Frank De La Cruz Collection

About the Collection

The Frank De La Cruz Collection focuses on U.S./Mexico Borderland history, culture and traditions. Coupled with an historical overview of the Mexican/Chicanx experience along the border, the collection also offers insight into the contemporary issues facing this community.

The depth and breadth of the topics included in this compilation showcases the 500 years of cultural and political evolution of the Mestizo Southwest community. The contributions of the Mexican/Chicanx people to the rich tapestry that is the Borderlands is chronicled in the myriad titles accessible to the public.

This celebration of a forgotten or little known chapter of U.S./Mexico history is intended to enhance knowledge of this thriving region and people. Also, to encourage recognition of the important part those of Mexican descent have played in our country’s identity, growth and prosperity.

The fact that this project highlights information that has traditionally been discounted or relegated to ethnic, special interest stories of little account provides a unique opportunity to fully celebrate and embrace a more complete and valid social and historical perspective of the southwestern states.

This collection is housed at the Quincie Douglas Library.

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Frank De La Cruz Remembered

I first met Frank De La Cruz at Pueblo High School in the late 1960’s. Frank was very involved in the Chicano Movement in Tucson. He also worked tirelessly for Chicano candidates for political office. Frank felt that it was very important to have your voice heard. He was a member of the El Rio Coalition whose efforts in the community helped to establish Joaquin Murrieta Park and El Rio Community Center. Frank established a Chicano/ Mexicano collection at the El Rio Library which, along with the Center, became the hub of community events celebrating cultural events for the barrios in the neighborhood. He collected the history and told the story of Chicanos so that all who had an interest could educate themselves in his people’s library. Amanda Castillo

Frank De La Cruz came to the Centro Chicano in Barrio Hollywood in 1970. He was studying journalism at the University of Arizona and was from a large working class family headed by his beloved mother Erlinda. From that moment and family base, he became a passionate Chicano activist all his life. At the Centro and Centro Aztlan in South Tucson, Frank fought for Chicano Studies, for inclusion of Chicana(o) candidates in local elections with La Raza Unida Party and later with progressive Democrats, with El Rio Coalition to establish the neighborhood center, including the El Rio Library and Joaquin Murrieta Park. He stood in solidarity with United Farm Workers, immigrant rights and whatever grassroots justice movements emerged to make the community a better place. Frank marched at the Chicano Moratorium in Los Angeles, August 29, 1970. As a librarian and lover of books, he fought to include writers and other artists too often missing in libraries and to make libraries vibrant neighborhood centers. Frank was a co-founder of Borderlands Theater and believed in its vision and artists. He was a writer and for many semesters, he attended the creative writing programs at Pima Community College. His son Pablo was the center of his life, eating breakfast with him every Saturday at Cora’s Restaurant. He was close to all his family members, godchildren, and intensely loyal to his friends. Frank was a pool player playing with Pablo and friends; Frank won tournaments, even in Las Vegas. He loved the music of his generation and baseball, not following teams, but Latino players; his knowledge of baseball and his music was endless. When he was young, he walked everywhere from one end of town to the other; if you stopped to give him a ride he sometimes got on but mostly he said, thanks but I’ll walk. And he would walk on. That was Frank: he lived life his way, leaving a deep legacy in the community he loved and sought to make more just without fanfare. Lupe Castillo

Frank De La Cruz was a truly special man. Now that I'm in my 70's, I realize that there are a handful of people you'll run across in life that leave a lasting imprint. For me, Frank was one of those. He was quiet and unassuming but had a powerful impact on anyone close to him. The longer you knew him, the more he became a standard against which we measured our commitment to whatever the cause. He had high expectations of his friends and had a tendency to put them on a pedestal and expected them to stay there, which as hard as that was at times, made us all better. In a way, he became our conscience because he lived his commitment every day. Frank's commitment was amazing to watch, whether it be to a moral cause, a political campaign, or following his beloved Raiders football team like it was religion. He was a true advocate for social justice and was seen on many picket lines, demonstrations, and was actually arrested when marching to get a park and community center on the west side. This resulted in the El Rio Neighborhood Center, which included a tiny library. Frank was made the first librarian there, and I worked for him as a clerk typist, beginning our library careers together. The commitment and energy he put into the social causes important to him, was then put into his job as librarian. He was a tireless advocate for those in underserved communities and spent his entire 35-year career working at the El Rio and El Pueblo Neighborhood Center libraries, bringing books and people together. Through his commitment and dedication, he made it his mission to compile a strong Chicano book collection that mirrored the community he worked with. It is the extension of his mission that we celebrate with the dedication of the Frank De La Cruz Chicano Collection at the Pima County Public Library. He would be so proud to see this, as we acknowledge and remember his hard work, love, and commitment to his community. Ramona Grijalva

I am thankful to have known and worked with Frank De La Cruz. He sought to authentically recount our history, to inspire, to encourage and to help improve lives. He did this through his library work, his community involvement, and his writing. These recollections are shared with respect and admiration. These are attributes and qualities I associate with Frank: Steadfast. True. Calm. A man of la gente. A quiet force. A proud father. An example for others. The Frank I knew was a man of few words. When Frank spoke, people listened. I listened, whether he was introducing a program, talking about something good that had happened at the neighborhood center or voicing his opinion at a library meeting. I recall the day Frank made a funny comment after opening a fortune cookie when a group of us library people were at lunch. As usual, he spoke very softly. We weren’t sure we heard him correctly and asked him to repeat. When he did, the group paused, then burst out laughing. Frank just chuckled and said nothing else. It was a small thing yet it was memorable for me, a rare glimpse of the lighter side of the usually serious and reserved man. Frank made indelible impressions on all who knew him, worked with him, benefited from his efforts. Our community is a better place because of Frank De la Cruz. Liz Rodriguez Miller

Frank De La Cruz was totally committed to his Latino community and was focused on their needs and requirements. He operated unilaterally in that arena, paying attention to only those directives and guidelines that supported the promotion and advancement of the Latino and minority community of the El Pueblo Neighborhood Center. He also served for many years on the board of Borderlands Theatre as a special advisor of Latino playwrights and potential Latino plays. He had many contacts in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco and the Teatro Campesino. Elena Navarette

Frank was the most patient, soft-spoken sweet friend.On one of Cesar's birthday march, he wrote a poem about Cesar Chavez and ending line was this: "Cesar, you walked the most miles." Another time we went to see Smoke Signals and we laughed when the gal's car was not in best condition, and Frank told me his adventures with bad brakes or signals and how he memorized routes so he wouldn't have to stop or turn. When the El Rio struggle was raging, we had many meetings and discussed what we wanted our "center" to have: one person wanted senior services, another wanted playground, another wanted a pool, another wanted child care and when it was dear Frank's turn he softly said, "The center must have a library." Years later he organized a writing group for seniors and I was facilitator, great work from all. I have more memories of Frank and miss him. Silviana Wood

Once a Librarian, Always a Librarian

Frank De La Cruz spearheaded changes for a better quality of life for thousands. He was an unceasing advocate for justice and fairness.

Oral History with Frank De La Cruz, February 5, 2011

Frank was interviewed about how the El Rio Neighborhood Center came to be in the 70s and how it serves the community.

Resources of Interest

The Documented Border: An Open Access Digital Archive is an interdisciplinary effort whose goal is to advance understanding and awareness about the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and its peoples during a period of unprecedented societal change. The innovative archive focuses on untold and silenced stories and events about this transnational region.

The Historic Mexican and Mexican American Press collection documents and showcases historic Mexican and Mexican American publications published in Tucson, El Paso, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sonora, Mexico from the mid-1800s to the 1970s.

La Herencia del Pueblo: Mexican Heritage Project Photographs is an exhibit of photographs selected from the Mexican Heritage Project photos in the collections of the Arizona Historical Society Library and Archives in Tucson.

Welcome to Borderlands History, an academic blog which will promote discussion of issues surrounding the history of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands as well as other borderlands regions.

The chicano/a research collection is an archival repository and library at Arizona State University that preserves Chicano/a and Mexican American history in Arizona and the Southwest.

AMBOS seeks to express and document border emotion through art made on opposite sides by providing a platform to bi-national artists along the border.

Borderlands collections document the region's culture and history, from the colonial period to the present. Accounts of Native Americans and their ancestors, the impact of Spanish and Mexican settlement and the influx of people into the region during the 19th century are also included.

The Arhoolie Foundation's Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American Recordings is the largest repository of these commercially produced vernacular recordings in existence. The nearly 160,000 recordings in the collection were made primarily in the United States and Mexico and were issued on 78 rpm, 45 rpm, and 33⅓ rpm (long-playing, or LP) phonograph records and cassette and reel-to-reel tapes. The earliest recording was made in 1908, and the latest recordings were released in the 1990s.

Chicana por mi Raza Digital Memory Collective is a group of researchers, educators, students, archivists and technologists dedicated to preserving imperiled Chicanx and Latinx histories of the long Civil Rights Era.

The Department of Special Research Collections collects, maintains, preserves, and makes accessible UCSB Library's most valuable, rare, and unique materials. Included are printed materials such as books and serials, as well as manuscripts, and audio-visual materials. Among Special Research Collections holdings are approximately 250,000 volumes, 16,000 linear feet of manuscripts, 100,000 photographs, and more than 200,000 early sound recordings.

California Cultures: Hispanic American exhibitions trace the history of Hispanic Americans in California from the Mission system and Californios into the 20th century: Mexican immigration into California, the farmworkers' labor struggles, and the Chicano Civil Rights movement and La Raza, which also resulted in an explosion of cultural art.

The Bracero History Archive collects and makes available the oral histories and artifacts pertaining to the Bracero program, a guest worker initiative that spanned the years 1942-1964. Millions of Mexican agricultural workers crossed the border under the program to work in more than half of the states in America.

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Frank De La Cruz Collection

About the Collection

Browse the Collection

Frank De La Cruz Remembered

Once a Librarian, Always a Librarian

Oral History with Frank De La Cruz, February 5, 2011

Resources of Interest

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