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meaning. When you first read it you think of apoem about the disenfranchised, or you thinkof the meter, you think of the rhyme.”UCI had then and still has one of thetop writing programs in the country. But ittook gains and losses to get Juan there. Inthe early 1980s, with just a year’s work leftin his accounting degree from Cal State SanBernardino, Juan wanted to shore up hisEnglish skills before graduating and heading forthe job market. He met with Larry Kramer, aCal State English professor, who suggested thatJuan take a creative writing course. Creativewriting? He barely knew what that meant, andasked, “Will I be writing?”He had just finished one or two writingcourses at the college when his fatherdied, forcing Juan to drop out of school withjust one class left to complete his accountingdegree (a fact that remains true to thisday). Now a family of five — two sisters, twobrothers and their mother — each of theDelgados pitched in to make ends meet. Juantook work as acook and busboy,and on weekendsshuffled out thedoor at 4 a.m. toscrub the largeyellow Stater Bros.Markets deliverytrucks — 85 ofthem — withthree other workers.While heworked, the shortnessand unpredictabilityof life camehurtling into view,blowing apart alongthe way all of hisideas about the meaning of adegree and career. It wasn’t about prestige orgood pay anymore. He thought that if he wasgoing to get a degree, he wanted to get onein a field he liked. He was 21, and the morepractical, financial appeal of a traditional careerwas morphing into something else, somethinghe could only define as “a calling.”In the fall Juan returned to Cal State SanBernardino as an English major. Those firstcreative writing classes, unlike accounting,didn’t feel like work, and he never saw itcoming. From the converted chicken coop,where his family lived in El Monte, he neversaw the developing landscape. Being the onlyboy who didn’t speak English in an elementaryschool class, the teacher gave him a couple ofbooks and then left him to draw for two orthree hours. And at Eisenhower High SchoolSpecial thanks to Analytic Rehabilitation in Mentone, whereappears a mural based on an old packing crate label fromCrafton Orange Growers, and to Olverita Village on OlveraStreet in Los Angeles.16in Rialto he was never the “literary or academicstudent type.”He began to live by words, reading poetry,writing it, writing about life as a boy in Mexico,about growing up in Southern California, writingabout loss. Eventually, he came to believethat poetry, once a stranger, had rescued him.While at CSUSB, Juan got out one day toplay racquetball. His partner invited an extraplayer, Jean Douglas, a French major who,Juan would learn in time, was not a writer bynature and by her own admission. (Jean saysThe Ward’s RoostersFor JMDI preferred you pacing the yard naked,Pruning your roses at midnight by flashlightTo the man I visited on Saturdays who eyedThe number on his wristband, a code,A prescribed routine of pills and therapy,I preferred the father who decided one nightTo break all of our neighbor's flower pots,Freeing the roots from their clay cages.When they committed you to a mental ward,I saw my shadow vanish like Peter Pan's.Two fences surrounded the county hospital,And driving by them, I pressed on the gas,Watching the coils of barbed wire worm.The questions I had about your illnessDangled like the vines on the security gate.You had had an episode, so they had canceledYour visiting hours, and I drove to a parking lotAnd slept in my car, waxed into a red appleFor a high school girl I had started to date.I phoned, asking for you in the morning.Spider webs, gas meters, sprinklers, my visits,Dripping faucets, lunch bells — you used anythingYou could to measure your passing days.After they had you swallow your medicine,Your mouth and tongue hardened, cement-slow,Your eyes in a glare, a sidewalk's broken glass.In the smoke of my weed I wore those eyes,And sitting in my car I rested and dreamt:The stockings of a nurse paced by your bathtub;Her gloved hand reached down, pulling the plug.The panic and illness in your head swirled, dirtSnaking down the drain, funneling throughThe hospital's pipes, then spilling into the gutter,Mixing with a stream of clippings and grass.You dressed in a suit and checked yourself out,And when you crossed the yard to the gate,The sprinklers popped out, the ward's roosters.They spread a tiny rainbow among themselves,And pinches of bread lay ahead of you.now, “Some people say, ‘I’ve always wanted towrite the great American novel.’ I’ve alwayswanted to read the great American novel.”)Two years later they married, and shortlyafterward UCI chose Juan as a Regents Fellow,a heady achievement because only three ofabout 300 students who applied to the M.F.A.program that year made it in.Two years after graduating from UCI Juanreturned to the area where he’d done muchof his growing up, taking a teaching post atCrafton Hills College in Yucaipa, near the veryfields — in Mentoneand Redlands— where hisfather and grandfatherhad once— Juan Delgadopicked orangesand grapefruit. In1988, he landedin the Englishdepartment atCal State SanBernardino. Ayear after theirthird child wasborn, Jean, whotoday speaksthree languagesbesides English,began teachinglinguisticspart-time forthe department.Juan publishedhis first book ofpoetry in 1994and one everyfour years afterthat, “A Rush ofHands” being hismost recent. Hisfirst book hadtaken 10 years towrite. But recognitionwas notfar behind onceit was released.It received aContemporaryPoetry Seriesprize from theUniversity ofGeorgia in 1994.That accomplishmentwas followedfive yearslater by a two- orthree-week stayat the home ofwriter RudolfoAnaya, whoinvited writersCONTINUED ON PAGE 32CSUSBFall/Winter 2004
High DesertBloomsC O N T R I B U T I O N SThe Tatum Foundation and the Citizens Volunteer Corps,a Tatum family charity based in Victorville, have donated$100,000 to support High Desert students attending Cal State SanBernardino. The contribution is going toward the President’s AcademicExcellence Scholarship program.The Tatum family, well known for its philanthropic work in the HighDesert, strongly believes in supporting the education of young people. “By providingscholarship support for these students we are helping create the future leadersof our communities,” said Madeline Tatum of American Housing Group, oneof the Tatum family companies.“The Tatum family’s gift will help us recruit the top students from the HighDesert, and since graduates frequently settle close to where they went to college,the gift also will help us retain these high achievers in the High Desert and broaderregion,” said CSUSB President Albert Karnig.The Tatum family has been building homes in the High Desert for 30years. It was Clyde Tatum who built 3,000 homes in what later becameGeorge Air Force Base, and went on to build 7,000 homes in theVictor Valley. In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, his constructioncompany subdivided and developed what is now Victorville.Today, the American Housing Group — led by Jim Tatum,Clyde’s son; Jim’s wife, Madeline; and their son, Todd— has seen tremendous growth in the High Desert.The President’s Academic Excellence Scholarshipprogram, now in its third year, has attracted (as offall 2004) almost 50 of the top one-percent of highschool graduates from San Bernardino County.Twenty percent of these best and brightest havecome from High Desert area high schools.“The residents and businesses of the HighDesert have been very supportive of their outstandingstudents,” said Rob Carlson, dean of CSUSB’s Collegeof Natural Sciences. “By working together to encouragethese students to attend college in this area, CSUSB is able topartner with the High Desert in preparing tomorrow’s leaders.”In cooperation with two recognition programs that identify thetop graduating seniors, CSUSB established the President’s AcademicExcellence Scholarship — a four-year renewable scholarship that awards$5,000 annually to cover fees, books and tuition for those choosing to attendCSUSB and who maintain a 3.5 grade point average. The uniqueness of thescholarship program is CSUSB’s commitment to match every dollar receivedfrom generous contributors.Representing the High Desert and receiving the President’s Academic ExcellenceScholarship are Malaina Johnson, an art major from Victorville; Isabel Carvajal, a prenursingstudent also from Victorville; Amber Schooley, a biology major from YuccaValley; Georgia Pallas, a math major from Phelan; Audra Wise, a pre-med biologystudent from Hesperia; Megan Robinson, a biology major from Hesperia; StephenPappas, a finance major from Hesperia; Tanya Zeferjahn, an administration majorfrom Hesperia; and Sarah Courtney, an undeclared major from Lucerne Valley.The Tatum family’s $100,000 gift follows the course set by Jim’s father. Witha heart for community service, Jim and Madeline dedicated parks and sponsoredsports teams in areas in which they built during the 1980s and 1990s. Madelinehas served on many philanthropic boards, and San Bernardino County namedher Woman of the Year for three straight years. She also has been recognizedby the State of California as an Outstanding Citizen.Fall/Winter 200417CSUSB
Page 1 and 2: I N S I D E :What will the proposed
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Page 5 and 6: UpDateON CAL STATETelling the Story
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Page 9 and 10: C O L L E G E N E W SEri Yasuhara,
Page 11 and 12: C O L L E G E N E W SPatricia Arlin
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Page 21 and 22: N o L i m i t sPACKTHE DEN — For
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Page 35 and 36: Get theWHY BELONG?For less than a d

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