It shocked her at first, but the words from her professor did not deter Diana Delgado.
Delgado was nearing the end of her undergrad work in poetry studies at the University of California-Riverside when she talked to one of her professors about applying to the graduate writing program at Columbia University in New York City. He told her not to bother.
What he left unsaid was clear: Chicano/as need not apply. For people of color looking to move forward, these kinds of obstacles are not unfamiliar. Itโs like a rite of passage.
His words, however, only reinforced her Chicana resolve. โI didnโt get angry,โ she said. Delgado simply went on to prove the professor wrong and graduated from Columbia with a masterโs of fine arts degree.
Today, Delgado is the new literary director at the University of Arizona Poetry Center, at the corner of North Vine Avenue and East Helen Street. She brings with her writing skills and gusto for words, her determination to connect her new community with the beauty of poetry, her experiences of growing up in Los Angeles and the seven years she studied, worked and lived in New York City.
โTucson is a good fit,โ said Delgado whom I visited in her Poetry Center office that remains virtually empty of books. She started her job less than a month ago.
โI havenโt had time to put up the books that are my reflection,โ said Delgado.
โReflectionโ is a word she used several times in our hour-long plรกtica. Reflection for the 42-year-old Delgado also means inclusion and diversity. She looks for reflection in the books she reads, in the words she writes, in the world that she inhabits.
โThis role,โ she said in reference to her new position, โis reflective of my writing.โ
As literary director, Delgado will have a hand in planning the centerโs visiting writers series, creating mentoring programs for poets and for expanding the centerโs community outreach programs. Itโs a priority, she said.
The vibe she has felt since her arrival is promising, she said.
โIโve never started a job where Iโve been so welcomed,โ she said. โThis job is so right.โ
Delgado received the 2017 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Poetry and authored โLate Night Talks With Men I Think I Trustโ in 2015. Her first full collection of poetry, โTracing the Horse,โ will be published next year.
The collection took her years to write. The poems reflect her working-class Mexican-American family growing up in La Puente, California, and the challenges and issues that many families like hers confront, she said.
And like other poets and writers, she fell in love with the power of words by accident.
She was enrolled at a junior college, wanting to study landscape architecture. A class she needed to take was unavailable so, on a fluke, she enrolled in a Mexican-American literature class. It was an instant, visceral connection, Delgado said.
Reading the works of writers like Helena Viramontes, Lorna Dee Cervantes and Gary Soto spoke to her directly.
โThey reflected my experiences back to me the I had felt but was unable to articulate,โ she said. She immersed herself in literature and poetry, discovering herself and her voice in the confusion at the intersection of two worlds (Chicano and Anglo) and two ends (U.S. and Mexico).
There is clarity now as Delgado delves into Tucsonโs diverse community, with its writers and poets, and its mountains and monsoons.
โI like that I came at the most difficult time,โ she said. She was referring to the heat. โIโm actually enjoying it.โ
In addition to working at the poetry center, Delgado is looking forward to her next writing projects under the influence of the Sonoran Desert. She welcomes the colors and sensations that will come as she explores the desert valley, the barrios, the university community, our history. It is part of her continuing journey of self-discovery.
โWhat does it mean to be a Tucson writer?โ she said.
Sheโs gonna find out.
