Adalberto Guerrero papers

Adalberto “Beto” Guerrero was born in Bisbee, Arizona on December 11, 1929. Son of an underground miner and union activist, Guerrero dropped out of high school during his freshmen year to work at Fort Huachuca. After marrying his wife Ana in 1950, he joined the army, returning to mining after his discharge. By 1953, Guerrero’s wife and father-in-law convinced him to apply to the University of Arizona, where he was accepted after earning his GED diploma. In 1957, Guerrero received his undergraduate degree in Spanish from the University of Arizona and began teaching at Pueblo High School. In 1962, due to the success of his program of Spanish for Spanish speakers, Guerrero was asked to join the faculty of the Education and Romance Languages departments at the University of Arizona. He also worked as curriculum specialist at Pima Community College, developing the Heritage Speakers Program, popular with native speakers opting to major or minor in Spanish.

After Guerrero’s Pueblo High School program was nationally recognized and used as model for the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) Bilingual Education Institute, he was asked to join the Tucson-NEA (National Education Association) Survey on the Teaching of Spanish to the Spanish-speaking. Guerrero and a group of pioneers in the field published their findings in 1966 in a report titled “The Invisible Minority.” That same year the National Education Association (NEA) organized a national symposium that helped focus attention to the plight of Mexican-American students, eventually leading to congressional hearings. In 1967, Guerrero testified in support of Senate Bill 428, which became Title VII or the Bilingual Education Act of 1969.

Guerrero was the first Chicano to serve as Assistant Dean of Students at the University of Arizona, a position he held from 1973 to 1975. While at the University of Arizona, Guerrero also directed the New Start Summer Program and was chair of the Mexican American Studies Committee. He remained a lecturer in the Romance Languages Department until his retirement from the University of Arizona in 1994. Recognitions and awards presented to Guerrero include the NEA’s Human Rights Award, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Award, Outstanding Faculty Contributor to Minority Student Education, and the National Association for Bilingual Education Pioneer Award. In 2002, the Adalberto Guerrero Middle School in Tucson was named after him, and in 2014, the University of Arizona Chicano/Hispano Student Affairs center was renamed the Adalberto and Ana Guerrero Student Center.