Excalibur 2023 winner Armando Cardenas reflects on 50 years of advocacy, public service
As a 6-year-old boy living in Uvalde, Texas, Armando Cardenas remembers the sting of segregated schools when separate was anything but equal.
Cardenas, 79, said he had no choice but to attend an all Hispanic school — he was not allowed to attend the town's white school or its Black school.
"That stayed with me," Cardenas said. "I remember thinking, 'So wait a minute. How come I couldn't go to the white school?' But as I grew older, I started finding out what the real story was. What our people were facing in this country."
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Experiencing segregated schools helped shape Cardenas into a tireless civil rights advocate, a musician with a strong message and a prominent voice of Rockford’s Latino community.
On Thursday, Cardenas was named the 2023 Excalibur Award winner, recognizing his excellence in community service during a ceremony attended by hundreds of people.
Members of a selection committee said Cardenas stood out from a field of many deserving candidates.
When she realized it was Cardenas who was chosen for the award, 2020 Excalibur Award winner and local attorney Linda Zuba could be heard over boisterous applause shouting "Si se puede!"
"We can feel Armando's passion," Zuba said. "He doesn't let us give up. I yelled out 'Si se puede,' because that is one of his mantras. It means 'Yes we can.'"
Zuba said Cardenas for decades has remained a steadfast voice against injustice of all sorts, but always in a civil and respectful way. She said he looks for ways to work with city, county and state leaders to address the needs he sees.
"Anyone who is being oppressed or discriminated against, he just feels so passionate about that," Zuba said. "A lot of it has to do with his faith. His faith instills in him that he needs to stand for those who can't stand for themselves or those who don't have a voice."
Growing up, Cardenas' family migrated to work the farm fields each summer in Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota. In 1963, they moved to Rockford where jobs were plentiful and they had a chance at a better life.
After he was drafted into the Army, Cardenas remembers going out in 1966 with four soldiers into town outside of what was then called Fort Polk, Louisiana. It was Cardenas, a white guy, an Italian guy and a Black man. A tavern wouldn't allow the Black man inside.
Weeks after he returned home to Rockford after being discharged from the Army, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.
These experiences and others shaped Cardenas. He saw there were few if any resources for Latino residents in Rockford.
He wanted to do something to help and in 1972 he became the first director of La Voz Latina, a cultural resource center that later became part of the YWCA Northwestern Illinois. He was an advocate for the first bilingual program and first Mariachi music elective in Rockford Public Schools. And he is the founder of the Rockford music series Domingos En El Parque.
Retired Judge Rosemary Collins, who served on the Excalibur Award selection committee, said she was impressed by Cardenas' lifetime of work, raising awareness of issues facing the Latino community across the Rockford region.
"He's done a great job advocating for the children to make sure they get the access to education they deserve — their language equity," Collins said. "He's been a real outspoken and effective leader, and he really cares."
Jeff Kolkey writes about government, economic development and other issues for the Rockford Register Star. He can be reached at (815) 987-1374, via email at jkolkey@rrstar.com and on Twitter @jeffkolkey.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Armando Cardenas 'stands for those who can't stand for themselves'
