A tribute to hermano Abelardo ‘Lalo’ Delgado: Poet Laureate de Aztlán

On September 11, 2023. Abelardo ‘Lalo’ Delgado was inducted into the Colorado Author’s Hall of Fame for his poetic contributions to humanity. It was Lalo’s poetic renditions of the contradictory nature of human beings, his giving soul, and his quest for social justice that won him Mayor John Hickenlooper’s first Poet Laureate posthumously in Denver, Colorado. His lifetime of activism, leadership, community spirit, and poetry can be heralded in the same vein as poets from throughout Aztlan and Latin America. Lalo was considered the Grandfather of Chicano Poetry. He was also my mentor. We shared the same stage for over 25 years as members of the Third World Poets Organization—providing poetry recitations in universities, community centers, churches, protests and other venues. This was augmented during the
Passing the Baton Poetry Program wherein new and upcoming poets were invited to share their
work.

Abelardo “Lalo” Delgado was a man of many cantos, rhyming incantations, metaphorical invocations, and stinging palabras that penetrated closed minds, causing trepidations amongst
the intelligentsia. Lalo never sought out permission to use his poetic voice to shout out themes of deliverance; he simply took the stage with an intention of enlightening audiences and power
brokers that needed a shot of truth serum. His work, now being further digested by social critics, complimented the multi-dimensional aspects of the Chicana/o experience including
social injustice, the plight of the farmworkers, la mujer oprimida, la familia, the Chicano Movement, and education. With his pen as an instrument of freedom, he transformed words into a blazing torch, criticizing America for its class divisions in a land of plenty.

Lalo worked with and supported Cesar Chavez’ and the United Farm Worker’s grape and lettuce boycotts—using the power of the written word to criticize the giants of agribusinessthat exploited campesinos. He spent part of his professional career working for the Colorado
Migrant Council advocating on behalf of campesinos, fighting with Colorado legislators, asking them to be more humane as they munched on salads filled with head lettuce in fancy hotels and toasted over grape wine, while farm worker human rights were being violated as campesinos trekked from one plantation to another. His words penetrated unscrupulous lawmakers—pleading with them to provide toilets for children and families in the fields and drinking fountains for workers that often suffered from parched throats and thirst from the inhumane conditions they were exposed to.

He bellowed poetic metaphors during nonviolent marches and pilgrimages, aimed at closed minds and eyes blinded by the racist cataracts of the times. His booming voice like un gran oso, pero bien picoso became a dagger that would slice through the rationalizations used by plantation owners who never offered bathrooms to immigrant farmworkers, drenched in sweat, picking crops in fields filled to the brim with organophosphates. He stood on both sides
of the border during huelgas (strikes) raising the consciousness of scabs transported onto American soil by ruthless coyotes—used to break the strikes. He wrote about the grotesque conditions in the fields where crops are harvested annually. In Those Temporary Labor Camp Blues, he wrote:

the flies are adequate
the non-existent toilets are adequate.
the lack of privacy is adequate.
but who defines, “adequate?”
where, pray tell, are the affected parties?
they are in the fields,
working, of course. (2011)

Lalo, was acutely aware that salvation for La Raza could never be found in the scripts of fatalism, preached in churches by conservative anachronistic priests in homilies to la gente
about divine intervention and spiritual salvation as they lived hell on earth. None of America’s institutions were immune from his judicious analyses as he criticized a colonial educational system whose instruction purposely left out the Chicana/o narrative. He preached, using poetry in church podiums, to create spiritual awareness. His poetry melted down the doors of segregation. He challenged oppressive Euro-American gender traditions that reinforced
patriarchal and white supremacy practices in American society. Through the use of the spoken word, he cracked open the mental prisons that the wealthy had built to protect its own interests at the expense of the wretchedness of others.

Lalo’s masterpiece, Stupid America awakened the oppressor — reminding them of the pathology they projected onto Chicanas/os since the inception of educational systems were concocted.

Stupid America
by Abelardo “Lalo” Delgado

stupid america, see that chicano
with a big knife
on his steady hand
he doesn’t want to knife you
he wants to sit on a bench
and carve Christ figures
but you won’t let him.
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 chicanito
flunking math and english
he is a picasso
of your western states
but he will die
with one thousand masterpieces
hanging only from his mind ( 2011)

Lalo era el maestro de la palabra. He created linguistic images and metaphors written in three languages, Spanish, English and Spanglish, contesting the English Only curricula that catered to la lingua franca of this country. The three languages in his poetry caught the attention of educators as he linguistically jitterbugged, moving back and forth with poetic gesticulation. He wrote in the language of a sophisticated poet; raising the feathers of educators in universities that were teaching liberation and freedom while Raza student aspirations, dreams, and desires were on a downward spiral. His poem was a challenge for America to clean the racist cataracts off of its eyes, develop a liberatory vision, and create alternative perspectives to the Master’s Narrative.

The poet criticizes injustice in society through the use of words and creative versos meant to teach and to create critical social consciousness. In Lalo’s signature poem, Stupid America, his contemporaneous use of the word stupid with America infuriates even the most liberal of minds as he focuses on the hypocrisy practiced in American educational institutions meant to liberate but that essentially subjugates Chicanas/os. His metaphorical satire points a poetic finger at American society that continuously blames students for their failure in schools—without turning the telescope inward into the educational institutions to view their shortcomings that pushed Chicanas/os out of schools.

A Chicano, “with a big knife on his steady hand,” criticizes one of the stereotypes that had been created about Chicanas/os—a projective mechanism used by a society that fears “the other.” But knives have various purposes as Lalo points out. They are also tools used for
creative purposes, one of which is to carve “Christ figures on benches;” an art practiced by the santeros in the community. Lalo’s poetic line is meant to ridicule society transforming the knife into a tool to create an object of spirituality, algo muy sagrada. Incidentally, Chicanos have carried bayonets to fight in all of America’s wars.

The system sees Chicanas/os as stupid people; Lalo sees the system as stupid, suffering from repugnance. The end result is that a Chicano poet will die with a thousand masterpieces hanging only from his mind. But a spiritual awakening occurs as poets transform poetry into weapons for liberation purposes.

Lalo often read poetry at the sacred pulpit, on sacrosanct ground, where la gente prayed for a better tomorrow. During his last days with us, he reconciled the burning desire for a better world, a more just world, that he saw in his vision as he wrote,

A day is coming
in which misery will end.
A day is coming
in which poverty
will open bank accounts
in every nation
A day is coming.
I hear it coming.
A day is coming
in which the
campesino
will gather his children a green spring
and go on vacations.
I believe it.
I see it.

We honor Lalo and his wonderful contributions to humanity. Que viva Lalo!

Below is a despedida that I wrote to my amigo, mentor, and poet laureate.

Lalo’s Velorio

Here lies Don Abelardo” Lalo” Delgado
humble poet laureate de Aztlan
a hero to those who till the soil
trabajadores whose hands
have become warped and decrypted
making masa made of tierra
for los ricos de America. Lalo
freedom fighter for los de abajo
grandfather to the generations
of Chicano poets who dared to pick up
the pen, crafting images de una vida dura
pero tambien llena de esperanza.
He read poetry at the sacred pulpit
on sacrosanct ground, where la gente
knelt and prayed for a better tomorrow
where dreams melted away
as pennies fell onto gold plates
where social justice was transformed
into the limosna of the times; he shouted
curses at bureaucrats in city council meetings;
men who had converted social justice
for big titles and bundles of cash; he walked in
barrio streets, sharing poetic versos
his voice screeched in polysyllabic rhymes
about the many times
children went without food
spirits whose presence was nullified;
he became the voice for the voiceless.
He challenged Amerika
to open its eyes
blinded by economic cataracts
coveting subliminal desires
for greed and power.
Here lies Lalo
resting in a coffin
hecho de letras
of two alphabets made of madera firma
nailed together, never to disunite
telling cuentos con compasion
about the two worlds
he loved so much; el america del sur
where he helped build a bridge, made
of Spanglish; into america del norte
where his thoughts shaped into hard brittle words
sprinkled con polvo fina,
turned into dust;
waiting for the time
to become part of the earth again,
creating images
never to be forgotten
dichos y conceptos
de una humanidad
que ha sufrido mucho
mesclada con palabras y amor. His poetry
spread onto a shroud
con la tinta de nuestra sangre
is painted on many castles
made of human flesh. His words
have been chiseled
onto calaveras of many fragile minds
never to be forgotten. His images
are both blessings and nightmares
about what humanity can be and what it is,
a multicultural quilt paying respect to all cultures
often times transformed into un trapo
used to clean up the hate of the times.
His spirit has left to be with his Master
to write the last verse, the last poem
the last cuento, knowing that poets
cannot write their own epitaphs
leaving that task to the tlamatinimes
of the modern day world.
Here lies Lalo.
knowing souls of the poets
would emerge
coming to say goodbye
in the only way they know how
through the written word.
Gracias por las palabras, the time
to fly into the night
and disappear has arrived.
Vaya con Dios.
Siempre su hermano.
Ramon Del Castillo
Copyright 7-23-04