Anti-Vietnam War Veteran & Community Activist

by Jake Fegan

Mural commissioned by Darlene Dominguez Trujillo to commemorate the Salon del Arte at Su Teatro, named after her husband, and Vietnam War veteran, Frank Trujillo. Photo credit: Esteban Gómez.

Frank Trujillo

August 20, 1948 - July 15, 2010

Frank Trujillo was born August 20, 1948 in La Junta, Colorado. His family worked as farmers and grew fruit.[1] He was born into a large family with ten siblings.[2] Frank was the seventh boy of the eight in the Trujillo family. He attended Swink High School in Swink, Colorado and graduated in 1967.[3] Military service had been a part of the Trujillo family since Frank was young. In fact, five of Frank’s brothers would eventually join the military. On his 18th birthday, Frank enlisted in the U.S. Army to fight in the Vietnam War. Three of Frank’s brothers had already enlisted in the military by this time, including his older brother Roque Trujillo, who also served in the military during the Vietnam War.[4] While it may have been expected of Frank to follow in his brother’s footsteps, there were other reasons for his enlistment. Frank also wanted to get away from his family environment, later writing “I enlisted to run away from my abusive father… and learn responsibility.”[5]

Frank started out with the 101st Airborne Division and was stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.[6] In December of 1967, Frank was shipped out to Vietnam where he worked in the kitchens and in waste disposal, which mainly consisted of burning garbage.[7] Things changed for Frank when he was on leave in his home town of Swink, Colorado, and was a few days late in reporting back to his C.O.[8] As a punishment, Frank was reassigned to Charlie Company which was located on the front lines. However, when Frank’s rotation began and he was about to be called to the front lines, a clerk named Patrick J. Graham pleaded with Frank to swap places with him.[9] Patrick was from Minnesota and, according to his sister, had always wanted to see combat.[10] He was frustrated with his role in the Army because he felt as if he was not contributing enough as the Headquarters Company Clerk. Initially, Frank refused Patrick’s request to switch positions, but eventually he agreed.[11] Frank then began clerking while Patrick went to the front lines. Unfortunately, two weeks after Patrick and Frank traded positions, Patrick Graham was killed in action. This had a deep impact on Frank as he felt responsible for the young man’s death. Later, when Frank began writing poetry, he wrote about Patrick and the remorseful feelings he held onto. Initially, Frank had not acknowledged Patrick’s death and tried to avoid thinking about it altogether. But 18 years later Frank came to terms with what had happened and said that he was “pissed off and angry at myself for not acknowledging him and what he did. I keep asking myself… why him and not me?”[12]

On February 20th, 1969 Frank was honorably discharged from the Army. However, the day before he was due to leave, he got into an altercation with a high-ranking officer. Frank and his friends were relaxing off-duty when the officer started to accost them without reason. The conflict became heated and then physical between Frank and the officer. Frank then left the base believing that he could be in serious trouble. He stayed the night at a Vietnamese compound where he knew one of the tenants. However, one of Frank’s friends informed him that their Sergeant found out the officer had been harassing the group and chose not to punish Frank.

Frank returned to his home town of La Junta and worked at the airport where he helped to assemble and build campers; he then moved on to the Colorado Fuel & Iron Corporation.[13] Frank’s time in Vietnam continued to affect him as he felt responsible for Patrick’s death as well as taking part in a war he did not agree with. According to his wife, Darlene, Frank “likely suffered from PTSD… and he did start to drink more heavily.”[14] In protest he destroyed the Bronze Medal that he was awarded and wrote more poetry to express his discontent. In a poem titled “The American Dream,” Frank wrote: “A vision of life that has sent me to the rice paddies of Vietnam. To destroy life. And lives. My life. My lives.”[15]

Frank’s identity as a Chicano and a farmer conflicted with his involvement in Vietnam. As he spent more and more time in country, he began to identify more and more with the farmers in Vietnam who were simply trying to live their lives, just like his family in Colorado. Eventually, Frank worked to resolve his guilt and remorse for his time in Vietnam in a very constructive and healthy way. He accomplished this by immersing himself in community projects in Colorado and it was during this time that he met his wife. Frank also stopped drinking and remained sober for 30 years.

Frank met Darlene Trujillo in 1987 at a community organization in Denver called Servicios de la Raza, an institution that provides “culturally relevant human services.”[16] The couple married in 1988.[17] Darlene and Frank were very active in the Denver community, especially at Su Teatro Cultural and Performing Arts Center, a theater and organization that focuses on Latina/o cultural arts. Frank was an active board member of the theater and eventually worked with others in the community to buy the theater from the city of Denver. Tony Garcia, the director of Su Teatro and a close friend of Frank’s, claimed that Frank was always logistically minded which helped him work in real estate. He kept the board members on track and knew how to realistically tackle goals of the program.[18] Garcia recalls a story that demonstrates just how devoted Frank was to his community, and to the Su Teatro project, when the board was trying to purchase the theater from the city of Denver. Three of the board members, including Frank and Tony, “were sitting around the table” deciding if they would put up their homes as collateral in order to purchase the theatre. “All three of us said we would,” remembers Garcia. “Frank was that determined to make it happen.”[19] Thankfully, the board members never had to go to that extreme to buy the theater because they received a $400,000 grant from the Gates Foundation. When Tony found out that they had the funding to purchase the theater, he immediately called Frank. “Frank started to cry,” said Garcia.[20]

Frank was also known to bring in people from around the community to work with Su Teatro. According to Tony Garcia, he would include individuals based on their talent, but also often because they were troubled. Frank believed that their involvement in Su Teatro would help them with some of their worries and provide them with a positive outlet in life.

The theater undoubtedly aided Frank with his past as well. Frank’s time in the Vietnam War, especially his experience with Patrick Graham, eventually overlapped with his work at Su Teatro. When a performance was held that centered around the Vietnam War, Frank opened up the performance with a poem he had written about Patrick Graham and the guilt he still held. Tony Garcia and Darlene Trujillo both remember this as a cathartic moment for Frank.

Unfortunately, soon after Su Teatro was purchased, Frank’s health began to decline. He was talking to his wife Darlene about what would come of his life insurance policy and Frank made sure that a portion of the money would go to Su Teatro when he passed. Frank Trujillo passed away on July 15, 2010, and the board members all agreed that the black box performance area in Su Teatro would be renamed to the Frank Trujillo Salon De Arte. It is difficult to sum up a person’s personality in any short span of time; however, Tony Garcia came close when he described who Frank was: “Frank was a real smart, analytical person, but he was a softy. He had an incredibly big heart and he cared very passionately about the well-being of the community.”[21] Frank is survived by his wife Darlene and his daughter Yvette as well as two grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. He is buried at the Fort Logan Cemetery in Colorado.

Footnotes ↓

[1] Darlene Trujillo, interview by Matthew Kavorkian, May 25, 2019, Fort Logan National Cemetery, Denver, Colorado, 2019, DU VLP.

[2] Ibid.

[3] “Student Info Trujillo Class of 67,” Old Friends, accessed October 2, 2019, https://old-friends.co/studentRecord.php?s=192*506711&dd=.

[4] “Obituary for Roque Trujillo Jr,” Lindquist Mortuaries and Cemeteries, accessed October 2, 2019, https://www.lindquistmortuary.com/notices/Roque-TrujilloJr.

[5] Frank Trujillo photo album, courtesy of Darlene Trujillo.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Darlene Trujillo, Fort Logan interview.

[8] Frank Trujillo photo album, courtesy of Darlene Trujillo.

[9] Darlene Trujillo, Fort Logan interview.

[10] “Patrick John Graham Vietnam War Military Casualties, 1956-1998,” Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, College Park, Maryland, https://search.ancestrylibrary.com.

[11] Darlene Trujillo, Fort Logan interview.

[12] Frank Trujillo photo album, courtesy of Darlene Trujillo.

[13] “Steelworks Employment Records, Frank Trujillo, 1887-1979,” Steelworks of the West, https://search.ancestrylibrary.com.

[14] Darlene Trujillo, Fort Logan interview.

[15] Paco De La Junta, 1983 Chicano Engagement Calendar: A Year of Poetry De Paco De La Junta (Denver: Grass Roots Associates, 1982).

[16] “Servicios de la Raza” accessed October 2, 2019, https://www.coloradononprofits.org/membership/nonprofit-member-directory/nonprofit/3450.

[17] Darlene Trujillo and Tony Garcia, interview by Jake Fegan, Su Teatro Cultural and Performing Arts Center, Denver, Colorado, August 9, 2019, DU VLP.