Yo Soy Joaquin

Rodolfo Gonzales but also known as “Corky” was born on June 18, 1928, in Denver, Colorado to Federico and Indalesia Gonzales. Indalesia died when Gonzales was two years old but his father never re-married after his wife had passed away. Rodolfo was the youngest of eight siblings, Nattie, Beatrice, Tomas, Esperanza, Federico, Severino, and Arturo. His father took part in the Mexican Revolution and Rodolfo would listen to his stories. Federico spoke to Rodolfo about the Mexican Revolution, Mexico history, and the pride of the Mexican people. The political feeling his father had, influences Corky the most out of all his siblings. In 1949, Rodolfo married Geraldine Romero de Gonzalez and the couple ended up having eight children.

Gonzales grew

up on the east side of Denver, which was known for being the tough side of Denver and it was nickname "Eastside barrio". During the Great Depression, he mentions how the poor kids who lived in eastside didn’t even notice the poverty around them because they were poor already. During his childhood he his settlement in Colorado was very unstable because they lived back and forth in New Mexico and Colorado. Since his youth, he was known for having a short temper and usually would explode when he was made angry and got the nickname of Corky because he had a bad temper that could pop like a cork. Corky attend high school in Colorado and New Mexico while he worked. Gonzales schooling was very unstable school because he attended a lot of different schools. He worked as a field picker on a beet field throughout his schooling but still managed to graduate from high school at the very early age of sixteen from Manuel high school in Colorado. Gonzales was very intelligent at school despite him moving a lot and having a job which gave him little time to study.

His plan while being in college was to study to become an engineering. He was able to save up for his college education. After high school, Gonzales decided he wanted to enroll in the University of Denver. After one semester at the university, his savings wasn't enough for him to support him. The tuition for school was too high, and Gonzalez eventually had to leave the university because it was able too expensive.

After leaving college, he begins a boxing career in what becomes a very successful boxing career. He fought at an amateur division and work his way up to the top. He was ranked a top fighter and became an amateur national champion. Gonzales also fought professionally in the featherweight division and was considered one of the best featherweight boxers in the world. Corky fight style was orthodox and had a fighting record of sixty-three wins, eleven losses, and one draw. He was nicknamed the flash because he had fast hands and movements. In the 1950s, he hanged up his globes and left boxing.

Rodolfo got into political work after leaving his boxing career. He was influenced and inspired by from his father stories about the Mexican Revolution, Mexican history, and the proud culture from which his father came from. Gonzales worked as an organizer and a division captain for the Democratic Party. He was a director in a Denver Neighborhood Youth Corps. Corky very passionate about his job and helped kids from the poor Mexican communities to understand the tradition from past and that they have a bright future. Gonzales eventually resigned from working for the democratic party and founded Crusade for justice with other community activist founded in 1996. He even ran for City Council but end up unsuccessful. Rodolfo was also part of the Chicano movement started in 1965 and ended in 1973

He started writing poems and one of them was published in 1967.

This was known as Yo Soy Joaquin/I am Joaquin. This poem is about Joaquin who is Mexican, American, and a native that is rejected by the dominant society. He defines the principle of being a Chicano. It talks about how dominant cultures have try wash away the native culture from people who don’t know what to identify themselves. In the poem, Joaquin represents the Chicanos who have no clue about their ancestors and history from their native culture. The poem was meant to influences and inform the Chicanos from that period of time and the future ones about the cultural history that was never taught to them while growing up. It seems like the education systems were trying to censor us from learning about our culture and making it seem not worth for us. The poem "Yo Soy Joaquin" could relate to "whats a Mexican" because Olga tries to keep her distance from her Chicana culture. Anywhere she went her culture followed her around. She was embarrassed by the fact that she was teased because she had an accent and she didn't look Mexican. Olga eventually accepted her Mexican roots because she went to Mexico and realize that Mexicans all look different and that they aren't all the same. So, Olga wasn't embarrassed anymore and end up have pride in her Mexican

culture.

In 1949, Rodolfo married Geraldine Romero de Gonzalez and the couple ended up having eight children. Eight of those children were six daughters and two sons, Nita, Charlotte, Gina, Gail, Cindy, Valerie, Rudy, and Joaquin. All his kids followed on his legacy and fought for the Chicano community. On April 12, 2005, Gonzales passed away from a congestive heart failure at the age of 76.

In Chicano 37, I learned about how some of these Chicano/Chicana authors have sacrifice a different type of genre in order to write literature for the Chicano Community and their others that write because they're influenced by their surrounds and their childhoods. There were stories I have read and heard about when I was middle and high school, but they were just short versions of them because my teachers would say that they were useless for us to read.

I learned that some of these authors had trouble identifying their ethnicities when they were young, and I felt the same when I was young. The problem is that some of us don’t really get to learn about our cultures when we're in middle or high school because the educational systems feel like it's unnecessary. The only way I learned about my native culture was through my parents because they would talk to me about it and they would make watch TV programs. I enjoyed the class a lot because a lot of the times when I read some of these articles, it felt like I was going through the experience again. Some these authors made me more aware of my culture and now I ask a lot of questions to my parents and grandparents about my culture, and they love hearing that I want to learn about my roots.