Concern for others nourishes activism

Rose Aguilar

Age: 76
Residence: Detroit
Occupation: Community activist; retired social worker
Honored: For 35 years of activism in southwest Detroit, especially on behalf of Spanish-speaking children and new immigrants, Latino voters, migrants, crime victims and senior citizens

he’s 76 years old and battling liver cancer. But that doesn’t stop Rose Aguilar from packing her suitcase — again.

    Destination: Denver and the annual meeting of the National Council on Aging. Aguilar represented the Detroit Area Agency on Aging at the April meeting. She’s served on the council’s executive board for 17 years.

    “I have a lot of frequent mileage,” Aguilar said. “So I get up and go.”

    Aguilar also racked up about 35 years of mileage in southwest Detroit, on foot and by car, as one of the busiest activists in the predominantly Mexican community. The single mother of six still works on behalf of Spanish-speaking children, new Hispanic immigrants, voters, migrants, crime victims, senior citizens and others.

    “Overall, this community is a better place because of Rose and her leadership,” said Paul Bridgewater, executive director of the Detroit Area Agency on Aging.

    Each year, the agency gives the Rose Aguilar Award to a woman emulating her leadership. Bridgewater said it is Aguilar’s example that has allowed people to see that they can overcome obstacles as long they believe in themselves — as Aguilar has believed in herself.

    During the late 1960s, Aguilar worked tirelessly to bring bilingual educators into southwest Detroit schools. In the 1970s, she supported legislation that authorized reimbursement for schools that offer bilingual education. She has served 15 organizations, including the Southwest Detroit Improvement Association, the Archdiocese of Detroit, Hispanic Democrats of Wayne County and the American Red Cross.

    “She has her hands in everything in the neighborhood,” friend Carol Coulon said. “She’s just all over, everywhere, doing everything.”

    Coulon said Aguilar also is someone who’s always there to lend a hand — distributing holiday food baskets, collecting mittens for children, registering people to vote.

    “She gives more than anyone to keep things going,” Coulon said. “She really cares about her community. And it isn’t just the Latino community; she cares about everybody. She’s a shining example of how someone should be.”

    Aguilar, a Western High School grad, even chose paying jobs that helped people in the community: as one of the original employees of Latin Americans for Social and Economic Development and as the first Hispanic woman to work on staff at the western branch YMCA. She retired in 1994 from Wayne County, where she was a community service worker and later a victims’ advocate in the prosecutor’s office.

    Aguilar, however, said time on the job and in the community is secondary to her role as a mother.

    “My greatest achievement is raising my children into respectable citizens,” she said. “If I’ve done that, I’ve done my job. If I’ve helped someone along the road, then I’ve done a good deed.”

— Kim Kozlowski