Alum Norman Zelaya: A Mission District Childhood Full of the Elders' Stories

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE -- A special education teacher in the San Francisco Unified School District for more than 20 years, Zelaya graduated from University of California, Berkeley, and received his Master of Fine Arts from San Francisco State, where he met Darren de Léon and Paul S. Flores; the three founded the poetry performance troupe Los Delicados, which in 2000 released the album “Word Descarga.” “When I got into college and was still writing,” Zelaya said, “and learning a little more about myself and about my place, at that point it became about documenting what we live through; it became about validating those experiences in San Francisco, that were just as important as the Beats, or any other literary movement, or anybody else. The Mission is just as important as Sea Cliff, or Pacific Heights or City Hall; these are real people living real lives, and I wanted to tell the story so folks could understand our world.”