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 includes information about me, my work, my family and my friends.It also includes information about events that took place locally and nationally, etc. that I thought important enough to include. 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, most 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 stuff removed, I am happy to oblige. My email address is jrdiaz@arizona.edu. Thanks!
My mom and dad, sometime in the 1950s.
At the time I was born, my parents and five siblings all lived together in Tucson on 22nd St. in a small three bedroom house, a red brick tract home just east of the Southern Pacific railroad tracks in a subdivision called Country Club Manor, the boundaries of which were 22nd St. to 17th Street and Plumer Ave to Country Club. We lived next to a big empty lot, and had a lot of outside space in which to play. Randolph Park was nearby too. Our church was St. Ambrose Catholic Church on Tucson Blvd, just south of Broadway and our local elementary school was Robison Elementary. There were a lot of families with kids in the neighborhood. Most were either Mexican American or Anglo. It was a mixed neighborhood, and wasn’t considered a “barrio” necessarily, until later in the 1970s and 80s.
In 1959, most of my brothers and sisters were all in school, and their ages ranged from 2 to 15, with some in grade school at Robison, others at Mansfeld Jr. High and the oldest at Tucson High. The boys in the family all played sports, and were usually busy doing things outside the house. The girls were both very attractive and popular, and always had lots of friends. Boys became their focus as they moved into their teens.
My dad worked as a miner in San Manuel and mom stayed home and took care of all of us, cooking and cleaning and making sure that everything at home was in working order. Dad and mom had been together since 1943, and, after 15 years of marriage, had developed a volatile relationship and some ‘unhealthy’ habits, unfortunately, so our home life was not always peaceful, especially in the Sixties.
I was the last of the kids, and my mom kept me at her side all the time. I was a chubby child, was considered a momma’s boy and a crybaby, and everyone called me Bobby Joe, or BJ, nicknames that I have always disliked, but have learned to accept over time. While I wasn’t athletic at all, I was a smart kid. In fact, when my mom went to see my first grade teacher, Mrs. Goldbaum for her parent-teacher meeting, Mrs. Goldbaum said to her, “where did you get this one? He’s so bright!”, or something to that effect. She had also been Charles’s, Becky’s and Rudy’s first grade teachers when they attended Robison in the 50s.
Early on, I developed a love for popular music. My parents even bought me my own record player when I was 3 years old. I impressed everyone with my ability to correctly pick out a record from a stack of 45’s after being told just once what the title was. Again, I was just 3 at the time.
As the Sixties progressed, my sisters and brothers started to leave home either to get married or on to other things such as the Navy, and our family began to grow. My three nieces Belisa, Michelle and Anadine were all born in the Sixties, and I spent a lot of time with them. They were more like my sisters than my nieces because we were so close in age.
I had several close friends as a child, including Billy “Bubba” Fass, and his brother Ricky, Ernie Carrillo, and three sisters who lived next door to our family whose names were Becky, “Tiny” and Debbie Romo. There were other kids too who we played with, of course, but these were my closest friends. We spent a lot of time playing in the alley or on 21st St, where we would play flag football a lot of the time. We also spent a lot of time at St. Ambrose’s swimming pool, and at Randolph Park where we played sports. One time I planted a little rose garden with roses that my mom bought me at the local grocery store. I also had an aquarium and parakeets at one point, but over time my interest in these hobbies dwindled.
These photos and documents provide a pictorial glimpse of my life as a child in Tucson up through the middle of 1965, or the beginning of the first grade. Most of the photos are pictures taken before I was a student at Robison Elementary School. Others were taken in such places as the local park or at family gatherings. I feel fortunate that I still have them after all these years, and humbly share these treasures here with my friends and family. These photos and documents bring back many wonderful memories, as one can imagine, and I share some of them in the captions that follow.
I was born on January 15, 1959 to Alfred and Josephine Diaz. I was their sixth and last child, and the only one born at Tucson Medical Center. Most of my other siblings were born at St. Mary’s Hospital. My oldest sister was born at my grandmother’s house in South Tucson.
A clipping from the January 16, 1959 edition of the Tucson Citizen . I was one of six babies born the day before at TMC.
I don’t remember Dr. Lacock, but I do remember Dr. Thompson. He was a very tall man and a well-respected local pediatrician. My mom would take me to see him when he was at the Tucson Clinic on Tucson Blvd., just north of Broadway, back in the early 60s.
I was a big, healthy newborn, but the doctor also told my mother that I had a larger than average sized head, which caused him some concern. According to my mother, it meant that I would either be very intelligent or “differently abled”, as they say nowadays. Thank heavens I turned out fine.
Irene, my oldest sibling, was 15 when I was born.
One of my very first memories was of my sister Irene’s sweet sixteen party in November, 1959. I remember being taken to the back bedroom for a nap that afternoon, just as the party got started. I didn’t fall asleep right away. I was busy listening to the music, oldies but goodies like What’s Your Name by Don and Juan and We Belong Together by Robert and Johnny. The following song was also played.
Having five older brothers and sisters exposed me to many different genres of popular music, from oldies to the Beatles to the Temptations. I’ve always loved this song. It takes me right back, believe it or not, to that party in late 1959 when I was just 10 months old.
I grew up listening to popular music on the radio. It was a constant in our home and I was attracted to it from the very beginning.
Here’s another song I’ve been listening to my whole life. The Chubby Checker version was released in 1960.
The Twist, by Chubby Checker, was released in June 1960.
Joan Baez’s first recording for Vanguard Records was released in October, 1960. It was on the charts for a long time. The following song, All My Trials, is an old favorite.
My dad, seated on the far left, with all of his brothers and sisters, Superior, Az, 1961.
At my cousin Olivia’s wedding in Superior, 1961. My cousin Sylvia is third from the left, my sister Irene is to her right, and my cousin Carmelita is second from the right.
It would be many years before I really began to appreciate Sarah Vaughan’s artistry. This gem was released in 1961. Our family acquired this album in the late 60s when my dad bought us a new console television at Flash TV. It had a record player and radio, and came with 50 free albums, including this one. I think the only person that ever played the album at the time was my sister Becky. I didn’t start listening to is until around 1979 at the age of 20. It’s one of Sarah’s best albums and it features the great Count Basie and his orchestra. The following song is gorgeous. Her voice is unmistakably unique.
This is another song my mother loved to sing when I was a little boy. She loved music, and especially Ray Charles.
I just had to include this. We had a vacuum cleaner just like it. When my mom wasn’t cooking, she was cleaning–doing laundry, making beds, dusting or vacuuming. She worked night and day.
This album was released in 1961 and was very popular in the Mexican American community. My parents owned a copy, as did my aunts and uncles. I grew up listening to it. My favorite song was “El Caballo Blanco”, which included at the very beginning of the song, the sound of a horse neighing. I got the biggest kick out of that! There was also a holiday-themed song on it called “Se Va Diciembre” that I clearly remember hearing at Christmas time every year it seemed.
Jose Alfredo Jimenez’s “El Caballo Blanco” was first recorded on the Columbia label in the 1950s.
Leonel Bravo was my sister Irene’s boyfriend for several years. He graduated from Tucson High School in 1961 and joined the marines. He and my sister planned to get married, but things didn’t work out that way. He was like an older brother to me.
My mom would sing this song to me all the time at bedtime. When she sang the words, “I couldn’t find my baby,” I would stick my head out from under the covers and say, “Here I am, mommy!” I remember it like it was yesterday. My mom sang me lots of songs when I was little.
These photos were taken some time in 1962. My sister’s boyfriend Sonny Bravo had just taken me to get a haircut, one of my very first. That’s him on the ground with the monkey. I’m shown here sitting on his car with the monkey he had just bought for my sister.
This great song was released in January, 1953, but it was very popular through the next decade.
This song was another one of the earliest I remember hearing. It was recorded way back in 1953, and unlike this version, the original features Patti singing in harmony with herself. My friend Billy Fass had the record. I just adore Patti Page. She has one of the loveliest voices I’ve ever heard. People who remember her for just this one little tune and equate her music with 50s slick pop hit parade garbage are missing the mark completely. She could swing as well as anyone, and her tone was clear as a bell.
This song was a number one hit on the R & B charts in April and May, 1962. I just loved it.
Here’s another song my mom would sing to me at bedtime. She had a beautiful voice.
This is a close-up of a photo that was also taken in 1962, but later in the year in Nogales, Sonora . I’m sitting on my mom’s lap.
This is what’s left of the original photo. Included in it are my sister Irene, my brother Fred and our neighbor Mary Ruiz and her daughter.
This was Little Eva’s only top hit. It was number one on the charts for a few weeks, beginning in late August, 1962. I used to love this song.
I just had to include this song. Girls used to sing this to me. I don’t even remember who they were, but it made me embarrassed and happy at the same time. The song was released in late August, 1962.
This was Marcie Blane’s only big hit. It was released on September 28, 1962.
Bobby’s Girl was released on September 28, 1962. My sister and her friends used to tease me and sing this to me when I was a kid. I was embarrassed, but loved the attention at the same time.
Released January 16, 1963. My brother Charles probably took Fred and me to see this. He did that a lot.
I just loved this song, much to my brother Fred’s consternation. He realized that I was “different” when I told him I liked this song. Released in January, 1963.
My bother Freddie in 1963.
April 7, 1963, Arizona Daily Star. My brother Charles was a star athlete at Tucson High School.
My brother Charles is 2nd from the right in the top row. He was known as “Fingertips Charlie”. This was his junior year, 1963.
For as long as I can remember, this movie would come out on t.v. every Easter Sunday. The witch and her gargoyles really scared the heck out of me.
What a beautiful song.
The recorded single came out in 1939, although the song was recorded for the movie in 1938.
My sister Becky in 1963.
I started watching cartoons at a very young age. These are a few of the ones I used to like.
Bob Dylan’s second album was released on May 27, 1963. His song Blowin’ In The Wind became one of the anthems of the civil rights era.
Nuff said…
My record player looked exactly like this. My parents took me to a second hand store one day and bought it for me. They used to trip out because I was be able to “read” the titles of the records when I was just 3. I think what really happened was that I had a photographic memory and only needed to have someone tell me the name of the record once, and I would remember it.
Meanwhile, across the country, the civil rights movement witnessed another casualty.
I didn’t discover this until I was in high school. It was recorded at the height of the civil rights movement, just a couple of months before the March on Washington. Listen to Seeger sing Tom Paxton’s Ramblin’ Boy.
Civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
Photo of my grandmother, Josefa Rascon, on our front lawn on 22nd St, Summer, 1963. I’m on the left.
June, 1963. My brother Rudy had just graduated from Mansfeld Jr. High School and we had a little family gathering on this day. This is a close up of me from the photo above. I’m standing in the front doorway of our house, holding a bunch of 45 records. My parents had bought me my very own record player the year before.
Belisa, my sister Irene’s daughter, around 6 months old.
Rudy’s 8th grade graduation. That’s my mom, with Rudy and Fred. In the background you can see my dad’s jaguar in the driveway. It was usually parked in the back yard, along with several other cars that didn’t work.
My mom, my grandmother, and my Aunt Mary.
Another senseless tragedy in the South…
Posed pitching shot of Sandy Koufax as Los Angeles Dodger c1963. My brother Rudy had this photo of Koufax in his bedroom. He was a huge fan.
Rudy, Becky and Charles in 1963.
Three civil rights workers were reported missing on 6/21/64. Their bodies were recovered seven weeks later in a swamp outside of Philadelphia, Mississippi. The local KKK, Sheriff, and members of the local police department were involved in the murder.
When I was a small child, we would go to Ben Lee’s Market on the southwest corner of 22nd and Tucson Blvd all the time to buy saladitos and other stuff like comic books and candy. On July 7, 1964, a fire broke out inside the store and did a lot of damage. The store ended up closing. I can still remember going in there. It was our neighborhood Chinese market.
From the Arizona Daily Star, July 8, 1964.
This was another film we saw as kids at the drive-in. Released on August 14, 1963. There was a tv series by the same name that followed later that I would watch all the time.
Martin Luther King Jr. at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963. An estimated 250,000 people showed up to support the fight for civil rights.
Here’s an excerpt of the speech Martin Luther King, Jr. gave at the March on Washington.
Sherry, by the 4 Seasons, was one of my very first 45’s. It was my favorite too. My brother’s friend Bob Stelburg gave it to me. It had been a number one hit in October, 1962.
Bewitched premiered on September 17, 1964. I clearly remember watching the very first episode.
Released on October 1, 1963, this film was shot in Tucson. I didn’t see it until later, when it came out on tv, but I loved it. I try to catch it every time it was on tv, just as I would the Singing Nun a few years later.
I was almost 5 years old when this happened. I was in one of the bedrooms at home listening to the radio when the announcer broke in and informed the world that Kennedy had been shot. I ran into the kitchen to tell my mom and others. Nobody believed me…
This premiered on 12/11/63. My brother Charles took me and Freddie to see it at the 22nd St. Drive In.
My dad broke his leg in a mining accident sometime around Christmas in 1963. He stayed in the hospital for nearly a year.
One day, I went shopping with my mom to Southgate, and she bought a 45 by Lucha Villa that had the following song on one side, and on the other was a song called “Asi Perdi Tu Amor”. Both tunes were written by the great Mexican composer Cuco Sanchez. I still have the 45.
Who doesn’t remember this? These guys changed the pop world. Released in the U.S. on 12-26-63
Released on January 20, 1964.
I remember this like it was yesterday. A memorable occasion for sure!
My friend Bubba’s mom would drop us off at the Fox on Saturday mornings, and we’d cross the street and wait in front of the Plaza Theater to take the 22nd street bus home. I remember it like it was yesterday.
Summer, 1964. My brother Fred, my mom and me, standing in front of the orange tree in our front yard. This was the day of my brother Fred’s first holy communion.
That’s me standing in back of my cousin David. Summer, 1964. His sister Gloria also had her first holy communion that day.
My cousins John and David and me, Summer 1964. The 22nd Street overpass is under construction in the background. We were all born the same year, but I was the oldest. Our siblings, Fred, Turi and Gloria were also the same age, and had all just had their first holy communions on this day.
Sometime in early 1964, my two front teeth got knocked out when I ran in back of my friend Bubba in the back yard, just as he was about to take a swing at a golf ball with a big wooden golf club. The golf club hit me right in the mouth and my teeth fell out. My mother thought I looked very cute without my two front teeth, so she had my sister Irene take me to have my portrait taken at the Olan Mills studio on Broadway. My sister bought me the jacket just for the occasion.
We always had a tv at home, and I started watching it from the time I was a toddler. This is but a sampling of the shows I watched. I spent hours in front of the television after school every day and on the weekends. Saturday mornings were my favorite time of the week, because that’s when cartoons were shown. I continued to watch tv up until my junior year of high school. Once I started working at Fry’s, I stopped.
We had this 45 record at home in the mid-60s. It was recorded by Shirlely Bassey on August 20, 1964 for the movie Goldfinger. It was a top 10 hit in the U.S. I’ve never really liked anything else by Shirley Bassey. She has a big, brassy voice, not something I care for too much, but I really liked this song for some reason.
My mom and dad in the mid-60s.
This was one of my mom’s very favorite songs. She had the 45 and would play it all the time.
As long as I can remember, my parents shopped at this grocery store, and I tagged along. At one point or another, we went to every one of them, except the one on N. Grande, every other Friday on payday. Mom would get a cart, and Dad would get a cart, and they each went their separate ways in the store, but converged about an hour later, each with a basket full of food and other household stuff.
Wow.
My mom did her daytime shopping either at Food Giant on 22nd and Country Club or at Lucky’s which was on the corner of 22nd and Cherry in the Pueblo Plaza shopping center. It’s former name was Goodman’s. Next door to it was a drugstore called Jones Drug. There was also a liquor store and a laundromat, as well as a few other businesses in the shopping center. We were fortunate to have so many places to shop near our house.
Mr. Lonely was released in October, 1964. I loved this song.
This was originally released in 1962, but was big hit in Fall, 1964.
I started Kindergarten at St. Ambrose School in September, 1964 and this photo was taken while I was there.
My kindergarten class photo. Fall, 1964. Included in this photo are my cousin David and my friends Linda Gray and Hugo Ruthling, among others. I didn’t complete kindergarten, unfortunately, because I got sick in early 1965. I stayed home with my mom from January 1965 until September, when I started the first grade at Robison Elementary School.
Here’s another very sad ranchera, again, one of my mom’s favorites. I still have the 45. This song is titled, “Cancion de un Preso”, or “Song of a Prisoner”, and it’s by the great Irma Serrano, one of Mexico’s most flamboyant and expressive singers.
I used to love this song. It was released in late 1964, and by early ’65 it was a top Billboard hit. I still have the 45.
This premiered on television on 12/6/64. I was there…
This is an amazing movie. Lucha Villa and Ignacio Lopez Tarso are both fantastic. The song, La Culebra Pollera, from the movie, follows.
It was a great year for music! The following year would be just as good, if not better!
My Girl, by the Temptations, was released on December 21, 1964. By March of the following year, it was at the top of the charts. This was my brother Charles’s favorite song.
This was another big Motown hit and was released on February 8, 1965, less than two months from the release of My Girl. Everybody loved the Supremes.
Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1965. He was a radical Muslim activist who told the truth about race relations in this country. I had no idea who he was or what he stood for, as I was just a child. It wasn’t until college that I read his autobiography.
This was another tv movie that captured everyone’s attention. It premiered on February 22, 1965.
My brother Charles left home in early 1965. He joined the Navy and was gone for four years.
While in the Navy from 65-69, the ship my brother Charles was assigned to initially was the USS Ashtabula. He also served on the USS Romulus and the USS Mattaponi. While he didn’t see battle, his ship was docked off the coast of Vietnam more than once and he and his shipmates were all exposed to Agent Orange.
Here are some photos our brother sent to us from boot camp. He was promoted to chief petty officer.
This concert by Joan Baez was recorded on June 5, 1965 in London, England at the BBC studios in front of a live studio audience. Ms. Baez is at her vocal peak here, in my opinion. Wish I had been there! I didn’t even know about her at this point in my life. I started listening to her in earnest my freshman year at Salpointe in 1974. I love her music. She’s one of my heroes. What a brave, passionate woman.
One of my favorite Beatles albums. Released on June 14, 1965, right before I was to start the first grade.
This tune was on Beatles VI.
Bad Boy was first released on the album “Beatles VI”. It rocks!
Bob Dylan released “Like a Rollings Stone on July 20, 1965. Suddenly, things got more serious.
My brother Rudy had this album. So did a lot of other people. Dylan rocked the whole world with Highway 61 Revisited.
One of the longest singles ever to get radio airplay.
My brother Charles’ US Naval Training Center Yearbook.
This film, starring Lucha Villa and Cuco Sanchez, was released in Mexico on August 5, 1965. It includes performances by Ms. Villa that never made it on to an album. I love these rare instances where one can here her sing with such passion and emotion. The following tune, Arrieros Somos, is a case in point.
My mom loved Lucha Villa. This song is a heartbreaker.
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 includes information about me, my work, my family and my friends.It also includes information about events that took place locally and nationally, etc. that I thought important enough to include. 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, most 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 stuff removed, I am happy to oblige. My email address is jrdiaz@arizona.edu. Thanks!
I was still in Tucson enjoying my holiday vacation, visiting with family and friends when the new year began. Before I left to go back to Michigan, I contacted Carla Stoffle to say hello. She was the former Assistant Dean at the University of Michigan Libraries and she played an instrumental role in hiring me there in 1987. She was very committed to promoting diversity and did all she could to hire librarians of color and to combat racism in the workplace. In 1991, she became the Dean of Libraries at the University of Arizona. When I contacted her to say hello, she invited me to one of her holiday gatherings at her home, where I met some of the Library’s department heads and library administrators. I brought my friend Richard Elias with me and we both had a blast drinking beer and other assorted alcoholic beverages, eating a bunch of food and meeting new people.
Carla encouraged me to apply for a position as a reference librarian that had just opened up. The area of specialization was psychology, and this just happened to be a subject I knew well because of my background (I have a bachelor of arts degree in psychology) and experience at Michigan conducting countless instruction sessions for students taking courses on this topic. I was very excited about the prospect of being able to finally come back home after being away for over five years, and was filled with hope and anticipation.
I returned to Ann Arbor the first week of January, and jumped right back in to doing my job, providing reference service, teaching basic library skills to students in Psychology, English and other areas, and supervising and training reference assistants. I also continued serving on the Library Diversity Council. MLK Day was right around the corner, and this particular year we were bringing the author Alex Haley to campus. It was an exciting time.
It was also around this time that I hit a high note with my teaching, and received a resounding round of applause after an instruction session I conducted for students in an upper division political science class. I was ecstatic, as something like that had never happened before. All those hours I spent in the classroom teaching while at Michigan had finally paid off, and this was proof that I was getting pretty good at it.
Toward the end of January, I attended the ALA Midwinter conference in San Antonio. I had never been there before, and there was a lot to see and explore. I had fun shopping, and even bought a cowboy hat and cowboy boots. I had immersed myself in country music around this time, and enjoyed dressing up in Western wear. I also found some great record stores and antiques stores, as well as some interesting historic landmarks, such as the Old Spanish Governor’s mansion and a neighborhood called La Villita, which was home to many historic houses. I also got a taste of the gay scene and visited a few bars in the downtown area. The food in San Antonio was pretty good too. At one restaurant, called Mi Tierra, I purchased a t-shirt with Emiliano Zapata’s portrait on it, and underneath it, painted in bright red, were the words “Mi Tierra”. I thought it was the coolest thing, and I kept that t-shirt until it finally fell apart.
At some point, the Arizona job was advertised, and I put my resume and a cover letter together and sent them in. Once this was done and out of the way, it was just a matter of time. I waited and waited and waited.
I was not involved romantically with anyone at this time, and spent a lot of nights watching movies that I had rented from local video stores. These included a number of old Bette Davis and Joan Crawford movies, such as Jezebel, Mr. Skeffington, The Women, and Mildred Pierce. It was a lot of fun, inexpensive, and it kept me home at night! My car wasn’t very reliable at the time, so staying at home was really the best thing for me to do. Besides, I needed to start saving money for the move back home.
By March, I had been notified that I was a leading candidate for the reference position at Arizona. I was interviewed over the phone, and later invited out to Tucson for an interview. I didn’t know it at the time, but Carla had another position open, that of Staff Development librarian, and while I was in the middle of the interview for the reference position, she asked me to consider applying for that job also. I didn’t really feel ready to take on a job like this, as I felt I didn’t have the appropriate experience, but Carla was persistent and asked me to interview, so I did. She argued that I had done library programming and instruction, and that I had what she called “transferable skills”, and could easily pick up along the way whatever else I needed to learn. There would be more pay, and I would be part of the Library administration. I thought about it for a few days, and finally decided that I would give it a try and apply for the job, and lo and behold, the job of Staff development librarian was soon offered to me. I would report directly to the Dean of the Library, Carla Stoffle.
When I got back to Ann Arbor, I needed to wrap things up at work and also needed to figure out how to get back home. My record collection and book collection presented the biggest challenges. There was no way I was going to get rid of anything this time around, so I decided to ask my oldest brother Charles if he would be willing to fly to Michigan and help me drive a U-Haul back to Tucson. He agreed, thank goodness.
I stayed in my job in Ann Arbor until early May. The head of the Undergraduate Library, Barbara MacAdam, threw me a going away party the day before I left, and my good friend Barbara Hoppe, (now Kolekamp) took photos of the occasion. I felt bad about leaving my good friends LeAnne, Mike, Karen, Barb, Linda, Judy and Rhett behind, but nothing would get in the way of going back home.
In hindsight, I’m glad I took the risk of moving away from Tucson back in 1987, but my mom’s death the following year has always made me feel guilty about it at the same time. I realize that she still would have passed on if I were in Tucson, however. I have to remind myself all the time that her death wasn’t my fault. It was her time to go, and that was that. She was ill and had reached the end of her road.
If I set aside the guilt trip that won’t go away, I must admit that living in Nogales and then in Ann Arbor were indeed worthwhile experiences. Living right on the U.S. Mexican border was eye opening in many ways, and I enjoyed crossing the line whenever possible. There’s nothing like the birria they sell on Elias St in Nogales, Sonora! I also got to see a lot of the state of Michigan while I lived there, and I really enjoyed it. I also liked living in Ann Arbor. There was always something going on, and I took advantage of that and saw concerts, attended lectures and plays and art fairs, and bought scores of record albums and books. I also had fun going out dancing, listening to live music, and partying with my friends. My relationship with Brent fizzled out at the end of 1990, unfortunately, but we did a lot of fun stuff together while we were a couple.
By the end of the first week of May, Charles and I were on the road heading back to Tucson. Unfortunately, he had to drive the whole way, because my eyesight is bad, and I just couldn’t handle driving such a big truck. It would have been a dangerous proposition! We had a good trip, nevertheless, and made it back home within a few days. I was so happy to finally be back home!
Finding a place to live was at the top of my to-do list when I arrived. At first I thought I would find an apartment on the south side of town, close to my brother Carlos and sister Irene. However, I quickly began to have second thoughts about it. I wanted to feel safe, and as a gay man, I knew I would not be so safe on the south side of town. That’s just the way I felt about it, and while some folks may not understand, I just knew there would be problems. I searched elsewhere, and quickly found an apartment near Ft. Lowell and Country Club. It was a two-bedroom townhouse and the rent was just a little more than what I was paying in Ann Arbor. My family helped me move in, and I was pretty well settled by the time I started my new job on June 1.
I was hired as an assistant librarian, even though I had been promoted to associate librarian while at Michigan. This meant that I would have about five years to “prove myself” in three areas: my primary job, scholarship and service, and either be awarded continuing status (similar to tenure) or released from my job for not “cutting it”. I was told that even though I had been promoted at Michigan, I hadn’t published enough, although I had submitted a book chapter manuscript that was slated for publication in 1993 and had co-written another book chapter with my colleague Karen Downing that was also published in 1993.
During the first few weeks of my new job, I learned that in addition to having responsibilities in the area of staff development, I would also be responsible for professional recruitment and the promotion of diversity within the organization, and that my job title would be “Assistant to the Dean for Staff Development, Recruitment and Diversity”. I would also be a member of the Library administration and would attend meetings of the Administrative Group, Library Cabinet, Planning Council and Library Council, all leadership groups within the organization. I would also work with the Library Diversity Council and the Diversity Training Committee and would allocate staff development funds in consultation with the Staff Development Committee.
I also learned that Carla was very, very busy, and had little time to devote to helping me learn the ins and outs of the job. I spent more time learning from Shelley Phipps, one of the assistant deans. She and Carla were spearheading an “organizational review” of the Library, something I had no knowledge of until I got there. This was a huge deal, and it meant that I would have to hit the ground running in my new job.
I spent the next six months on the fast track, attending countless meetings and learning about how the UA Library operated from the top down. I also started organizing workshops and events for the staff. There was a whirlwind of activity around the library restructuring project, as it was soon called. Plans were in the works to completely change how everything in the Library was organized and managed. The restructuring had to take place, we were told, because the University had been cutting the Library budget for several years in a row, and something had to give. Increased costs for magazines and journals and the implementation of a new integrated library system also contributed to the idea that the Library needed to make some deep structural changes. The goal of the restructuring was to save money while continuing to provide critical user services and access to information. It called for the number of departments to be reduced from 15 to 9, in addition to calling for a change in how work was done and decisions were made. The library would become a “team-based” organization, with shared decision-making as one of its central tenets and improved work processes. This was a multi-year endeavor. My role was to help people get on the bandwagon to learn to work in teams and to make shared decisions, among many other things.
Unfortunately, nothing I did seemed adequate or good enough. From the beginning, in all honesty, I didn’t feel much support from Carla or others in the administration, and was soon blamed for many things that went wrong that were simply beyond my control. I was very surprised that there was so much “politics” at play, particularly around the issues of diversity and recruitment. The Library had two diversity committees, and the leaders of these both competed with one another for resources and attention. I got stuck in the middle of all of this and had to figure out where I fit in. It was difficult. Carla also had me doing things that should have been taken on by others. For example, she asked me to coordinate the development of a proposal for the creation of Mexican American Borderlands archive in Special Collections. I spent countless hours meeting with various Latino leaders in the community, gathering information and gauging their interest in such an idea. Meanwhile, the staff in Special Collections were livid that they were not asked to do this work. Eventually, they did get involved, but they were not happy that I got the ball rolling. As far as recruitment of minorities went, some of the department heads pretended they supported minority recruitment and affirmative action, but in reality, they did not. I worked hard to recruit minority candidates to apply for our jobs, but they wouldn’t in many cases even be granted an interview.
In hindsight I realize that the Library needed a seasoned professional to coordinate the training and development necessary for the move from a top down organization to a team-based organization. It needed someone who had experience in administration and leadership, with expertise in human resources issues, organizational design and change. Actually, nobody on the staff had this kind of experience. We were all winging it. I could be wrong, but as far as I know, our ARL consultant had never led this type of process anywhere else. She, the Dean and the Assistant Dean were all learning as they went along, as were the members of the Operational Adjustment Team (OAT), who came up with the idea that we should have teams run the organization. The problem was that nobody on the staff had experience with team-based organizations. The members of OAT read some books and figured they could take a cookbook approach to the whole thing and tweak things as they went along. They ignored some basic tenets about teams that the professional literature espoused, and decided that instead of having small project teams, as the literature promoted, we were going to have large functional teams, with everyone having a “voice” in decisions and workflow processes. Boy, what a mistake that was, on so many levels. Unfortunately, we dove right in and went for it, and within a year upended the whole structure of the organization. It would take just a short while to realize that we had made some major mistakes. Within a year, at least four of the members of operational adjustment team had left the Library. I have to wonder why. Perhaps they didn’t want to be around to take the heat for what was to come. Who knows?
I traveled three more times between June and December, attending conferences and training events. I went to ALA Annual in San Francisco, to the first conference of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association in Columbus, and to a training skills workshop in Raleigh, North Carolina.
I’ve always enjoyed traveling, and I took the time to explore each city as much as I could. I got to see my Michigan friends in San Francisco, and even ran as a member of their team in the ALA Fun Run, rather than with the UA team. I was already missing Michigan. In Columbus, Ohio, where the BCALA conference was held, I spent time with my friend Karen Downing. We had a bit of a falling out before I left Ann Arbor in May, but by August, things were better between us and we spent a lot of time together at this conference. It was an historic event, and I’m very glad I was able to be there. The training event I went to in Raleigh was a good session, but I quickly learned that the format of the workshop relied heavily on the participants teaching each other, by sharing their own knowledge and experiences with one another. The workshop facilitators merely provided the structural framework for the workshop and filled in a few gaps. We were also given lots of reading material. This was an approach to training that I saw used again and again by certain consultants and trainers.
The first six months back home had other surprises in store for me as well. Things weren’t the same with the family. My dad had met a much younger woman from Mexico and they lived together at my dad’s house. I never felt comfortable going over to visit. It was different. My sister Becky lived there with my dad and Lupe too. Things sure had changed. I missed my mom.
Christmas was non-eventful. I don’t remember much about it. I looked forward to the new year and hoped that things would improve. So far, I wasn’t all that happy with the way things were turning out. I wasn’t an HR person. Prior to moving back to Arizona, I had been a public services librarian and had done reference and teaching, as well as some collection development work. I was not accomplished as a public speaker, nor had I the confidence to stand up to others and stand my ground. I felt beat up by the end of the year. And I was not taking care of myself. I was doing stupid things like partying a lot and going out at night. I was lonely. It wasn’t a good time for me. Another big change in my life had just occurred—moving back home to Tucson after having been away for over five years– and I had difficulty adjusting to it all. I felt really stuck. My dreams of serving my community, of turning people on to reading and learning and of social change seemed further and further from my grasp. It would take another year or more before I felt more grounded in my personal life and found things to do on the job that were more worthwhile. But at least I was back home.
A NOTE ABOUT THE GRAPHICS: IF YOU CLICK ON THE IMAGE, IT WILL ENLARGE IN A NEW WINDOW. THERE’S A LOT OF TEXT, AND DOING THIS WILL MAKE IT EASIER TO READ THE WRITING. CLICKING THE BACK ARROW KEY WILL TAKE YOU BACK TO THE POST.
My last Michigan calendar. I would not be able to find this type of calendar at Arizona, unfortunately. I loved the format.
What a wonderful live recording! Released 1-10-92.
Here’s one of my favorite songs from the album:
A birthday card from my dear friend Richard…
I rented these two films on 1/14/92. Law of Desire was directed by Pedro Almodovar and the Bette Davis movie was an early one from the 1903s. Both were excellent.
Jane and Ron Cruz’s annual letter arrived a few days after my birthday.
The Library DIversity Council sponsored Alex Haley’s visit to the University of Michigan campus for MLK Day. He died less than a month later. I was very lucky to have met him.
My ALA Midwinter, 1992 badge.
My first trip to San Antonio was in many ways the most memorable one. I loved it. There was so much to see! I took a boat tour my first time there. It was fun.I was in heaven when I found Alamo Records in the downtown area. It had a huge selection of Mexican music. I visited several times over the years.This building reminded me of Barrio Viejo in Tucson.
I went back to this area a few times over the years. There”s a lot to see!
St. Joseph’s Church, in downtown San Antonio.
I bought a pair of cowboy boots and a hat when I visited here.
This Mexican restaurant is open 24 hours a day. I bought the t-shirt on the right and wore it until it fell apart.
This is from “This Week in Texas”, a gay pubilcation I picked up in San Antonio. Urvashi Vaid is a brilliant leader and organizer.
I rented these on 1/30/92. Joan Crawford was something else!
Released some time in January, this is my favorite Buffy Sainte Marie album. I had seen her just a few months earlier at the Ark in Ann Arbor and she performed several songs from this album. They were all very well-received. Unfortunately, the album was all but banned in the U.S. and received no promotion, as it included some very hard-hitting songs, like “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee”.
I rented these on 2/1/92. Loved them both. Pedro Almodovar is a one-of-a-kiind director and Bette Davis is amazing.
The movie and this soundtrack were released on February 28. This is a great album. Antonio Banderas sings! A review of the movie follows the scene in the movie where he sings “Bella Maria de mi Amor”
From USA Today, 2-28-92.
I wrote the following article about unity among Latinos on campus. It was my farewell message to Michigan.
I got a phone call from the UA Library on March 9 and was invited for an interview for the reference job at the University of Arizona Libraries as well as the staff development position.
There’s no place like home! I arrived for my job interview on March 18 and stayed until March 25.
Looking south at the University of Arizona Library
In addition to talking about my experiences with collection development and bibliographic instruction, I gave a presentation on the diversity work I participated in doing while at the University of Michigan Library. This was for the staff development position, which was later offered to me and that I accepted. My start date would be June 1. Here is a link to the presentation that I gave.
The above two albums by Bruce Springsteen were released on the same day, March 31, 1992.
My buddy David Gouge played this song at my other buddy Richard’s funeral service. It was a beautiful tribute to Richard.
I tried to attend this annual event each year while I was living in Ann Arbor, but I can’t say for sure if I was at this particular one or not. This event was held every year on April Fool’s Day.
Couldn’t resist adding this:
I wasn’t all that impressed with this play, but it was highly regarded as a groundbreaking work. I saw it with my friend Vivian Sykes and her sidekick Cynthia Miranda. It was the last performance I’d ever see in Ann Arbor.
My niece Michelle’s youngest child, Jordan was born on December 11, 1991. Here he is at 4 months of age.
My job offer from Carla Stoffle…
This appeared in USA Today on 4/24/92. I just love Robert Redford.
My acceptance letter
Released on 4/28/92. It would take me a while to warm up to Annie Lennox, but man, I love her now!
One of several great tunes from the album, Diva.
Meanwhile, in L.A, rioting broke out on April 29, and lasted two whole days. Rodney King’s attackers get off easy.
Kaitlyn Birdy, director of Hispanic Student Services, gave me this award. She was a real sweetheart.
Released on 5/5/92. I try to buy all of Santana’s stuff.
Barbara MacAdam, the head of the Undergraduate Library, threw me a going away party at her home on Thursday, May 7, one day before my very last at Michigan. Most of my UGL friends were there, except LeAnne Martin and Mike Robbins, unfortunately. We had a great time. Everyone loved my brother Charles, especially the women. They thought he was quite handsome.
An invitation to my going-away party.
Me, Barb Hoppe, Karen Downing, Brian Skib and his son, me and Linda, me and Ann.
Barbara MacAdam, Darlene Nichols, Harold Tuckett, Janet Tuckett.
Stuart Downing, Miriam Willard, Karen Sayer, Brian and his son.
Charles, me, Linda, me, Miriam, Linda, Charles, Rhett, me, me Doreen and Mary Lynn.
Barbara MacAdam and me, Sandy , Mary Lynn, Linda
Kevin, Rhett, me, Darlene and Brian’s son
My very last day at work…
Me and Mary Lynn, Me and Kim Crowley
Mary Lynn, Doreen and Mary Lynn, The UGL reference dept. staff, me in my office.
My brother Charles drove us all the way home in a big Ryder truck filled with all of my stuff. It took 3 days to get from Ann Arbor to Tucson.
This litte do not disturb sign was a parting gift from my dear friend Mary Lynn Morris. It hung on my bedroom door for years until it wore out, but I still have it!
This is the route Charles and I took getting home. We spent the night in Saint Clair Missouri and Amarillo Texas. I missplaced my keys at the motel in Amarillo and had to call for a locksmith. I found my keys thrown on the ground as soon as the guy left. Just my luck. Other than that, we had no other mishaps.
I’m baacckkkk!
A card from my friend Linda. Below is a letter she included.
Linda and others started writing to me almost immediately. It was very touching. I missed them already too!
My nephew Gabe graduated from Desert View High School on May 22. He was a star baseball player.
This was a fun concert. I think my friend Richard got me the ticket. It sure felt good to be back home!
Freddy Fender and Flaco Jimenez are two of my heroes.Seeing them perform live was a thrill of a lifetime.
What a great album. Released on May 26, 1992.
My favorite tune from Kiko.
June 26, 1992, Arizona Daily Star
This movie premiered on 05-29-92. Lots of fun, this one.
My ALA membership card, which I received in the mail in late May, shows my new home address in Tucson. The street I lived on was named after my friend Delma Rivera, who grew up just a few blocks away. The backside shows that I had joined the Library Administration and Management Association and the Social Responsibilities Roundtable.
This is my job description for my new job at the University of Arizona Library. Boy, was I in for a big surprise!
Carla Stoffle, Dean of Libraries at the University of Arizona, would be my supervisor for the next 8 years. She was a very busy lady.
A vintage postcard of Phoenix.
By the end of my first week of work in early June, I attended a meeting of the Arizona University Libraries Consortium, and was introduced there as Carla’s new assistant. The consortium membership included administrators and staff from all three Arizona universities. The purpose of these gatherings was to share information and explore areas where the three libraries could collaborate, such as working together to reduce costs by engaging in consortial arrangements with publishers and vendors.
AULC member institutions
A card from my dear friend Doreen. We’re still friends, after all these years. She lives up in Oregon.
Here’s another postcard. This one’s from my buddy Rhett. He and I and Mary Lynn, another good friend, would love to go to the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor on Friday’s to play pool and listen to country music. I have such fond memories of the fun we had together drinking and dancing. The house band would play the song “Apartment #9” every time we saw them. It would become one of my very favorite songs ever.
In the Spring I threw my hat into the ring and ran for national secretary of REFORMA. I won the election and by ALA Annual was busy taking notes at all of the formal REFORMA meetings. Fun, fun, fun!
ALA, here I come!
The ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco was packed with informative sessions.
Barb and Linda were my colleagues at the Undergraduate Library. I roomed with them at the conference. I just adore these two ladies.I ran with the Michigan team at the ALA Fun Run. I should’ve run with the Arizona team, but my heart was still back at Michigan. I missed these folks. The woman standing on the far left in the second photo, Margo Crist was one of the Assistant Deans at Michigan. She passed away in December, 2020. She was the nicest person one could ever meet.
This was my second gay pride experience in San Francisco. I saw the parade this time around from my hotel window.
The Mission Dolores Basilica, built in 1776 by Fray Junipero Serra, was amazing. It is located very close to the Castro district.
This record store in the Mission District had more Lucha Villa albums and cassettes than I had ever seen in one place before. I was in heaven! I went back again a couple of years later and it was still there. It was an amazing place.
This is a sampling of the Lucha Villa cassettes that I bought at the Mission Music Center over the years. I think after the first visit, I went back at least two more times on subsequent visits.
Here’s one of the songs from the album “El Quelite”.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see any movies, but wow, what a smorgasbord!
I loved this bookstore. I bought abunch of bumperstickers and other “cositas”. Ruben would call it “cochinero”. It didn’t cost too much.
Little treasures from my trip.
This is a list of gay bars in San Francisco. Wow!
I saw this movie with my good friend Teresa Jones. It premiered on 7/1/92. We saw it on the 11th of July. Teresa bought me the ticket. What a sweetheart!
I attended this concert with my buddy Richard. We both enjoyed it immensely. These three sisters were a riot!
“The Married Men”. Oh my.
I rented these two films on July 25. I loved them both. Maurice was such a sad film, but so was All About Eve. This is the film where Bette Davis says, “fasten your seatbelts, It’s going to be a bumpy night”. And indeed it was!
Hurricane Andrew hit south Florida on August 24, 1992. It was a devastating Category 5 monster that destroyed thousands of homes and caused billions of dollars in damage in the Bahamas, Florida, Alabama,Louisiana and elsewhere. The only other stronger hurricane to ever make landfall in the U.S. was Katrina, which occurred in 2005.
I can’t imagine losing everything like this. Wow. What a horrifying experience this must’ve been for people.
The presidential campaign was in full swing in late summer, early Fall. Clinton and Gore represented hope and change to the gay community. On August 29, my calendar notes that I had gone to IBT’S, a local gay bar, to hear Clinton speak on tv. Wow. I don’t remember this, but I was a Clinton supporter. He made a lot of promises to the gay community, but didn’t deliver all that much in the end. He even signed the Defense of Marriage (DOMA) Act, which was very disappointing.
I was looking forward to attending La Fiesta de San Agustin on August 30. Here’s a preview of the day’s events.
Earlier the same day, I had a big family gathering at my townhouse. We had a blast. Almost everyone in my immediate family showed up, with the exception of a few nieces and nephews. My dad, his wife Lupe, my cousin Yolanda and my niece’s boyfriend, Martin Green, have all since passed on. Time sure flies. I remember this like it was yesterday.
A few days later, I was traveling again, this time to Columbus, Ohio, for the first ever national conference of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. The conference lasted from September 3 through September 6. It was a historic occasion. I spent a lot of time with Karen Downing, my friend from Michigan. The purpose of my attendance was to recruit African American librarians to Arizona. I had just successfully helped recruit one such librarian, and the Dean of the Library wanted me to let people know that Arizona welcomed librarians of color.
Downtown Columbus
The conference got several write-ups in the national library press. Here are links to a couple such articles.
This workshop was part of the pre-conference programming offered at the conference. Anne Lipow was an excellent workshop facilitator and a well-respected librarian. I was lucky to attend a workshop with her as the instructor.
My niece Anadine’s first child, Dominique Delgado, was born on September 3, 1992. This was taken just a couple of months later.
I attended another AULC meeting in September, this time in Flagstaff. My dad and his family lived here for a short while in the mid-30s, during the Great Depression and I attended Boys’ State here back in 1976. It was good to be back. I love Flagstaff.
My brother Fred’s son Frankie was baptized on September 27, 1992 by Father Gilbert Padilla at St. Ambrose Church. I was one of his padrinos. Fred and Lorena split up a long time ago, but I’m still good friends with her. She’s standing next to Father Padilla and Fred’s on the far left. The other two people in the photo were co-padrinos and friends of Lorena’s. Frankie will be 30 this year.
Sinead O’Connor rips the pope’s photo on live tv on October 3 in an effort to raise awareness of the Church’s role in hiding the truth about the child abuse committed by the clergy in Ireland and elsewhere. I was at the Hotel Congress bar when it happened and saw it live on tv.
Play Me Backwards was released on October 6, 1992. Joan started featuring songs by newer songwriters, including people like Mary Chapin Carpenter. The album was nominated for a Grammy for best contemporary folk album.
This song was written by Mary Chapin Carpenter, who recently sang, along with Emmylou Harris, a tribute to Joan at the Kennedy Center Awards program in 2021. In October, I was up in Phoenix again, this time to attend the Arizona State Library Association’s annual conference. The conference meetings were held in the Phoenix Civic Plaza and the Hyatt Regency Hotel, right across the street. I stayed at the San Carlos Hotel, which was a few blocks away.
Harvest Moon was released on October 26 and Good As I been to You was released about a week later, on November 3. Both albums were critically acclaimed. This was Dylan’s first all acoustic album since 1964’s Another Side of Bob Dylan.
From Hank to Hendrix brings back a flood of memories of my friend Richard. He was a real die hard Neil Young fan.
Clinton captures the presidency, November 3, 1992.
Whitney Houston’s smash hit version of I Will Always Love You was released on November 3rd. The soundtrack to the movie, “The Bodyguard”, was released five days later. Whitney was at the top of her form at the time.
Here’s my favorite version of the song, “I Have Nothing”, which first appeared on the soundtrack to the movie “The Bodyguard”.
I traveled to Raleigh N.C. in early November to attend a workshop titled “The Training skills Institute”, sponsored by the Association of Research Library’s Office of Management Services. Maureen Sullivan and John Kupersmith conducted the 3 day session.
There were a lot of readings and small group sessions. Overall, it was a good experience and I learned a great deal. I did explore downtown Raleigh some, but not much else. There was a lot to do in the region, but most of my time was spent in the workshop and in doing assignments related to it. I didn’t get out a lot on this trip. The State Capitol. I was able to go inside and take a look. It was magnificent.
Gay resources in Raleigh–a page from the Gay Yellowpages, and a copy of a local gay newspaper. Unless food was served there, the bars were all “members only clubs” and you had to pay a special fee to get in. It was strange, but that was the law. It’s still in effect today.
Antonio Aguilar’s son Pepe was on his way to ranchera stardom with this album, released on Novmeber 12, 1992.
Here’s one of the many great tunes that can be found on the above album.
Malcolm X was released on November 18, 1992 and the Crying Game was released on November 27.
The planning groups involved in the Library’s restructuring process decided that the Library should organize into teams. I soon discovered there was a wealth of literature available on the topic of teams in organizations. These are but two examples. The consultants we hired to assist with the transition to teams provided training on team basics and development.
As we continued planning the Library re-structuring, the consultants we worked with developed workshops for the Library leadership on team management and other topics. One of the things they did was to have all members of the administration fill out the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality assessment questionnaire in late November. This was the first time I took it, and my “type” was INTJ. I took it again a year or so later and my type changed to INFJ. Before the questionnaire was purchased (it was expensive), one of my colleagues suggested that I check with local experts on campus to investigate the validity and reliability of the MBTI assessment tool, and I learned that it was, among psychologists anyway, not found to be a valid instrument, but my report was dismissed, and we moved forward as planned. This really bothered me, but there wasn’t anything I could do. The consultant who wanted us to take the questionnaire was convinced that it was a worthwhile endeavor and we went along with her recommendation. For a basic overview of the instrument see Wikipedia’s article titled, “Myers-Briggs Type Indicator”. For more about the concerns about the validity of the instrument see: “Myer’s Briggs Concerns”. The paper mentioned in the linked article came out less than a year after we all filled out the questionnaire, but the findings were ignored, and we took it again about a year later.
I had tickets for the next day’s show as well. Went to these with my best friend Richard and a bunch of other people. Fun times.
I was there!
Alejandro Fernandez’s debut album, released on December 15, 1992. He would go on, like Pepe Aguilar, to become one of the best-loved ranchera singers of his generation. His father was Vicente Fernandez.
A sampling from his first cd.
A Christmas card from Brent’s mom. She was very sad that we had split up, but there was no going back.
I missed my friend LeAnne. She was so much fun!
More Christmas cards from friends and colleagues both in Tucson and Ann Arbor.
I ended up the year still single, but in the next few months, things in my personal life would change dramatically, and for the better.
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 includes information about me, my work, my family and my friends.It also includes information about events that took place locally and nationally, etc. that I thought important enough to include. 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, most 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 stuff removed, I am happy to oblige. My email address is jrdiaz@arizona.edu. Thanks!
1991 was an interesting year. I started out the year alone as Brent and I had just split up the previous month. Getting through the holidays was difficult. On the bright side, however, I was promoted to Associate Librarian, effective January 1, 1991, and I got to create another Martin Luther King, Jr. exhibit. I also got to travel to Chicago again for yet another ALA conference. This time I took the train. It sure was an interesting ride, with lots of scenery along the way, some of it not so pretty, in all honesty. The last leg of the trip was through Gary, Indiana and south Chicago, and it all looked like one big industrial wasteland. I believe I went with Karen, Linda and Barb this time around.
While there, I turned 32. I also met a guy named Tom at a GLBT social gathering, and we hit it off. I really liked him. He was quite liberal and a very good conversationalist. However, he lived in Connecticut, several hundred miles away. Once the conference ended, we agreed to stay in touch and to see each other whenever possible, and we got along great for a while, visiting each other whenever we could, but then I got restless, and he turned out to not be the kind of guy I wanted to be with after all. We spent time together in February and April, and in May we split up. I think I was on the rebound, and Tom was the first guy after my breakup with Brent to show any interest in me. I was lonely and thought we could make things work, but they didn’t after all.
In late January I was traveling again, and this time I flew with my friend Karen to Long Beach, CA to give a presentation on diversity at the Freshman Year Experience Conference. We did alright, but I didn’t save any of my notes or other written material. All I have are some photos we took and an abstract from the program. We had a lot of fun, and got to go to Hollywood and walk around a bit. Later in the month, I took a train to Springfield, Massachusetts to visit Tom. It was a fun trip. The train went through upstate New York, and I got to see a lot of beautiful country side. Tom picked me up in Springfield and we drove to Storrs, Connecticut where he lived. He was a librarian and had a job as a cataloger at the University of Connecticut. It was fun exploring the area. We went to Hartford and Mystic Seaport, visited antique stores and flea markets, and even drove up to Rhode Island.
I got an AIDS test in February and tested negative. Thank goodness. I had been very careful the last several years (Brent and I had an open relationship), but I still was sexually active, and there was a time or two when I took some risks that I should not have taken. I was so nervous when I took the test. I worried that I would hurt myself if I had tested positive. I didn’t want to have to die the way so many people around me had died, from a disease that was unstoppable and merciless. I swore after I had tested negative that I would never do anything risky again, and while I can’t say I’ve always been faithful to that promise, I never did get HIV, even while sexually active. I’ve been very fortunate.
In March, I had another book review published. The book was titled, “Latino Librariaship: A Handbook for Professionals” and was edited by Sal Guerena, an archivist from Santa Barbara, California and former REFORMA president. The review appeared in Preview Magazine.
In the Spring I applied for a new job, that of “diversity librarian” at the University of Michigan. I had to give a presentation and meet with lots of different groups, and I was a nervous wreck. My presentation was well received, however, but in the end the job went to someone else. I was really disappointed, but decided to continue job hunting. I wanted so badly to come back West. Nothing materialized, however, so I stayed at Michigan the entire year, and continued to work at the Undergraduate Library. Things got better by the Fall, as my supervisor, “the southern belle from hell,” had moved on to the Library School, where she was pursuing a PhD. I was given more responsibility as manager of the student reference assistant program, and I was pretty happy with the work. I continued doing instruction and reference, and also continued on the Diversity Council, helping to coordinate the annual diversity film festival series and doing more exhibits. This all kept me pretty busy.
In May, I went to see Tom again. This time, we met up in Boston. I flew there from Detroit, and Tom and I rented a hotel room in Cambridge, very close to the Harvard campus. I had a blast visiting the record stores and used bookstores, but Tom wanted to do other things, like check out the various monuments and other historical sites. This is where we broke up. I decided it was time to move on, and I told him I no longer wanted to pursue a relationship with him. He got very angry, and things got a little ugly, but we got through it and decided to go our separate ways. I was relieved. I’ve had to learn that long distance relationships, at least for me, do not work.
In late June, I got to go to Atlanta Georgia for the first time to attend the ALA Annual Conference. While there, I went to the Martin Luther King Jr memorial and ate Krispy Kreme doughnuts for the very first time. I also found some gay bars and had a good time dancing and meeting new people. I did have one committee assignment as a member of ACRL’s University Library Sections Organization and Bylaws committee, but not much work came from it. I was free to go to whichever programs I chose, and eventually settled on getting more involved with REFORMA, that National Association for Library Services to the Spanish Speaking.
A major change occurred in the Library administration at Michigan during the summer. Carla Stoffle, who was a big supporter of diversity and who had worked hard to retain me (it was she who had me placed in the Residency program), took a job as director of the University of Arizona Libraries. When I went home at Christmastime later in the year, I took my friend Richard Elias with me to one of her holiday gatherings. Little did I know that I’d soon be working for her as her assistant, but I’m jumping ahead in my story, so that’s all I’ll say about it at this point.
My friend Roberto was also back in the picture by the time summer arrived. He and I went to see Madonna’s movie, Truth or Dare, at least seven times. We had a blast and were inseparable for a while there. We went out a lot and saw live bands together. It was a fun summer. I was in love again, but it was all a lost cause, as Roberto started dating other girls around this time. Ruth Patino was one such individual. She was very nice, and loved ranchera music like I did, but I was quite jealous of her. I was glad when she went back home to Oakland after her graduation. She turned me on to Alejandro Fernandez and later sent me a couple of tapes by Lucha Villa, which I still have.
Another student I met while spending time with Roberto was a young woman from Texas named Lucy. She had studied graphic design, and had just graduated. We enjoyed dancing to reggae music together and we dated for a while. (Roberto was busy with Ruth). She also left Ann Arbor at some point in the summer, and we tried to stay in touch, but I drifted away. She was the last woman that I tried to make a go of things with. I think I gave up completely after that.
There were other people who I would hang out with this particular year, including Mike Robbins, LeAnne Martin, Rhett Stuart, Judy Sorensen, Mary Lynn Morris, and Vivian Sykes. I had some great times with them and we all enjoyed going out to dinner, partying at the bars and going to the movies together. Some of the movies I saw included “The Five Heartbeats”, “The Commitments”, “What About Bob?”, “My Own Private Idaho”, “Paris Is Burning”, “Thelma and Louise” and others. I also watched a lot of television. My favorite shows included “In Living Color”, “The Nat King Cole Show”, “Are You Being Served?” and “Married with Children”. This was the year I immersed myself in the movies of Bette Davis. God, I loved seeing her in all those different roles, from Jezebel to Mr. Skeffington, to Now, Voyager, to the Virgin Queen and many others. She is my all-time favorite actress.
Roberto moved in with me in the Fall, but things didn’t work out. We had some conflicts over the rent, which he didn’t want to pay, so I asked him to leave. He accused me of spreading lies about our friendship, saying that there was talk in the Medical school about a student who was in a relationship with a librarian at the Undergraduate Library (thanks a lot, LeAnne…)…We stopped being friends after that. I also stopped hanging out with my other Latino student friends as a result, since he was very popular, and they all sided with him when they found out we had a falling out.
There were some very good albums that were released this particular year. One of my favorites was Joni Mitchell’s “Night Ride Home”. It included some great tunes, including the title cut, “Coming in from the Cold”, and “Cherokee Louise”, among others. The first Dylan Bootleg series was released this year too as was Natalie Cole’s “Unforgettable, With Love”. In the realm of country music, Vince Gill, Colin Raye, and Sammy Kershaw all released some of their best work, and I bought their recordings, watched their videos on television, and even went out to the bars out on Michigan Avenue outside Ypsilanti to listen to country music and gawk at all the fine looking men in their tight levis and cowboy shirts. I was a total mess. I also got to see a few local groups live. Jeanne and the Dreams were great, as was the jazz group, “Oasis”. I also saw the Chenille Sisters and the great Buffy Sainte Marie again. I think Brent came with me. He didn’t care for the show, but I loved it. Buffy played some of her newest material from her masterpiece, “Coincidence and Likely Stories”. What a powerful album!
In late September, tragedy hit my family back home. My niece Belisa’s little girl, Brisette, was struck and killed by a car. She was only three years old. I wish I could’ve come home for the funeral, but I couldn’t afford another trip, and I had already purchased tickets to come home for Christmas. I felt very sad about that. My dad was especially heartbroken, because he loved that little girl. She was born just a month or so before my mom died in 1988.
I spent the last few months of the year writing a chapter on buidlng diverse library collections for a book titled “Cultural Diversity in Libraries”. I also continued to manage the reference assistants program, and continued to participate in the work of the Diversity Council. We had more training in the Fall, and planned more film festivals and MLK Day events and exhibits. I also got to hear Angela Davis, Gloria Anzaldua and Rodolfo Acuna speak. There was always something interesting happening on campus. I was very fortunate, in hindsight to be able to experience seeing all these wonderful people. The PC (political correctness) wars were also raging all over the country’s college campuses at this time, and in November, a big conference on political correctness was held on the Michigan campus. I still have the immense set of readings that were distributed right before it took place.
I got to go see my very first University of Michigan football game in the Fall. Barb Hoppe, my colleague from the Undergraduate Library, took me with her and wow, it was fun. The stadium is huge and holds over 100, 000 people. Michigan played Indiana that day, and won, of course. I’m not much of a sports fan, but I did have an enjoyable time.
Periodically, I’d drive my little beat up Toyota into Detroit, and either go barhopping, or go shopping at the record stores and thrift shops scattered throughout the suburbs. One day, I was driving along an unfamiliar road, just after having purchased a couple of religious relics at a thrift store in one of the suburbs, when lo and behold I hit a railroad crossing barrier. I hadn’t seen any lights flashing or heard anything, and just slammed right into it. The thing flew up and stayed there and my car stalled right on the tracks. Luckily, I got it started just in time to move it away from the tracks before the train came roaring through. I could’ve easily been killed. It literally missed me by seconds and was a very close call indeed. I still have those relics, and I’ve told people that they saved my life that day. One was a little bust of the Virgin Mary and another was a last rites kit, used by priests when conducting the last rites ceremony for the dying.
At Christmastime, I flew back home to Tucson. As I noted earlier, Carla Stoffle had become director of the UA Libraries over the summer, and when I was there for Christmas, I contacted her to say hello. She invited me to a holiday gathering at her home, and I took my friend Richard with me. A reference position had opened up in the Library, and she encouraged me to apply for it, which I did. I was filled with excitement and anticipation in the following months, as the possibility of finally getting back home was about to become a reality. Unlike the previous year, when I spent Christmas by myself, I had a great Christmas this time around. I was at home with my family, bought presents for everyone, and was very hopeful about the future!
I got promoted!
The library purchased a new exhibit case and this was the first one that it housed. Most of the books on Martin Luther King, Jr in the case were from my own personal collection.
The Ann Arbor train station.
I can’t believe how inexpensive trips were back then.
This was my third trip to Chicago. I never get tired of visiting.
Union Station, Chicago.
I stayed at the Bismark Hotel again.
The train in downtown Chicago is called the “L”. It’s noisy as heck when you’re anywhere near it.
This famous record store no longer exists. I spent hundreds of dollars in this place on my various trips. It eventually became Tower Records and then closed.
The Wrigley Building. I love this part of the city.
Brent’s mom was a very nice lady. She and her daughter Theresa were very sad that we had split up, and they continued to send me cards and letters over the next couple of years.
Mrs Gloria Bates, Brent’s mom, treated my like her own son.
A birthday card from my friend Emily, Richard’s wife.
I had been to Long Beach way back in 1966, when our family visited my brother Charles when he was in the Navy. This time around, the purpose of the trip was to attend the Freshman Year Experience Conference.
Long Beach, CA.
My good friend Karen and I talked about the Library’s diversity efforts. This was my first professional presentation. I was very nervous.
I needed a haircut. Oh well.
Karen and I had a lot of fun on this trip.
We didn’t get to tour the Queen Mary, but I saw it on a later trip several years later, however.
One of Karen’s friends moved to LA and when we were there, she came by and took us to Hollywood. It was not what I thought it would be, but interesting nevertheless.
Seeing all the footprints and handprints of various movie stars here at Grauman’s Chinese theater was one of the highlights of our visit.
Movie star wannabes.
One of my favorite Joni Mitchell albums. Released on February 19, 1991. See song and review below.
From Rolling Stone magazine.
My next trip was to Storrs, Connecticut to see my friend Tom. He picked me up at the train station in Springfield and we drove to Storrs from there. I started on on February 21, 1991 and took about a week off to be with Tom.
The woods outside of Storrs.
Tom took me all over the place, including to Hartford. We also made it up to Providence, Rhode Island at some point. It was a fun trip.
Providence, Rhode Island
This album was great. It was released on 03-05-91. Vince Gill had been a session musician and sang harmonies on Emmylou Harris’s album. Angel Band. His voice just makes me melt. What a talented man.
Released on 3-26.91.
This is one of Dylan’s earliest compositions. It hadn’t appeared on any of his albums until this first Bootleg Series was released. Willie Nelson later recorded the song for the soundtrack to “Brokeback Mountain”.
The Chenille Sisters were a local trio who modeled their singing after the Boswell Sisters, who were famous in the 1930s. I saw these women in concert a couple of times. The one on the far left worked at the Graduate Library.
This movie premiered on March 29, 1991. I loved it.
Tom visited me in early April. This was taken at the Renaissance Center in Detroit.
The Detroit River is in the background.
Tom took lots of pictures. Here’s one of me in my apartment.
The Residency group. Gene Alloway, Karen Downing, Bob Diaz, Elizabeth Robinson, David Flaxbart, Jay Nagarashi, Roger Brisson and one other person whose name escapes me, unfortunately. This was a great group of colleagues. They all went on to have amazing careers.
A card from my colleague, Darlene Nichols, congratulating me on the presentation I gave as part of a job interview that I had for the diversity librarian job at Michigan.
Diversity in Libraries / Presentation, 1991. In April, I applied for a job as the University of Michigan’s diversity librarian, and gave a presentation on April 21 about my thoughts on diversity at the time. The presentation and the question and answer session that followed were very well received, but in the end, the job went to someone else.
In early May, I flew to Boston to see Tom again. This time around, things didn’t turn out so well and we ended up going our separate ways.
Boston has an amazing skyline.
Cambridge, home of Harvard University.
The Widener Undergraduate Library. The general public was not allowed in.
North Hall, where the hotel I stayed in used to stand, at 1651 Massachusetts Ave.
It wasn’t too expensive. A hotel in Cambridge probably costs three times this amount now.
This movie premiered on May 10, 1991. I went with my friend Roberto to see it seven times during the month of June. I became a big Madonna fan at this point, and even though her music was played all the time at the Nectarine Ballroom, I started to buy all of her albums at this point. I was a sick puppy, for sure.
This scene presented one of the most somber moments in the film.
I thought the movie was very, very campy and funny as could be. So did this critic.
Roberto disappeared for a year, but by late Spring was back in my life for another few months. We were inseparable for a while, but by October, we had a major falling out and I never saw him again.
A letter from my buddy Richard. He had a difficult job, but pulled through in the end.
What a whacky movie! It premiered on May 17, 1991.
This was a local band. Jeanne, the lead singer, had a great voice. The group liked to do a lot of soul classics, including “Take Me To the River”, which I just loved.
This is Jeanne and the Dreams, many years later.
Premiered on 5-30-91. I saw this with my friend LeAnne. She loved the ending. Later that night, I went to see Truth or Dare again with Roberto. Two different movies in one day…
This was released on June 11, 1991. It’s a beautiful record.
What a lovely voice!
Another great album by Bonnie Raitt, released on June 25, 1991.
Dang, what a song!
This was also released on June 25, 1991. In my opinion, this was one of the last great albums Aretha recorded. I didn’t care much for anything that came later.
Love this.
Doing time at the reference desk, Summer, 1991.
The Crowne Plaza Atlanta, shown on the map with the red location symbol, used to be called Hotel Penta, which is where I stayed on this particular trip. I did a lot of walking at this conference…
Over time, the skyline and the downtown area have all changed a lot. There are now a lot more buildings and attractions.
Georgia World Congress Center main entrance and sign at Twilight with traffic streaks.
My friend Karen Beavers and I made our way through some of the poorer neighborhoods to visit this center. It was quite an experience.
This eternal flame is located near the entrance to the Martin Luther King Center.
I walked for what seemed like two miles back and forth to have my very first Krispy Kreme doughnut experience.
This gay bar, located a few blocks north of where I was staying, no longer exists. Little did I know when I went there that it was home to the local gay hustler scene. It is said to have been the oldest gay bar in Atlanta, but was eventually demolished sometime in the 1990’s.
This was a big shopping mall that I went to with some friends.
I had dinner here with my fellow Michigan residents. It was a big crowd of people, and a fun place to eat.
Jesse Jackson spoke at this conference and there were other wonderful speakers too. The article below gives an idea of how amazing the conference was this time around.
I found this on the Internet. It’s a great synopsis of the Atlanta conference.
The annual street fair was a lot of fun. It usually rained, however, at this time of year.
Released on 8-14-91
This is Lucy. We dated for a short while. Another long distance effort that didn’t last…
Released on 8/23/91. Almodovar was on a roll.
Cynthia Miranda and Vivian Sykes.
Released on 08-27-91, this was Colin Raye’s debut album. What a fine looking man…
This epitomizes the sound of country music of the time. There were lots of swinging dance tunes being recorded.
Dr. Frances Kendall worked with the University of Michigan Library Diversity Committee and staff several times while I was at Michigan. I first met her in 1988. She returned again in 1991 to conduct more workshops on diversity and racism for members of the Diversity Council and the Library staff. She is still active as a consultant.
Lucy Cohen, Dorothy Shields, Elaine Jordan, and Ann Ridout, all members of the Library Diversity Council.
Hattie Summerhill and I at a Diversity Council meeting.
Buffy Sainte Marie appearaed at the Ark on September 6, 1991. This time around she played songs from her upcoming cd, Coincidence and Likely Stories. She was absolutely amazing.
Meanwhile, back in Tucson….My dad and a few of his grandchildren. Brissette is the one standing on his lap. Also included are Jose, Edessa, Estrella, Raymond, Jacky, and Chito. Brissette, my niece Belisa’s little girl, and Jose’, my brother Fred’s son. Jose’ was born in May, 1988 and Brissette in September, 1988. This tragedy impacted our family severely. I never got to meet Brissette, but I understand she was a beautiful little girl. My dad was very fond of her. She was my niece Belisa’s fourth child.
Premiered on 9/29/91. Some people hated this movie. I loved it.
Gloria Anzaldua spoke on campus on 10/3/91. She was not a great speaker, but her work has had a huge impact on feminist Chicana studies.
Sammy Kershaw’s debut recording was his best. I love this album. It was released on 10-08-9
His voice sounds just like George Jones’s.
Angela Davis also spoke on campus, on October 17, 1991. This was the third time I’d heard her speak. She is incredilbly eloquent and a wonderful speaker. I could hear her again and again.
Being silly with my good friend Karen.
I found these religious relics in suburban Detroit one day. I’d almost been struck by a train that day, after having just purchased these.
Last rites kit.
Katalin Berdy was a very nice woman. She led the Hispanic Student Services office for the University, and I worked on a couple of committees with her.
My good friend Barb Hoppe took me to my first and only Michigan football game in October. It was a chilly morning, but what fun!
This is my friend Ruth, who turned me on to Alejandro Fernandez and sent me tapes of Lucha Villa’s music. She had been Roberto’s girlfriend for a while over the summer, but we stayed in touch even after she had left Michigan that Fall.
A postcard from Ruth.
Linda’s follow-up to Canciones de Mi Padre is filled with classic huapangos and rancheras. It’s my favorite of the two. Released in November 1991.
Premiered November 15, 1991.
My niece Michelle had a baby. He’s about to turn 30 this year (2021). Time sure flies!
I turned in the manuscript for my chapter in December 1991. The book did not get published until 1994. It took a while.
My friend Tim was better at letter writing than I was. We eventually lost touch. We’d been friends since our college days in the early 80s.
I made it back home for vacation and spent a couple of weeks there, hanging out with friends and family. I had a great time.
Carla Stoffle became dean of the UA Library sometime during the summer of 1991. When I went home for Christmas, I looked her up to say hello, and she invited me to a Christmas gathering at her home. She also encouraged me to apply for an position in the Library that was opening soon. I did, and lo and behold, was offered the job in the Spring of 1992.
CHristmas, 1991, with my brothers Carlos, Rudy, Freddie, and my dad.
My buddy Richard and I spent a good amount of time together while I was home. This is a photo of him and his wife Emily. They lived in Benson at the time. Benson is southeast of Tucson, about a 40 minute ride on the freeway. Richard was overseeing some major housing projects in the region.
It’s not the most progressive place in Arizona. Richard and Emily hated it there, but that’s where Richard’s work took him at the time.
I rented a car one day and went to see Richard in Benson. We drove all over the place, and visited Gleeson, a ghost town in the Dragoon Mountains area. This was Apache country at one point.
I bought a little pipe made out of rattlesnake hide at this tiny shop. I kept it for years.
2019 was a tough year. I had a series of health problems, which impacted my output of work for the entire year. One thing I did manage to do on a regular basis, however, was to take lots of photos of flowers, roses for the most part, whenever I had the chance. Below is sampling of the beautiful roses and flowers I photographed both on the University of Arizona and campus and at Reid Park’s Rose Garden, one for every month of the year.
