2010: "Big Jim" Griffith
Teacher, founder, anthropologist,
author, story teller, award-winning musician, and folklorist all
describe the 2010 Tucson Rodeo Parade Grand Marshal, James “Big Jim”
Griffith.
For over four decades Big Jim has studied folkways and religious expression throughout the United States-Mexico border region.
Griffith’s work as an academic and
public folklorist has been extraordinary and his legacy includes
founding the Southwest Folklore Center at the University of Arizona and
the annual Tucson Meet Yourself Folk Arts Festival.
Jim Griffith was born in Santa
Barbara, California, and came to Tucson in 1955 to attend the University
of Arizona. He has considered himself a permanent Tucson resident since
1963.
He loves Southern Arizona and has
said, “I guess I’ll stay in Tucson as long as it gets worse slower than
other places.” He received all three of his degrees from the University
of Arizona, the Ph.D. in cultural anthropology and art history in 1973.
From 1979 until his retirement in
1998 he ran the University’s Southwest Folklore Center. He is currently a
Research Associate at the Center. With his wife, Loma, he started
Tucson Meet Yourself in 1974.
The celebration of Tucson’s ethnic
and cultural diversity now draws over 100,000 participants annually.
Although he retired as director of the festival in 1995, he is once
again heavily involved in this project.
Starting in 1985, Jim Griffith
wrote and hosted “Southern Arizona Traditions,” a weekly 3- minute spot
on KUAT-TV’s Arizona Illustrated program. For 2 years in the late 1980s
he wrote a monthly column on “Local Custom” for the now-defunct City
Magazine.
He was curator for eleven
exhibitions of regional traditional arts, the most recent being “La
Cadena Que No Se Corta/The Unbroken Chain: The Traditional Arts of
Tucson’s Mexican American Community,” at the University of Arizona
Museum of Art in the winter of 1996-7. Griffith has written seven books
on Southern Arizona and Northern Mexico folk arts, traditions and
religious art.
He has been honored by several
literary societies and includes such awards as the 2005 Henry Glassie
Award and the 2009 Pima County Library Lifetime Achievement Award. He is
currently researching for a book on the religious art of Sonora, and
finishing a guide to regional folklore.
Big Jim is also an accomplished
and award-winning banjo player. He recorded Dixie Cowboy, a CD
collection of bluegrass and folk tunes, and also collected the songs and
wrote the liner notes for the CD Heroes and Horses: Corridos of the
Arizona-Sonora Borderlands, Jim Griffith’s professional commitment has
always been to try to understand the cultures of this part of the
border, and to pass along that understanding, as respectfully and
accurately as possible, to the general public.
2009: Mayor Bob Walkup
The new Grand Marshall for the 2009
Tucson Rodeo Parade is Tucson's Mayor Robert (Bob) E. Walkup was named
during the annual Tucson Rodeo Parade press conference.
2008: Humberto Lopez
A
self-made man, Humberto Lopez has washed dishes, dig ditches, worked
fields, bagged groceries, and became one of the most recognized members
of Tucson's business and non profit communities.
Lopez is recognized as the Tucson
Rodeo Parade Grand Marshal for 2008 because he is a mentor, a leader,
and a contributor to the community.
When Lopez was 12, his father died
unexpectedly and his world changed dramatically. Both his mother and
Lopez, who was the oldest of six children, went to work to support the
family. Years of poverty followed.
He soon learned that the best way to
escape the life of pverty was through education. His success came
through hard work, perserverance and life lessons from family. Humberto
holds two Public Accountant Certifications and a Bachelor's degree. He
is president and co-founder of HSL Properties Inc, which deals primarily
in the purchase, investment and development of real estate. He is
active in community events, fundraisers and service organizations.
2007: Former Surgeon General Carmona
In
a "roast style" presentation, former U.S. General Surgeon, and Tucson
hero, Richard H. Carmona, was selected as the 2007 Grand Marshal of the
82nd Tucson Rodeo Parade.
Dr. Carmona, who finished his term as
17th Surgeon General of The United States, now serves as the Vice
Chairman of Canyon Ranch and the CEO of the Canyon Ranch Health
Division.
Originally trained in general and
vascular surgery after medical school, Dr. Carmona began a second career
in public health that propelled him to receive unanimous confirmation
by the Senate in 2002 as theSurgeon General. Dr. Carmona also served as
the Pima County Sheriff's Department surgeon and deputy sheriff.