Chicano professor attained 'goals despite 'Anglo rules'

This is an article from the Daily Nebraska, University of Nebraska-Lincoln newspaper in which professor Ralph Grajeda is interviewed about his connection to the Chicano Studies department (click on thumbnail to enlarge image).

Professor Ralph Grajeda is interviewed in this article which appeared in the Daily Nebraskan on February 2, 1978.

1978, Feb. 2

Pablo Rangel

paper

paper

Chicano professor attained ‘goals despite ‘Anglo rules’

By Gail Stork

 

The Ralph Grajeda that grew up on “the other side of the tracks” in Lupton, Colo., never thought he would go to college. 

 

Now at 42, Grajeda teaches at UNL and has a doctorate of philosophy in English.  Four weeks ago he became the director of the Institute of Ethnic Studies.

 

“I lived where I supposed to-in the Mexican part of town,” Grajeda said.

 

Grajeda said he failed first grade three times because of the frequent moves his migrant family made in search of field work, Grajeda said.  After finishing high school at 19, he said, more books just were not in the picture. 

 

His ambition was to become a jazz musician, he said, and he learned to play the saxophone.  Although he enlisted in the army to get a G.I. bill to attend a music school, he changed his mind when a Tennessee hillbilly friend sparked his interest in literature.

 

He later attended the University of Colorado in Boulder to study English and law.  Although initially he thought he would return to Lupton as a lawyer and seek justice for the Chicano, he said he instead earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in English and went to teach at Kent State University.

 

Grajeda has been a UNL instructor since 1970, when he came to earn his doctorate.

 

A Chicano, Grajeda said he got through school by learning the “Anglo rules” and bending to them.

 

“There is the rule: “Thou shalt not speak English with a Spanish accent,” he said.  “I consciously tried to get rid of mine.”

 

Grajeda said he still is inhibited about his accent and dreads reading words like “machine” aloud in classes.

 

His real name is Rafael, not Ralph, but somewhere along the way a schoolteacher decided Ralph was easier to say, Grajeda said.

 

“And besides, ‘it was more American’,” he mimicked in perfect American diction.

 

Children who learn Spanish before English (like he did) are labeled culturally deprived by society, he said.  Nevertheless, middle class Anglo parents send their children to college to learn another language, he said.

 

Grajeda said his Mexican background does not enhance his current job qualifications.

 

“You don’t have to be a minority to serve the educational needs of minorities,” he said.  “I didn’t aspire to this job, and I don’t want to be an administrator for the rest of my life.  It was an opportunity to create new programs.”

 

Grajeda said his primary goal is to explore the possibilities of serving minorities outside of the university more directly.