Pioneering CSUB language professor dies
| Wednesday, Nov 25 2009 04:56 PM
Last Updated Wednesday, Nov 25 2009 04:58 PM
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When Carlos Lozano came to the United States from Mexico as a child in 1919, he struggled to learn English, he said in an autobiography. He later became fluent in seven languages, translated during World War II and Korea and became the founding chairman of Cal State Bakersfield's department of foreign languages.
When Carlos Lozano came to the United States from Mexico as a child in 1919, he struggled to learn English.
He later became fluent in seven languages, translated during World War II and Korea and became the founding chairman of Cal State Bakersfield's department of foreign languages.
Lozano died Sunday at 96. He lived as a military man, an academic and a devout Catholic, friends and family shared.
Lozano was born in 1913 in Zamora, Michoacan, in Mexico. He was one of 12 children. At 6, he immigrated to El Paso, Texas. As an illiterate, he was enrolled in school where teachers soon realized he was academically gifted.
From Texas he moved to Los Angeles. He dropped out of school at 16 to work as a dishwasher for the Biltmore Hotel in Santa Barbara. Artists, movie stars and educators he met while there encouraged him to pursue an education.
"They saw a gift in me and spurred me on," he said in an autobiography he wrote about three years ago.
He soon passed a high school equivalence exam and was eventually awarded a scholarship at the University of California, Berkeley, where he received a bachelor's degree. During doctorate studies in literature and languages, he was drafted into the U.S. Army.
By this time, he was fluent in Spanish, French, Italian, English, Portuguese, German and Latin.
Lozano rose in rank to Major. In 1949 he was transferred to Japan and in 1950 sent to Korea, where he endured a "horrendous year of fighting." Among decorations, he received the Legion of Merit.
His academic career followed soon after. He returned to Berkeley and then studied in Spain for his doctoral dissertation. Lozano taught mostly Spanish and literature at Berkeley, George Washington University, the University of Oregon, Saint Mary's College of California and the University of Scranton, among others.
He's published more than a half dozen books.
In 1970, he became the founding chairman of foreign languages at CSUB. He retired in 1981 but stayed at CSUB, where he was emeritus and special assistant to then-university President Tomas Arciniega.
He would remain there until 2003.
Personally, Lozano was outspoken and not shy about letting people, especially the youth, know about his beliefs, nephew Carlos Lozano said.
"He was brilliant," he said, following his uncle's services Wednesday. "He devoted his energy to helping young people further their education."
Monsignor Craig Harrison of St. Francis of Assisi Church knew Lozano for years as a devout Catholic and mentor to youth.
"Whenever a Hispanic high school kid came around and talked to him, he would always reply in Spanish," Harrison said. "When they didn't respond back in Spanish, he would lecture them in learning their culture. He had a sense of teaching people to have pride in who they are. He was always trying to get kids to better themselves."
Silvia Lozano Cuesta, of no relation, knew Lozano for many years and considered him a grandfather figure. She loved to hear his stories of trips around the world and to hear his advice, she said.
Lozano was a mentor to her husband and her sister received a scholarship through CSUB's Hispanic Excellence Scholarship Program, to which Lozano contributed. Her sister graduated from CSUB and is a teacher in Bakersfield.
"If he wasn't able to personally mentor, he provided the financial stability to continue their education," Lozano Cuesta said. "He saw education as a very integral part of life."
