Juan Federico "Freddie Freak" Miguel Arguello Trujillo Chicano Movement Collection, 1965-2009 | Colorado State University-Pueblo Library

The records are arranged into four series, as follows:

Series 1,  Publications, newspapers and periodicals, 1965-1994

Series 2,  Audiovisual materials, 1970s-1990s

Series 3,  Coors boycott, 1970-2000

Series 4, Ephemera, 1975-2008

Given the name Juan Federico Miguel Arguello Trujillo at birth, “Freddie Freak” acquired his colorful moniker as a result of his deep involvement in the hippie counterculture which gained prominence in the United States during the 1960s Vietnam War era.

Trujillo was born in 1938 in the southern Colorado town of Trinidad, the son of Juan Federico Trujillo, a coal miner who died three months before Freddie was born. Trujillo’s mother, Clorinda Arguello, whose family moved to southern Colorado from the northern New Mexico settlement of Santuario de Chimayó, had lost her hearing during her adolescence due to a botched medical procedure. His mother’s disability and the death of his father made for a tough beginning for Trujillo, but it also instilled in him a strong independent streak. When Freddie was seven years old the Trujillo family made the move north to Denver and a life in the historic Five Points area of the city. Trujillo’s older half-sister was employed as a barmaid at a lounge on Larimer Street, and Freddie began shining shoes and selling newspapers to help earn extra money for the family. Trujillo proved to be adept at the type of street hustling that thrived down on Larimer Street during the 1950s post-World War II era and, while still only a teenager, he managed to furnish his mother’s two-bedroom house, complete with living room furniture, kitchen appliances, and even a washing machine. But by the time he was sixteen, Trujillo had also dropped out of school, and he had acquired a taste for alcohol which would plague him well into the future.

Following a marriage and the births of three children, Trujillo’s personal life began to unravel, and his liquor consumption brought him to the brink of mental and physical collapse. In 1965, Trujillo checked himself into the Fort Logan Mental Health Center, and after 18 weeks of intensive 24 hour a day treatment, he emerged feeling as though he had been awarded a new lease on life. After Trujillo was released, counselors at the rehabilitation center where he went through his convalescence helped to get Freddie enrolled in a job placement program and he was trained in the arts of printing and color separation. When he was offered the opportunity to compete for a job working for Pruitt Press &Publishing, a company located in Boulder, Colorado which specialized in the printing of Christmas cards, Trujillo jumped at the chance to go live and work in the cultural center that Boulder was rapidly developing into. It was in Boulder where Trujillo would acquire the unique style of dress and mannerisms for which he would become known. Though he enjoyed the work of a printer, Trujillo was disturbed by the racist and sexist treatment of Chicanos and Chicanas who worked with the printer’s union at the large printing company, and this caused Trujillo to quit his position at the publishing company and take to the road, hitch-hiking his way to Berkeley, California in 1969 to partake of the Haight-Ashbury hippie scene.

Trujillo describes his introduction to the Chicano Movement in terms of experiencing an epiphany. In his view it was destiny that he became a foot-soldier in the struggle for Chicano liberation. In 1970, Trujillo participated in the summer program offered by the United Mexican American Students – Equal Opportunity Program (UMAS-EOP), and that fall enrolled for undergraduate classes at the prestigious University of Colorado in Boulder. As a Chicano activist, Trujillo put to use the experience he had gained while promoting free concerts and other events for Familia Security, who helped bring legendary bands such as The Grateful Dead to Boulder. Trujillo participated in student government and was elected to a CU Senate position as the organizing power of minority students grew on the Boulder campus. Trujillo’s understanding of the flow of monies through the University made him an adept organizer, and he played an integral part in bringing events such as La Fiesta de la Gente, and numerous other musical, theater, and dance performances by Chicano artists to the campus. During the early 1970s, the University of Colorado in Boulder was the scene of a flowering of Chicano culture and political awareness. This was a frightening spectacle to the power structure at the University, which responded in a reactionary fashion by cutting out those programs which had made it possible for the enrollment of Chicano students at CU-Boulder, a university with a total enrollment exceeding 20,000 students to jump from less than 50 Chicanos in 1968, to over 1200 by 1972. This policy of discrimination against Chicanos led to escalating conflict between University of Colorado officials and Chicano student activists.

A major antagonist of the Chicano student movement in Colorado proved to be Joe Coors, millionaire beer magnate, and University of Colorado Board of Regents member. A coalition of minority interest groups rose to protest discriminatory hiring practices at the Coors Brewery Company in Golden, Colorado, and Coors was placed high on the list of those to be targeted by radical factions of the Chicano community. A nationwide boycott of Coors Beer by the Chicano people was called for by UMAS, and the Aztlán Boycott Coors Committee was formed, which Trujillo rose to chair. The boycott proved to be an effective tactic; at one point the University of Colorado itself stopped serving Coors Beer at banquets and in the student lounge, and the boycott quickly spread throughout the United States. In his role as chairman of the Boycott Coors campaign, Trujillo traveled to California, Arizona, and New Mexico, as well as throughout the state of Colorado, making numerous public appearances to speak on the issues raised by the boycotters. Trujillo was also a strong supporter of César Chávez and the United Farm Workers Union’s non-violent struggle to improve the lives of the many Mexicano agricultural workers and their families who toiled under inhumane working conditions for miserably low wages.

Trujillo’s commitment to the Chicano Movement was fortified by the deep sense of loss and anger he shared with many other members of the Chicano community in Colorado following the tragic death of Ricardo Falcón. Falcón was gunned down in the town of Oro Grande, New Mexico following a confrontation with a White gas-station attendant over water to cool the radiator of the disabled car Falcón and other delegates from Colorado’s La Raza Unida Party were traveling in on their way to the historic LRUP National Convention held in El Paso, Texas in the late summer of 1972. The one-time coordinator of the UMAS tutorial program, Falcón was a well-respected organizer within the Chicano community of Colorado. He was also a close acquaintance of Trujillo.

In May 1974, Trujillo participated in the seizure and occupation of the building housing the UMAS-EOP offices on the CU-Boulder campus. The purpose of the occupation was to draw attention to the financial aid crisis facing Chicano students whose reliance on financial aid to attend college put them in a precarious position as the University chose to continue to slash money and programs for disadvantaged students. The occupation of Temporary Building 1 (TB-1) on the University of Colorado campus ended with the deaths of six young adults who were killed in two separate explosions which rocked the city of Boulder in late May of 1974. Killed in the first explosion were Neva Romero, Una Jaakola, and Reyes Martínez. The second explosion, which occurred two days later, claimed the lives of Florencio “Freddie” Granados, Heriberto Terán, and Francisco Dougherty. A lone survivor, Antonio Alcantar, was severely maimed, physically and psychologically. Five of those killed had been students at CU, two held degrees from the University of Colorado, and all had ties to UMAS. The Boulder bombings and the deaths of Los Seis de Boulder marked a climactic point during the Movimiento period of Chicano history.

As one of the original eight Chicano student occupiers of TB-1, a group which included Neva Romero, Trujillo felt a responsibility and duty to keep the memories of Los Seis de Boulder alive. In 1975 Trujillo was a key organizer of the first commemoration to honor the deaths of Los Seis, and has been an active participant and planner at subsequent annual commemorations which continue to be held throughout the state of Colorado. Since 1975 Trujillo has also made numerous presentations at colleges and universities on the topic of Los Seis de Boulder, UMAS, and the Chicano Movement in Colorado.

Trujillo moved to Pueblo, Colorado in 1978 and was a founder and contributor to La Cucaracha news magazine, working on layout and as a photographer during the publication’s eight year tenure. In addition to Los Seis de Boulder commemorations, Freddie Freak also continues to participate in organizing annual Cinco de Mayo parades and fiestas in Pueblo, as well Día de la Raza celebrations, and Columbus Day protest events. He has also produced several videos for community access television in Denver, Colorado. In September 2008 Trujillo donated the contents of his personal archives collection to Colorado State University-Pueblo, the first donation to the newly inaugurated Southern Colorado Ethnic Heritage and Diversity Archives.

Juan “Freddie Freak” Trujillo lived in Pueblo with his compañera de vida Francis, whom he met in Boulder in 1973.  He passed away of cancer in 2020.  He died in Pueblo, CO.