Things to know up front:

You can enlarge the photos by clicking on them. Click the back arrow key to return to the post.

Every chapter in My Life Story and many of my blogs include information about me, my work, my family and my friends. They also include information about events that took place locally and nationally, etc. that I thought were significant to me personally, and important enough to add to the mix. You’ll also find that I’ve included films, musicians and recordings/videos, in addition to books that were released in a given year.

While I have included many personal photos, much of the graphic content included below is borrowed from the Internet. I do not claim to own this material. I am just adding it for educational purposes. If the owners of any of the content in the “My Life Story” series want their materials removed, I am happy to oblige. My email address is jrdiaz@arizona.edu. Thanks!

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I haven’t written anything in a while. My last post went live in March, 2025, so I thought it was time to provide a general update. I’ll discuss topics and events going back to the beginning of the year, and will continue to add to this post until the end of September. Then I’ll start another entry for October. This one is going to be longer than the next one, that’s for sure. Well, here goes….

I’m still happily married to Ruben J. (partners since 1993, but legally married since 2014) and still work at the University of Arizona Libraries, where I just celebrated 33 years of employment. I manage the reference and referrals process for the Special Collections Department of the University of Arizona Libraries. Since May, I have also taken the lead in setting up appointments for customers via our online calendar. This takes up the bulk of my time. As an archivist, I also process collections and compile statistics. I am the curator for the performing arts and architecture. I enjoy working in these areas. I answer lots of reference questions about vaudeville and architecture, as well as music and local and regional history. I just had my mid-year review, and it went well. I’m on track to meet my goals on time. My updated curriculum vitae is available here:

1/7/25: Fires start in Los Angeles area. A very destructive fire. Sad, sad, sad. Over 13,000 structures are destroyed, including most of Sunset Boulevard. At least 29 deaths are reported, while 180,000 people are evacuated, with fires continuing for days. (Wikipedia)

Jimmy Carter’s official state funeral Jan. 9.

I thought President Jimmy Carter was a great man and a good president. He wasn’t a hawk, and he loosened the reigns of American imperialism in Central America. For example, he gave the Panama Canal back to the Republic of Panama, its rightful owners. This was done via the Torrijos-Carter Treaties of 1977. The Sandinistas also came to power in Nicaragua in the late 70s during Carter’s presidency, but we all know what happened next! Reagan got elected and funded the Contra war.

Throughout his life, President Carter lived as a true humanitarian. He and his wife were models of hospitality, graciousness and wisdom. They sure don’t make ’em like this anymore!

I turned 66 on January 15. I took the 14th and 15th off to celebrate. The day of my birthday, Ruben and I had lunch at La Casa Molina. We both ate chimichangas. Mine had shredded beef and Ruben’s had beans inside. We then wandered around 4th Ave. I bought an Aretha Franklin t-shirt at the Hippie Gypsy. It was a birthday present to myself. Ruben bought a nice hat at the Tucson Thrift Shop. We had a late dinner at Portillo’s. I love their double bacon cheeseburgers the best. It was a good day. If I recall correctly, I also talked to my sisters Becky and Irene. They always call on my birthday.

I published a blog titled “Happy Birthday Jose Alfredo Jimenez”. 1/19/25. He’s Mexico’s best known composer of “la cancion ranchera”. My parents just loved him. So do I. Even though his songs are full of machismo and la borrachera, they come straight from the heart. He was the best. The blog includes links to a radio show I did featuring Jimenez’s music. I did several tribute shows in his honor over the years.

1/19/25: Leonard Peltier’s sentence is commuted by President Biden. Back when I was a graduate student in the Sociology program in 1983, I did research on the American Indian Movement and learned about how the federal government used Leonard Peltier as a scapegoat, falsely accusing him of murder and sending him to prison for decades. One of President Biden’s last acts was to pardon him, finally.

1/20/25: Trump inauguration. A sad, sad day indeed. “In the first day of his return to office, President Donald Trump issues pardons to over 1500 of his supporters charged in connection with the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, declares a national emergency at the southern border, and withdraws the US from the World Health Organization and the Paris Agreement on Climate.”

January 23-27, Trip to Chandler.

I stayed a few days in Chandler, Az (January 23-27), at the end of January. ALA was having a LibLearnX conference in downtown Phoenix. I thought it would be a breeze getting around, but downtown Phoenix has become a nightmare as far as traffic and driving in it are concerned. The conference was too much of a hassle to get to. I really tried, but I hate traffic jams, so I got out of downtown and didn’t go back. I did other stuff. Chandler wasn’t bad at all. There were lots of good restaurants and places to shop. I felt like I was in heaven because there were so many thrift stores in the area. I ended up buying over 20 books, over 20 cds and 10 DVDS. I probably ended up with even more, because I might have stopped counting at some point. I love going shopping for books and music! It’s my very favorite pastime.

This restaurant, Tradiciones, on Chandler Blvd. was so darned good. I ate here a couple of times, as it was right next door to my hotel. I’d never had quesabirrias before, and dang, they were amazing!

January 29, 2025: A Bombardier CRJ700 airliner operating as American Airlines Flight 5342 and a United States Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter operating as Priority Air Transport 25 collided mid-air over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. There were 67 victims killed in the helicopter and plane collision.

February 1, 2025: Fred’s memorial gathering at Reid Park.

2-8-25: Joan Baez tribute concert

Rosanne Cash and Joan sing Farewell Angelina at Joan’s tribute celebration.

February 10, 2025: College campuses across the country have been forced to dismantle their diversity, equity and inclusion pograms. See this for more information: President Trump Acts to Roll Back DEI Initiatives

February 11, 2025: 10 year anniversary of my dad’s passing. Time sure flies. I sure do miss this man. He was a real character.

2/15/25: Random posting of the day:

February 17, 2025: Paquita La Del Barrio dies at the age of 77.

February 24, 2025: Roberta Flack died. She recorded many beautiful songs. I particularly love her album titled “Chapter Two”. Included is the song below. It’s absolutely gorgeous.

On March 1, I published the 1998 chapter of my life story.

Raul Grijalva: 02/19/48 to 03/13/25. He died of cancer at the age of 77.

March 16, 2025. Pedro Ignacio Taibo reading at the Tucson Festival of Books. He was very friendly and warm, and he signed my Pancho Villa book too! He spoke in Special Collections to a packed house.

March 22, 2025 Fighting Oligarchy rally at Catalina High School.

Man, I could not believe that I didn’t hear about this rally until it was all over. I would have been there for sure. I’ve been a member of the Democratic Socialists of America on and off since the early 80s. I love Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. There was an overflow crowd. It made me very happy to see that.

March 25: Today is Aretha Franklin’s birthday. Aretha sings her butt off in the video below. The songs lyrics aren’t much, but the way she gets into the groove and hits all those high notes is just amazing. She jammed on this one!

March 26, 2025: Raul Grijalva’s funeral and celebration of life at the Casino Ballroom. I attended the celebration of life, but the funeral was completely packed. Nancy Pelosi, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other dignitaries were there at St. Augustine’s Cathedral. After the morning service, people gathered at El Casino Ballroom to bid farewell to this great leader and humanitarian.

March 28, 2025: Presentation on vaudeville materials housed in Special Collections

The March issue of Desert Leaf Magazine featured a story about the vaudeville holdings in Special Collections at the University of Arizona Libraries. The article can be read here: After reading the article, a woman named Kristen Helland contacted me to see if she and a couple of her friends could come and look at some of the materials in the vaudeville collection. I told them yes, and pulled together some sample materials from the collection for them to look at. The visit turned out very well and my visitors were quite pleased.

Trip to Washington DC, April 1-6, 2025

In April, I traveled to Washington DC to, on behalf of the American Library Association, to participate in advocacy work on Capitol Hill. My colleague Erin MacFarlane, chair of the Arizona Library Association legislation committee, (and director of the Phoenix Public Library), and I have worked together the past three years at these gatherings. We typically visit with the staff of five to six Arizona members of the House and Senate while we’re there. We do our best to convince them that we need their support to get library funding bills passed in Congress. We do this by sharing stories about how the money they have previously allocated to our state is spent and describe the positive impact those dollars have had on our communities. We provide real life examples, and over time have become pretty good story tellers, and quite a team!

In my free time, I visited that National Gallery of Art and the National Portrait Gallery. I also did some souvenir shopping.

Lenny Welch had a beautiful voice. While he was known for his big hit, Since I Fell For You, he also recorded many other memorable tunes such as Ebb Tide and Congratulations. I love his voice.

Here’s Lenny Welch’s biggest hit, Since I Fell For You

April 12, 2025: Random photo of the day–Ruben having dinner with our good friend, Maria. They look so happy.

April 17, 2025: This year Easter was late, and was celebrated on April 20. Ruben put together this Easter tree for the occasion. The little ornaments are all from Europe, Germany mostly. The saint is Elizabeth Ann Seton.

May 8, 2025: Carla Hayden, the nation’s Librarian of Congress is abruptly fired by Donald Trump. Hayden is a great leader and a true champion and advocate for America’s libraries. This was a terrible act, and it was done solely because she is African American. Carla was the director of the public library system in Baltimore for many years and was also president of ALA at one point.

May 14, 2025: Bruce Springsteen kicks off his European tour and offers scathing anti-Trump commentary on numerous occasions in a number of cities throughout Europe. He called Trump “corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous,” and accused the administration of rolling back civil rights, siding with dictators, and inflicting “sadistic pleasure” on workers. Trump fires back, hurling one insult after another at Bruce. It only serves to embolden “the boss” and he continues his criticism of Trump throughout his tour. The clip below is from his Manchester show on May 14. Check it out. You can hear what he says for yourself. It’s well worth a listen and is followed by a very inspiring performance of the song, “My City in Ruins”.

June 6, 2025: When Trump became president, Elon Musk was with him all the way. It’s said that he manipulated the voting tallies to give Trump the presidency. Within a few short months, however, Musk and Trump had a major falling out. The honeymoon ended abruptly.

Protesting ICE in Los Angeles, June, 2025:

June 17, 2025: Photos of drawings from the William Wilde Collection.

I’ve been working on organizing the papers of Tucson architect William Wilde. I ran across these renderings while working and thought I would share them. I thought they were really well done. Click on the images to enlarge them.

Trip to Philadelphia, June 26-30, 2025

In June, I attended the American Library Association’s annual conference in Philadelphia PA. I stayed in the historic district. It was a bit far from City Hall, but I liked it. It was a great location and I had an enjoyable time, even though it was much too humid. I attended various conference sessions, visited art museums and bookshops, saw some of my old friends, and ate a lot of delicious food. The cheesesteaks, pizza, pretzels, and bagels were delicious, but so was the more healthy stuff, like the Chinese food I ate. I especially enjoyed walking along the Delaware River and going to a thrift store in the South Street area. I think it was called Philly AIDS Thrift. It was jam packed with treasures!

July 16, 2025: Connie Francis dies. She was a great performer. My favorite songs are Where the Boys Are, Who’s Sorry Now? and My Happiness. My mother loved her Spanish album.

July 17, 2025: Sylviana Wood passes away,

July 31, 2025: Flaco Jimenez dies. What a sad day. I loved this man. He was supremely talented.

Here is a great clip of Flaco performing with Little Joe Hernandez, one of the legends of Tejano music.

August 14, 2025: It’s difficult these days to be cheerful and happy. The world is in such a sorry mess, but humor sure helps lift one’s spirits. I just love this little video clip of Harvey Korman in drag, singing an Andrews Sisters song with Vicki Lawrence and Carol Burnett. He’s got natural drag talent! It’s a long skit, but you must see the entire thing!

August 18: The following op-ed was released on August 18 in the United Kingdom. The writer has quite a colorful vocabulary to say the least.

August 18: I’m not sure who brought it up recently, but back in 1953, my sister Irene, my mom and my aunt Corina were all saved from drowning in the Colorado River by a man named R.J. Sanderson. I decided to use Newspapers.com to see if I could find anything about this, and lo and behold, I did! I found three articles.

These days, in my spare time I do a lot of work on my personal library. Within the past couple of weeks or so, for example, I have put all of my history books in LC call number order, and have moved them to my bedroom. It took a lot of creative re-arranging to make everything fit, but I did it! I have also organized my literature collection and have inventoried my entire film collection. I am now inventorying all of my books and have begun re-organizing the shelves in my office.

August 29, 2025

I have also been reading a lot of history. There’s so much to learn, it’s mind boggling, but I’m doing it. I have reached a point where I am not going to be close minded about stuff. I think about Europe, in particular. Being three-fifths Spanish, I have every right to claim my European heritage. I’ve always been ashamed to admit that I’m Spanish, because it was far hipper to claim my indigenous roots. Well, those days are over. I’m proud of the heritage of my paternal grandfather. Asturias is a great region of Spain. It was its own kingdom for a long time, and the Moors could not conquer it. My interest extends beyond Spain at this point. I want to know all about Germany, France, Italy, Russia, the Balkans, and England and all the other countries of the world. I want to know all of it. I have this hunger for knowledge that is just insatiable.

I first posted the following flyer on my Facebook feed on September 14, 2014, It popped up again recently as a “memory” post, so I re-shared it. I miss my radio show. I had so much fun putting it together over the years. I did this work for nearly 20 years altogether, first from 1983 to 1986, with a small break in the middle, and then from 2005 to 2020, with another break in the middle somewhere. I have taped many of my shows and have digital versions of them too. I listen to them sometimes. I love them. All my shows from 2013 to 2020 are on my website. The above flyer popped into my Facebook feed recently. It’s been 11 years since I created it. I never did distribute it, unfortunately.

Downton Abbey Grand Finale: September 12, 2025: I’m looking forward to seeing Downton Abbey on the big screen. This summer, I watched all of the previous episodes, including the two movies that came out, so I’m all caught up and quite excited about seeing the new movie in a real movie theater.

I’m so shocked at the state of our world at present. I feel so sad and angry all the time. I wish I could do something that would make things better. I know I’m not alone, but I do feel helpless much of the time. The world today is just plain crazy. I know it’s important to focus on what I can control. There’s a lot that I need to work on, like my weight, and my health. I have a nice, big home that needs a lot of attention and work, and I have a big family and many friends that I do not see often enough. There’s so much to look forward to, I refuse to let the current political climate immobilize me completely. Fuck Trump.

Well, I guess that’s about it for now. I can be reached at jdiaz204@gmail.com.

September 14: Oops. I guess I’m not done. I just have to share that I discovered a program called Google Gemini AI. It isn’t perfect, but in most cases, it transforms old beat up photos to brand new looking pics. You can colorize them too. Here are some of them. They are of my mom and dad, from back in the 40s and 50s. I never dreamed I’d see the day when these were all restored and in color!

Ok. I think I’m done now. Until next time….

September 15: Oops. I lied. I just received in the mail these gorgeous prints from the Balkan region (Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia) of Europe. I’ll just post a few here. There are about 30 of these in two volumes. I love this stuff.

Ok. I’m done for the time being…

September 16: Today I co-taught a class with my colleague Alba for Dr. Jacqueline Barrios. The course was Public Applied Humanities 420. The students are studying Tucson’s southside area and the history of the fight to clean up the contamination caused by industrial pollution, specifically TCE. Alba and I shared a variety of resources the students could use for their assignments and I found the following photos of various locations on the southside. These are from the Jack Shaeffer photography collection. In all honesty, it is a real shame that there is so very little documentation about this part of town Neither the Arizona HIstorical Society nor Special Collections have much at all. Here are the photos I found:

The professor also asked me some questions about my memories of the southside, and I talked about my family and how we’d visit our cousins the Olguins during the holidays. I talked about Southgate and the various places people went, like the A&W Root Beer stand and Shakey’s. I talked about the Mission. I still have my notes, and plan to write up a little summary for Dr. Barrios.

September 16, 2025: According to Wikipedia, A United Nations commission of inquiry finds that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The attacks on Gaza by Israel have increased and the Israelis are now in the cities invading the area.

September 17: Dang it. Robert Redford died yesterday, (on September 16, 2025). I’m so very sad. I loved this guy. I think I first saw him in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with friends or family at a local drive-in theater. It was probably the late 60s. He acted in lots of wonderful movies over the course of his career He even produced and directed some too. He’s great in The Way We Were, which I just love. I have a lot of Redford’s movies and some books here at home. This summer, I read his biography and purchased many of his movies. I have a lot of them, but not all of them. I hope I can acquire more. I’m going to post some movie and magazine covers below. They are not in any particular order.

I got to listening to gospel music on Youtube the other night. The Caravans were absolutely wonderful and amazing. I found this gem:

Albertina Walker was known as the queen of gospel music. She was the leader of the Caravans, a female gospel group that over time included Inez Andrews and Shirley Caesar, among other great gospel vocalists.

September 18: I’m still playing around with Google Gemini AI, the program that cleans up old photos and colorizes them. Today, I worked on more photos of my family. It’s amazing how they look when they are in color! The first holy communion photo had to be worked on a few times before it came out right. Some of the photos don’t come out well at all, unfortunately. Here are a few more:

September 22, 2025:

There is so much unbelievable stuff going on in the world. A couple of weeks ago a 31 year old Trump supporter named Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at a rally on some college campus in Utah, where he was speaking. Kirk got his start young, and was groomed and supported by the ultra-rich as he rose to prominence in MAGAland. He would tour college campuses and debate young students, making them look dumb, since he knew how to twist his words well. He spewed nothing but hatred and targeted gays, black people, other minorities, and women. He was staunchly anti-abortion and stated at one point that if his 10 year old daughter were raped and became pregnant, that he would force her to have the baby. How fucking sick is that? He also said that the civil rights act was a bad idea and that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a bad person. Trump and the right tried to blame the left for the killing, but it turned out it was another MAGA conservative, a young guy under 20, that did the deed. Kirk has been turned into a martyr on the right. Yesterday, over 40,000 people, including Trump, showed up to his memorial in Glendale, AZ.

This article appeared in the Phoenix New Times today, which is 9/22/25. Charlie Kirks funeral was a marathon of Christian nationalism

When he spoke, Trump spewed even more hatred, and is now attacking the left like never before, stating outright that he hates the left and that it should be illegal to be a leftist. Can you believe it? We are in Nazilandia…. He recently pressured ABC to take the Jimmy Kimmel show off the air, but Mr. Kimmel and all his supporters are fighting back, and Disney is already feeling the effects of the boycott that started when the news about Kimmel’s cancellation was announced. The latest news is that Disney and Mr. Kimmel are in negotiations to bring the show back, but with some modifications. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.

9/22/25: Here’s what happened:

“Shortly after Kimmel’s suspension was announced, Disney stock dipped about 3.5 percent and continued to trade lower in subsequent days. That loss in market value has amounted to about $4 billion.”– Robert Reich

ICE is raiding cities and other places all over the country too. They’ve been at it since the first day of Trump’s presidency. It’s incredible that ICE isn’t in the news much. Below are links to a couple of recent articles describing what ICE is up to. It’s some scary stuff!

August 15, 2025: ICE Is Deporting Thousands With Minor Offenses — From Traffic Violations to Weed Possession (The Marshall Project)

September 20, 2025: Trump’s new detention policy targets millions of immigrants. Judges keep saying it’s illegal.

The Epstein files haven’t been released either. Trump seems to be getting his way with this one. I bet the list will create a HUGE scandal if its released. Trump is doing all he can to take attention away from all of this, and he’s using Kirk’s death to distract everyone. It’s not working, however. At least I hope it’s not.

September 22, 2025: I just stumbled upon this interview between Nicole Wallace and Joan Baez. It was posted earlier today on youtube. It’s an excellent interview and well worth a listen.

September 23, 2025: Today is Bruce Springsteen’s birthday. He was born on this day back in 1949. He’s 76 years old. This is one of my very favorite songs. I remember well how lovely this song sounded when my good friend David Gouge sang it at Richard Elias’s memorial celebration a few years ago. It blew me away.

September 23, 2025: Here are some more photos that I’ve had colorized and restored:

Wow. This was amazing. Jimmy Kimmel is a badass. So is Robert DeNiro! Watch this! It aired tonight. (9/23/25).

9/23/25: Adelita Grijalva wins a seat in Congress, replacing her deceased father. She won by a landslide. Way to go, Adelita!

In mid October, I’ll be going with Ruben back to the Buffalo area one more time. We’ll be there about 10 days. We want to go to Jamestown to see the I Love Lucy museum, and back to Syracuse to go antiquing. We also want to go to the Finger Lakes area, maybe to Ithaca to see the Cornell University campus. There’s going to be a lot to see this time around. We’ll be heading back up to Niagara Falls again and hopefully take the Maid of the Mist boat tour this time. We missed it last time by a day or two. The tours shut down for the Winter.

September 25, 2025: I just received a Facebook post regarding the upcoming issue of Time Magazine. Bruce Sprinsteen is on the cover! You can read the article here:

9/25/25: Random photo of the day:

September 25: When I get down in the dumps, I like to listen to songs that help lift up my spirits. This is one of those. God bless Rodney Crowell!

9/25/25: More family photos. These are me and my brothers and sisters. I inherited my family photos, and have all of my sisters’ and brother’s school photos and many more. I’m so glad these can now be easily restored and shared with others via the internet.

September 26, 2025: Today is my brother Charles’s birthday. He’s 80 years old. Wow!

September 27, 2025:

September 27: I re-did more photos today. Here are a bunch, of me this time, that have been cleaned up and colorized.

September 27: I just finished watching Ladies in Lavender, and watched Tea with Mussolini a few days ago. I also watched A Room With A View and Quartet recently. All of these films feature the legendary Maggie Smith. She’s amazing. So is Judi Dench, who is also in three of the films.

September 28: Here are more photos of me that have been cleaned up and colorized. The last one was originally a portrait done in pencil, but this is what Google Gemini came up with. I like it!

October 1, 2025:

The past few days have been crazy at the national level. Trump humiliated himself and the country when he spoke at the UN assembly recently. He rambled on about all kinds of nonsense. Prior to his speech, as he stepped on to the escalator, it stopped. He ended up having to walk up the escalator stairs, and it really made him mad. He blew the whole thing out of proportion and complained about it for days, called it a “conspiracy” blah, blah, blah.

He then made an ass out of himself in front of all his top generals yesterday. His sidekick Hegseth was just as bad. I don’t think the generals were in tune with the suggestion that they invade our own cities and practice battle skills on the ground while there. I think they all knew this was all loony tunes. Nobody clapped. Former generals are now speaking out about it, noting how frustrating and insane Trump’s words were. It’s unconstitutional for the military to turn its guns on its own citizens. Yeah, but who cares?

I’m thrilled that my website, Bobdiaz.net, is seeing so much traffic. The most popular post is the one I wrote on Chicano culture in Tucson in 1975. Since I first posted it in 2024, it has received 1338 visits. I understand that some English instructors at the UofA have put my website, (and this blog post in particular) on their reading lists. That’s amazing, and I’m quite humbled. The posts about my two grandfathers and their families are also very popular.

As for future topics, I want to write about the friends and family members I have lost since the pandemic. There have been many. Here are some of the names: Richard Elias, Chestalene Pintozzi, Barb Hoppe, LeAnne Martin, Debbie Jerome, Pancho Medina, Jon Miles, Barclay Goldsmith, Henry Mesa, my brothers Freddie and Rudy, and my tias Mary Olguin, Corina Diaz and Armida Diaz. I also want to keep chipping away at my life story.

I will receive my very first Social Security check in December. Man, it’s been a long time coming, that’s for sure! I turn 67 in January.