Special Feature
THE LATINO LANDSCAPE'S MOST
ACCOMPLISHED TRUJILLO
Attorney and Artist Lorenzo Trujillo --- Latino Landscape
Columnist
By Wayne Trujillo
See the companion Q&A piece:
"Surveying the Latino Landscape"
Last month, December 2008, a procession of
Latino boys in Boy Scout garb, lined in procession. "Be
Prepared" was the unspoken mantra, a constant and durable
reminder of the Boy Scouts mission , not to mention the refrain
du jour. The boys prepared to salute the American flag, American
ideals, four American honorees and an American nonprofit, each
awarded the Boy Scouts of America's Vale La Pena! Service Award.
The purpose of which, according to the Boy
Scouts of America, is to "recognize outstanding services by an
adult individual or an organization for demonstrated involvement
in the development and implementation of opportunities for
Hispanic/Latino youth, and sensitizing Scouting and America's
leadership to these conditions."
As former Colorado Governor Roy Romer, an
honoree, grants my request that he sit for a photo sho
ot with
another honoree, Lorenzo Trujillo, the two immediately dismiss
the camera and me and begin discussing the University of
Colorado Law School where
Trujillo
serves as an Assistant Dean.
Governors and law school seem a distance
from the northern New Mexico hamlets where Trujillo's family hails. And even though he is
perfectly comfortable straddling both cultures, it is clear Trujillo isn't content to
straddle so much as introduce and perhaps merge the seemingly
disparate environments, or at least bridge the distance.
In the process of surveying the Latino
landscape, Trujillo has become an
indelible presence of its topography. He will also be a
prominent presence of a more figurative
Latino Landscape
---
this Web site, the
namesake for the Hispanic panorama distilled in cyberspace.
His travels across the Latino landscape are
well-documented excursions into a sometimes harsh but beautiful
terrain. The explorations, along with his subsequent empirical
and emotional interpretations, advice and advocacy, has promoted
him well beyond being merely an academic analyst of the Latino
people and culture. His resume might span the length and scale
the summit of mainstream educational possibilities, but Trujillo isn't merely a bookworm chewing
through published papers and gaining insight and intellectual
nourishment by consuming secondhand studies. His extracurricular
activities are inseparable from the professional pursuits,
degrees and accomplishments.
The folkloric cadences of Spanish music are
as common to Trujillo's syntax as
legalese. Musical phrases are more comfortable to the attorney
than courtroom diction.
He comes across as an exception to the
staid, stuffy and analytical lawyer whose stiff movements
Jackson Browne satirized in the 80's music video,
Lawyers In Love,
even the somewhat more animated Perry Mason.
The evidence: For starters, he founded the
Asociacion Nacional de Grupos Folkloricos
and instructed
University
of Colorado
students in the intricacies of Mexican
folklorico
dance and history. He's served as a grant panelist for the
National Endowment for the Arts and performs and lectures on
folkloric music and dance across the American Southwest (he's
already presented over 2,000 of the lectures/performances to
date). Then there is the Governor's Award for Excellence in the
Arts and as a Distinguished Traditional Folk Artist awarded Trujillo by the Premio Hilos Culturales. His
latest artistic effort is
From Santa Fe to Denver, a CD collaboration with musician El
Rodriguez; described as "a semi-classical and contemporary
Latino music."
If a dancing attorney seems a stretch or at
least a surprise, consider that
Trujillo's life and personality are
comprised of contradictions and exceptions.
Trujillo
contradicts popular perception about Latinos in many forms, but
perhaps the most ironic anomaly is his well-rooted placement on
not only the Latino landscape, but also the American landscape.
Belonging to the 14th generation of a family that
resided on American soil before the Mayflower met Plymouth Rock,
his ancestors explored the Rio
Grand Valley
in 1540 alongside
Francisco Vazquez de Coronado and permanently
settled northern New
Mexico
over four centuries ago. His familial presence in American
upsets the widespread assumption that Latinos are largely a
recent and illegal presence in the
United States.
Trujillo's professional example also
disputes stereotypes and expectations.
Consider the historically dismal Latino
performance in formal education.
Trujillo
shattered even the most optimistic ambitions common to Latinos,
earning not only a college diploma but several advanced degrees,
including a master's in theater dance and doctorates in both law
and education.
And even though the education is
formidable, even more impressive is how
Trujillo
continues to employ the breadth of scholarship in daily
activities. He isn't only a counselor of law. He is constantly
counseling students, the state legislature and aspiring
musicians on everything from curriculums to educational strategy
to aesthetic artistry.
His latest professional title is Assistant
Dean of Students and Professional Programs at the University of
Colorado Law School. But before implementing an ambitious goal
to prep and promote a diverse student body at CU's Law School in
the post-affirmative action era, Trujillo studied and actively
agitated for increased opportunities for underprivileged
minority youth
that are
often derailed by low expectations, What do you mean by
"diffident" teachers,
disengaged parents and poisonous peer pressure.
All obstacles to Latinos' education are
inherent in one of Trujillo's pet peeves.
Truancy is the topic of his first column for
Latino Landscape.
From his experiences, truancy can be defined as absence --- an
absence of not only student attendance and interest but also
involvement on the efforts of others. If supportive parents,
teachers and colleagues are the holy trinity of educational
success, their absence portends failure. Truant parental and
teacher support are as detrimental to educational success as are
pupils and peers ditching classes and future prospects. Trujillo discovered tools to facilitate mentor
and peer support, not the least of which are the arts and
heritage. Music and cultural pride might not be panaceas, but
involved entertainment helps pave a precarious path.
After years and a dissertation studying
at-risk minority youth, Trujillo's expertise became a kinetic
force, relied upon by government and communities to confront an
overwhelming task --- encouraging that population to graduate
college when so many fail to even complete high school. Whether
working as Adams
County Public
School District's in-house counsel, a
Task Force member of the Colorado Lawyer's Committee or private
practice, Trujillo advised officials
and organizations on how to accomplish that elusive goal based
on tangible reality rather than abstract theory.
A tangible example of that reality is that
artistic expression enhances self-concept and cognitive growth.
The subject of his doctorate dissertation in education,
Trujillo
realized his theory while working with low-achieving students in California and later Adams
County Public
Schools in
Colorado. Artistic and cultural
immersion propelled pupils to higher grades and higher
education, thus defying stats and dodging bullets that fell many
of their Latino peers with similar backgrounds and habits.
Affirmative artistry is just one example of Trujillo's insights that influence policy
makers. Beginning with this Web site's debut, he will
discuss
and expound on Latino society and its expanding influence on
general society. While his wisdom, accomplishments and interests
are too sprawling to adequately summarize in one article, these
highlights introduce an Hispanic exemplar to the
Latino Landscape.
In addition to his educational, legal and
artistic acumen, Trujillo claims
considerable expertise in all things related to Latino family
and spiritual life. Like all his interests, the
expertise results from the confluence of experience and study.
He and wife, Ellen Alires-Trujillo, raised three children and
now devote a substantial percentage of their personal life to
them, their spouses and five grandchildren.
Trujillo's
bio summarizes his passions as "God, Family and Country." There
is another overarching interest. If his divergent endeavors and
talents seem surprising, even unlikely, one link unites them.
Music is the theme playing throughout his private and
professional life, whether it is performing at a gathering of
family, faculty, congregants or students. The audiovisual
samples of that talent appearing on this site's pages in both
his writings and his music (featured in our entertainment
section) represent the voice of the Latino landscape.
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