Tag Archives: Arnulfo Trejo

Dr. Arnulfo Trejo: A Look At His Life And Work

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When I was in high school in the mid-70s, my journalism teacher, Jane Cruz, enrolled in the Graduate Library Institute for Spanish-speaking Americans (GLISA), a special master’s of library science program at the University of Arizona. The program, a federally funded initiative to train librarians of Hispanic descent and those wishing to serve the country’s ever-growing Spanish-speaking population, was directed by Dr. Arnulfo Trejo, a longtime librarian, academic, and founder of REFORMA, the National Association for the Promotion of Library Services to the Spanish-speaking.  The curriculum of the GLISA program focused primarily on training librarians in outreach and programming for the Spanish-speaking and in building Spanish-language library collections.  

Jane and her husband Ron had just acquired ownership of La Campana Books, a local bookstore that specialized in leftist literature, Latino literature and bilingual materials, and Dr. Trejo, a regular visitor to the bookstore, encouraged her to apply for a spot in the GLISA program. She was very busy at the time, raising two children, teaching at Salpointe High School, and running a new business. Unfortunately, she was also dealing with some serious health issues, and as a result decided, after having devoted a considerable amount of time and effort to her studies, to leave the program before she completed her degree. It was a difficult decision.

Learning about Jane’s experience with the GLISA program sparked my own interest in librarianship, as ever since childhood, I had loved visiting the library and reading. Jane’s experience helped me realize that being a “bona fide” librarian meant one had to have a master’s degree in library science. I kept that thought in the back of my mind as I entered college.

I attended the University of Arizona from 1977 to 1982 and graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in psychology with a minor in sociology. Shortly thereafter, I decided to apply to the graduate program in Sociology at the U of A. I was accepted into the program and took courses for a semester or two, but didn’t really care for it after a while, as it turned out not to be what I thought it would be.  I didn’t know that so much of the study of sociology deals with “data” and its manipulation and interpretation.

By the Fall, 1984 semester, I remembered that I had thought about becoming a librarian at one point, so I decided to try my hand at library school, and I was accepted into the program in January 1985.  By then, Dr. Trejo had retired and the GLISA program had folded. There weren’t many other Latinos in the program at the time, and I felt like a lone wolf, but I soon discovered REFORMA and I learned more about the important role that Dr. Arnulfo Trejo played both in its founding and in the broader profession as a leader in the effort to provide library services for diverse populations through recruitment of Latino librarians and the promotion of reading among the Spanish Speaking.

I joined REFORMA around 1986 while still in library school, but it wasn’t until I was working as a librarian and attending conferences that I became more involved in the organization. By the early 90’s I had served as national secretary and president of the Arizona Chapter, and had made a lot of friends who were fellow REFORMISTAs.

In 1992, I landed a job as Assistant to the Dean for Staff Development, Recruitment at Diversity at the University of Arizona, and it was at this point that I really got to know Dr. Trejo. My boss, Carla Stoffle, asked me to start laying the groundwork for the creation of a Mexican American borderlands archives program, so I set out to meet and interview a number of influential Latinos in the Tucson community, including Dr. Raquel Goldsmith, Lupe Castillo, Salomon Baldenegro and of course, Dr. Trejo, to gauge whether or not there was interest in such a program and if it was really feasible. Would there be enough material available locally to build such a program?

Dr. Trejo was a member of my parents’ generation, and I approached him with the utmost respect. He seemed very formal to me, always dressed in a suit and tie, but also very kind, approachable and thoughtful. My own style at the time was much more informal. I never wore suits or ties, and I remember him encouraging me to think twice about that. He said to me “people generally will remember you for what you say, but also for how you looked”. I didn’t take too well to the advice, but have come to realize over time that his words were quite true. I still don’t wear suits and ties, but I can see how one’s appearance does affect one’s overall impression on people.

Over the next 10 years, I would run into Dr. Trejo a lot. He was a very busy man, organizing educational institutes, selling Spanish Language books, and participating in our local REFORMA meetings. His wife, Ninfa Trejo, also worked at the U of A Library, and we worked together on planning the local arrangements for the 2nd National REFORMA Conference, which was held in Tucson in 2000.

It was a sad day when we all heard the news that Dr. Trejo had passed. The following January, a tribute was held in his honor at the 2003 Midwinter meeting of the American Library Association in Philadelphia, and I was asked to contribute to it by writing a corrido about Dr. Trejo’s life and work. I don’t consider myself much of a songwriter, but I have written one or two of them. This particular request came from a good friend named Ben Ocon, who was the national president of REFORMA at the time. I couldn’t turn him down, so I rose to the challenge, and I ended up performing “El Corrido de Don Arnulfo Trejo” in a room full of librarians (the lyrics are included at the very end of this post). I engaged everyone in a sing-a-long, and by the end of the performance, the crowd was on its feet applauding like crazy. The corrido was a hit! It was a moment in my life that I’ll never forget.

Dr. Trejo’s papers were left with Special Collections at the University of Arizona Library, and in 2014, I was asked to write the biographical note for the finding aid. I used Dr. Trejo’s biographical file and his papers to write the summary and I learned many details about his life that I and many others didn’t know. It was a real eye opener. I later re-published and expanded the biographical sketch and posted it on my blog. It has become one of my most popular blog posts. It, along with the corrido are available here: Remembering Dr. Arnulfo D. Trejo, 1922-2002.

I was recently asked to give a presentation on the life and work of Dr. Arnulfo Trejo at the VII Encuentro Internacional Sobre Comunicacion, Frontera y Movimientos Emergentes, held at the Sam Lena Branch of the Pima County Public Library on December 2 and 3, 2022. PCPL library associate and REFORMA member Escarlen Chavez invited me to do this because this year’s encuentro was dedicated to the memory of Dr. Trejo, and she knew I had written about him in the past. I was happy to oblige.

It was a great honor to be in the presence of such luminaries as Dr. Adalberto Guerrero, Dr. Macario Saldate and Dr. Armando Miguelez, who each spoke a bit after my program. I was honored and humbled by their words of thanks and appreciation. Dr. Trejo was their colleague and they were glad to know that his memory and legacy live on. They recommended that my presentation get published in “La Estrella De Tucson” and that we encourage our current UA President to create an award in Dr. Trejo’s memory. Both of these efforts will take some thought and work, but hopefully my colleagues in the local Tucson chapter of REFORMA will help me achieve these goals.

Here is the flyer for the two-day program:

Here are some photos of the event:

After the program, we took a group selfie. My friends Lorenia Diaz, Bianca Finley-Alper, Escarlen Chavez and Sila Gonzalez were all very kind and supportive.

I opened my presentation with the following quote:

“According to Salvador Guerena and Edward Erazo, in their article, “Latinos and Librarianship“(source: Library Trends, V. 49, no. 1, Summer 2000), “of all the people who have contributed to Latino librarianship in this country, there is no one who has made a greater impact advancing this cause than Arnulfo D. Trejo, indisputably one of the country’s most illustrious and distinguished library leaders.”

I then presented the following slides, elaborating and adding context along the way:

Dr. Trejo received ALA’s highest honor, that of Lifetime member. the award was given to him by then president of ALA, Nancy Kranich.

Dr. Trejo and many of the former presidents of REFORMA, some of which were his students in Library School.
Some of Dr. Trejo’s publications. The one in the middle is titled, “Bibliografia Chicana: A Guide to Information Resources”.

The following title, a work that Dr. Trejo edited, is available in full text online. See the page, The Chicanos: As We See Ourselves, and click on the download button to retrieve the full text of the book.

El Corrido de Don Arnulfo Trejo

by Bob Díaz

Voy a cantarles un corrido

De un hombre valiente y de verdad

Don Arnulfo Trejo se llamaba

y luchó para nuestra libertad

CORO:

Libertad pa’ ser Americano

Libertad pa’ hablar en Español.

Libertad pa’ ser educado

Libertad pa’ leer en Español.

Nació en México de veras

Pero a este lado su destino fue a quedar

Se creció en Tucson Arizona y desde joven luchó por la libertad

CORO:

Libertad pa’ ser Americano

Libertad pa’ hablar en Español.

Libertad pa’ ser educado

Libertad pa’ leer en Español.

Profesor y bibliotecario

Fue un hombre de grandísima vision

Padre de GLISSA y REFORMA

Le damos gracias por toda la nación

CORO:

Gracias Don Arnulfo Trejo

Gracias por su linda visión

Gracias Don Arnulfo Trejo

Gracias por su ardiente pasión

Vuela vuela palomita

Que ya se va acabando esta canción

Pero hay que siempre recordarse

¡La lucha continua, si señor!

¡La lucha continua, si señor!

==========================================================================

I’m very glad I was given the opportunity to do this program. It turned out to be another memorable occasion.

Status of Hispanic Library and Information Services : A National Institute for Educational Change, July 29-31, 1993

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I was a member of the planning committee for this event. My main role was to organize the opening night reception. I worked with colleagues from the Library and student members of the local chapter of REFORMA, of which I was president, to plan the logistics and serve as hosts. It was a very successful and fun evening, with live music and plenty of food and drink.

The following photos were taken during the opening reception of the Institute. I worked with members of the Library staff to host this event in Special Collections.

Remembering Dr. Arnulfo D. Trejo 1922-2002.

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NOTE: I wrote an earlier version of this biographical sketch of Dr. Trejo in May, 2014 for the finding aid for the Arnulfo Trejo Papers, MS 515, which are housed in Special Collections at the University of Arizona Library. I updated the bio with photos and additional information in 2020 and posted it as a blog entry. Following the biographical sketch are a couple of articles about Dr. Trejo, including one where I appear on the cover of the REFORMA National newsletter. I wrote a corrido in honor of Dr. Trejo and performed it at a tribute given to him at the American Library Association Midwinter conference in Philadelphia in January, 2003.

Arnulfo Trejo, at 26 years of age. From the Tucson Daily Citizen, February 28, 1949.

——————–

Arnulfo Duenes Trejo  was born in Villa Vicente Guerrero, Durango, Mexico on August 15, 1922. His family immigrated to the U.S. when he was three. He spent his youth growing up in Barrio Libre in Tucson, Arizona, and attended Drachman Elementary, Safford Jr. High and Tucson High School.

Trejo served in the military during World War II, in the 143rd Infanty Division in the South Pacific, reaching the rank of sergeant. He received both the Purple Heart and a Bronze Star medal as well as th Asiatic Pacific Services medal and the Philippine Liberation Ribbon for his service. He became a U.S. citizen while enlisted, in 1944.

Arizona Daily Star, August 20, 1943

Trejo was an active member of the Tucson community, and participated in a variety of civic and social causes. The following newspaper article describes his early efforts at organizing in the Mexican American community. This is just one example of the leadership role he played in Tucson. In the 1960s and 1970s he continued these efforts by organizing groups that opposed the building of a freeway through the middle of one of the most historic sections of Tucson. His efforts resulted in the saving of the “El Tiradito” shrine, one of Tucson’s most beloved historic landmarks.

The Arizona Daily Star, Sept. 21, 1947

After the war, Trejo enrolled at the University of Arizona, where in 1949, he received his B.A. degree in Education. Shortly thereafter, in 1951, he earned an M.A. degree in Spanish Language and Literature from La Universidad de las Americas in Mexico City. By 1953, Trejo had also received a M.A. in Library Science from Kent State University.

Trejo began his career as a librarian in Mexico in 1953. By 1955, he landed a position at UCLA as a reference librarian, followed by a four year stint as Assistant College Librarian at California State College at Long Beach. He also spent time directing the library for Stanford University’s Escuela de Administracion de Negocios para Graduados in Lima Peru. Upon his return to the United States, he worked for two years as Assistant Professor of Library Service at UCLA.

In 1959, he received his Doctor of Letters degree (with honors) from the National University of Mexico.

Arizona Daily Star 03-04-59

In 1966, Dr. Trejo was hired by the University of Arizona, where he served as Associate Professor of Library Science and Bibliographer for Latin American Collections.

Upon his return to the University of Arizona, Dr. Trejo spent time teaching a course in Mexican American literature. He was also a founding faculty member of the Graduate Library School, where he began teaching courses in Latin American Bibliography in 1970.

According to the Arizona Daily Star (2-3-67) in 1967, Dr. Trejo published the following guide:

In 1968, he took a yearlong leave of absence to serve as a consultant for United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Caracas, Venezuela. His connections to libraries and scholars in Latin America proved beneficial to the University of Arizona, as he helped build one of the richest collections of Latin American materials in the country.

Dr. Trejo kept quite busy in the early 1970’s, both as an academic and as an activist. He was instrumental in organizing a community effort to save a downtown monument called “El Tiradito”, or the Wishing Shrine, from being torn down to make way for a new freeway. Trejo’s efforts helped place the shrine on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. He remained active as a member of Los Tucsonenses, a community organization dedicated to preserving local Latino culture, throughout the 1970s.

Tucson Daily Citizen, May 11, 1973.

In 1973, Dr. Trejo gave a talk at an early meeting of REFORMA on library services for Chicanos. California State University at Fullerton has generously made the filming of that talk available through the Internet Archive. To hear this talk, click here.

Throughout his life he accomplished many things, but was best known for having founded REFORMA, The National Assocation for the Promotion of Library Services to the Spanish Speaking in 1971, and for creating the Graduate Library Institute for Spanish Speaking Americans at the University of Arizona’s Graduate Library School. Latino librarians throughout the country agree that Trejo was the “father of Latino librarianship.” His legacy is a rich one and his admirers are many.

Trejo founded REFORMA, the National Association of Spanish Speaking Librarians in the United States in 1971, and served as its president from 1971-1974. The organization is still in operation, and its purpose is to, among other things, provide a means for bilingual librarians to network with each other, to promote the collection of Spanish-language materials in libraries, to advocate for the recruitment of Latinos to librarianship, and to provide programming that benefits the Latino community. The organization now has chapters in every corner of the US as well as in Puerto Rico and is now called, REFORMA: The National Asssociation for the Promotion of Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking

In 1975, Trejo organized and administered the Graduate Library Institute for Spanish Speaking Americans (GLISA) a federally funded project that operated for four years under his direction. 56 individuals earned their master’s degrees in library science through this program. Many of these graduates went on to become directors of major library systems. Today’s Spectrum Scholar’s program, an American Library Association sponsored project, and the University of Arizona’s Knowledge River program were both modeled after GLISA.

The University of Arizona Library houses copies of various reports generated during the GLISA Program. Below are copies of these reports:

GLISA-I-Final-Report-8-20-76

GLISA-II-Final-Report-11-1-78

GLISA-III-First-Quarterly-Report-11-15-78

GLISA-III-2nd-Quarterly-Report-2-15-79

GLISA-III-3rd-Quarterly-Report-5-15-79

GLISA-III-Final-Report-10-25-79

GLISA-IV-Third-Quarterly-Report-6-13-80

GLISA-IV-Final-Report-8-13-80

Dr. Trejo took the lead in organizing this event. It took place prior to the White House Conference that he describes in the article below. Click here to see the table of contents and Dr. Trejo’s preface to this publication.
Arizona Daily Star, 10-04-79.

In 1980, Dr. Trejo opened Hispanic Book Distributors, a book vending company specializing in books from the Spanish Speaking world, and dedicated to increasing the availability of Spanish language materials in U.S. libraries. Dr. Trejo particularly enjoyed making regular buying trips to Mexico, Spain and Argentina, and his materials were sold to public, school and academic libraries across the country.

Trejo retired from the University of Arizona Graduate Library School in 1984, a full professor, with a long list of accomplishments and publications.

In 1992, after the death of his second wife Annette M. Foster, Dr. Trejo founded the Trejo-Foster Foundation for Library Education, where he was able to continue to influence the library profession by providing educational institutes focused on library services to Latinos and the Spanish speaking.

To see the full program, as well as more photos and information about this institute, see my blog post, titled, Status of Hispanic Library and Information Services : A National Institute for Educational Change, July 29-31, 1993

Dr. Trejo chatting with one of the attendees of the Institute.
Dr. Charles Hurt and students from the Library School handling registration at the Institute’s opening reception in Special Collections at the University of Arizona Library.

Trejo died in Tucson, Arizona in 2002, at the age of 79.

Dr. Trejo’s Memorial Service brochure

Among Trejo’s publications they include: Bibliografia Chicana: A Guide to Information Resources, Gale, 1975, The Chicanos: As We See Ourselves, University of Arizona Press, 1979, (Trejo was editor), and Quien Es Quien: a who’s who of Spanish-speaking librarians in the United States, Hispanic Book Distributors, 1994.