The Last Chicano

PEN OAKLAND The Josephine Miles Award 2010 For excellence in literature is hereby presented to Manuel Ruben Delgado for his book The Last Chicano (AuthorHouse)
The Last Chicano is a true story of alienation, family heroes, social defiance, radical politics and fate, told through real life experiences, from San Bernardino's Mexican barrio to the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, ending with the discovery of family ties to the Mexican Revolution.

The story begins with the colorful history of San Bernardino, CA in the 1940s, as the Delgado family struggles to achieve the American Dream: the story of Delgado's uncles, Zoot Suit wearing Pachucos and professional boxers, who were his first heroes; of life as a Vato Loco, narrowly avoiding state prison at the age of 17; of a life threatening disability that affords him the opportunity to attend the University of California, Berkeley.

At Berkeley, the author joins the Mexican American Student Confederation and becomes a leader of the Third World Liberation Front strike for Ethnic Studies, the longest, most violent student strike in California history. But the passions of the 1960s subside and, disillusioned, he moves to Los Angeles where he lives a life of dissolution. Twelve years later he returns to academia as a Chicano polemicist, this time in Teacher Education and Political Science. The story ends with a trip to Zacatecas, Mexico where Delgado discovers that his father's family played key roles in implementing the new socialist Constitution of 1917, serving as Mayors, Governors, labor leaders and State Senators.