincing his classmates to sing in Spanish instead.[9]

Delgado was married to Lola Estrada and had eight children.[10]

References
  1. Abelardo, 1931–. "Abelardo Delgado Papers, 1947– (bulk 1968–1981)". legacy.lib.utexas.edu. Retrieved February 22, 2019.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. Kanellos, Nicolás (2008). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Latino Literature. Gale Virtual Reference Library. pp. 352–353.
  3. "Local Chicano poet "Lalo" Delgado celebrated posthumously at Auraria – My Met Media". mymetmedia.com. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
  4. Milofsky, David; Post, Special to The Denver Post | Special to The Denver (August 4, 2005). "Denver's own poet laureate, for better or verse". The Denver Post. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
  5. "Events, Supported Events". msudenver.edu. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
  6. "Honoring 'grandfather' of Chicano poetry – My Met Media". mymetmedia.com. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
  7. Lomelí, Francisco A.; Urioste, Donaldo W.; Villaseñor, María Joaquina (December 27, 2016). Historical Dictionary of U.S. Latino Literature. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781442275492.
  8. Reed, Christopher (August 4, 2004). "Obituary: Lalo Delgado". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  9. "Poetry Daily Prose Feature – Jarica Linn Watts: Introduction to Here Lies Lalo". poems.com. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  10. Woo, Elaine (August 1, 2004). "Lalo Delgado, 73; Poet Was Seminal Figure in Rise of Chicano Literature". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved March 15, 2019.


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