By Luis A. Torres, Ph.D.
Posted June 26, 2025
The tenth anniversary of the opening of the Rodolfo Corky Gonzales Library, 1498 Irving Street in Denver, coincided with Mr. Gonzales’ 97th birthday, as noted in the celebration of both events, June 18th, held in the Library. Perhaps presaging Corky Gonzales’ cultural and social contributions to our community, the commemoration commenced with Mr. Carlos Castañeda and his wife Donna, giving a welcome blessing, or prayer, to the Creator and the four cardinal points—North, South, East, and West—and to Father Sky and Father Sun, and to Mother Earth, Tonantzin Tlalli; in Nahuatl, Tonantzin represents mother and Tlalli signifies earth. As Mr. Castañeda explained about the blessing and prayer, of the four directions, east or “first light” is Quetzal, a male figure, and west is Tezcatlipoca, a female figure, with additional commentary about the other cardinal points.
During his presentation, Mr. Castañeda asked, “What would Corky be doing now with all that’s going on,” such as with the Trump administration’s mass deportations, anti-Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion campaigns, and efforts to restrict Medicaid healthcare for the impoverished, including children, among other efforts aimed at further marginalization. He stated, “We are still here and the struggle is still here,” reflecting Corky’s ongoing influence, such as in the Corky Library where “our Chicano people may continue to learn about our history and culture.”
Following the opening blessing and prayer, the celebration continued with a welcome by the Rodolfo Corky Gonzales Branch Library Supervisor, Viviana Castillas, in this, the tenth year of its operation, as she recounted the lengthy and challenging prelude to its construction. She noted the ongoing significant popularity of the Library among community members, with an impressively large number of visits daily, an extensive circulation of materials including books and other resources, and widespread and constant use of computers for patron use, including printing services and availability of art pieces. The Library has such sections as one for children and another for teens and young adults. Ms. Hanna Parris, a Librarian, noted that since 2018, there have been some 75,000 attendees at special events at the Library, a mark of its success. She noted that the Rodolfo Corky Gonzales “family in 2007 donated Corky’s papers to the library,” spanning his life from 1930—2005 (he was born in 2028), although housed in the main Denver Public Library downtown. Corky’s archival materials are being digitized and will be available soon.
Corky’s daughter Nita Gonzales, a noted civil rights leader herself, spoke movingly about her father, referring to him as “one of our fiercest fighters for our struggle.” As did Mr. Castañeda, Ms. Gonzales stated that Corky had “found his Indigenous self, his cultural anthem.” She commented about the Crusade for Justice, the Civil Rights organization Corky established in 1966, which continued until the mid-1970s. The Crusade spearheaded the Chicana/o Movement in Denver and throughout Colorado, influencing the larger Movement nationally. Ms. Gonzales emphasized, “Through the Crusade, he was grounded in a fierce, unconditional love for our community and self-determination,” which can be seen in his impact on our education, including with the school he established, the Escuela Tlatelolco, in 1970 in the Crusade headquarters. The Escuela operated until 2017, and for most of those 47 years it was run by Ms. Nita Gonzales. Among the breadth of the curriculum, the school included teaching about the history, culture, and contributions of the Chicana/o community. As Nita stated, “Knowledge is a form of resistance.” (On a personal note, I, Luis Torres, completed my student teaching from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1972 at the Escuela Tlatelolco, a profound experience teaching English, before I went out of state to graduate school.)
One of the highlights of the Library’s commemorative celebration was the reading by audience members of Corky’s epic poem, “I Am Joaquin.” Two of the Library staff, including Jorge Romero, Library Program Associate, requested audience volunteers to read the poem, each reading a brief excerpt, asserting that they hoped for and had planned on at least nine readers to volunteer. At least fifteen audience members came forward, including a very young girl, probably in middle school, to the delight of the audience. Other readers were Andres Carrera, candidate for State Senate; Lorenzo Ramírez, famed instructor of Danza Azteca; Serena Gonzales-Gutiérrez, former Colorado State House Representative and currently at-large member of Denver City Council and Granddaughter of Corky Gonzales; and Angelita Guerrero, likewise Granddaughter of Corky Gonzales. One of the key effects of the volunteers and the diversity of their ages was to demonstrate Corky’s generational impact through the variety of his work, poetic, social, political, and educational, among other contributions.
It was fitting that this celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Rodolfo Corky Gonzales library, and of Mr. Gonzales himself on his birthday of June 18, should have begun with an Indigenous ceremony and ended with the reading of “I Am Joaquin.” Those of us today in Denver, in Colorado, and nationally, especially but not limited to the U.S. Southwest—also known as Aztlan, the legendary land of the Aztecs—have widely embraced our Indigenous part of our background, partly if not largely because of Rodolfo Corky Gonzales’ influence. His epic poem “I Am Joaquin,” published in 1967, was groundbreaking for the Chicana/o community’s sense of self, celebrating our Indigenous cultural background, which Corky reasserted throughout his illustrious career of civil rights leadership. I, Luis Torres, vividly recall that during the late 1960s, when Chicana/o college and university students in Colorado, as we were beginning to grow our enrollment numbers, would hold makeshift readings of the poem and discuss its philosophy, history, and poetic meanings, including its elevation of our Indigenous culture.
While analysis of “I Am Joaquin” is outside the scope of this article, it suffices to say here that the “Joaquin” of the title assumes and adopts the characteristics and features of one significant figure of our culture and history after another, with the amalgamation of all of these figures leading to a more delineated identity, recounted in the presentations and recitations of the Library celebration. In valuing and even venerating our Indigenous culture, Joaquin of the poem, after asserting in the first lines that he is “lost in a world of confusion,” resists that fate with certainty in his declaration, “I am Cuauhtémoc, proud and noble,/leader of men, king of an empire civilized/beyond the dreams of the gachupín Cortés.” Three lines later, Joaquin continues this Indigenous embracing, asserting, “I am Nezahualcóyotl, great leader of the Chichimecas.” With these two illustrious Indigenous leaders of central Mexico—Cuauhtémoc the last leader of the Aztecs before Spanish conquest, Nezahualcóyotl the poet and philosopher ruler of Texcoco before Spanish arrival—Joaquin served as emerging representative of the Chicana/o community embracing all facets of our identity, gaining insights into our greater culture. To reiterate Nita Gonzales’ statement, “Knowledge is resistance,” especially when we gain knowledge of ourselves.
Luis Torres, PhD, retired, served as Deputy Provost for Metropolitan State University of Denver for Academic and Student Affairs and professor of Chicana/o Studies. Torres is a noted advocate for equity in education, policy and community efforts. Torres is also a member of The Weekly Issue/El Semanario Advisory Board.
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