Deacon recognized for academic achievements

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Dr. Armando Solorzano and University of Utah President Dr. Ruth Watkins are shown at the ceremony at which he was presented the Distinguished Teaching Award. The hat worn by Solorzano, who is an ordained Catholic deacon, is a head covering worn by an indigenous people of Mexico. Deacon Solorzano's father was an indigenous person.

SALT LAKE CITY — Deacon Armando Solorzano has received the “Distinguished Teaching Award” from the University of Utah.

Deacon Solorzano is an associate professor of ethnic studies in the School for Cultural and Social Transformation, and an associate professor in the Department of Family and Consumer Studies in the College of Social and Behavioral Science at the University of Utah. He has been teaching at the U of U for 29 years.

The Distinguished Teacher Award is an honor that the University of Utah gives annually to recognize the achievements of its faculty.

Deacon Solorzano holds a doctorate in sociology and three master’s degrees. Since the first moment he stepped foot in Utah, he and his wife, Christina, have been involved with the community, he said.

He has also published three books, several book chapters and countless manuscripts; and received state and international awards, honors and nominations.

“In short, he [Dr. Armando Solorzano] is among the U’s most dedicated, visionary pedagogues, with a clear sense of what he would accomplish, even concerning several domains (immigration, patterns of educational segregation, indigenous spirituality, and families of diverse backgrounds). He is a conceptual theoretical populist,” reads one of the nominations written for Deacon Solorzano as a candidate for the award.

In 1989 Deacon Solorzano immigrated to the United States from his hometown in Guadalajara, Mexico. He was ordained as a deacon for the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City in 2010.

His vocation to teaching started as he gave Catechism classes, Deacon Solorzano said.

“My guides were the Marists Brothers in Mexico,” said Deacon Solorzano, who has always tried to keep alive his cultural traditions, such as the hat he wore at the award ceremony.

“I wore it to honor the indigenous people, and also my father, who was an indigenous too,” Deacon Solorzano said.

As a scholar and an immigrant, he has a social responsibility, he said. “We need to maintain the history of the people alive and present.”

 Every year he and his wife travel with a group of University of Utah students to Mexico and other Central American countries to interview, film and create an archive of data of how the communities celebrate different traditions. They also provide services such as hygiene campaigns, family pacification and ecology campaigns.

“He advocates for minority students and the inclusion of diversity issues in curriculum across the U. Solorzano involves both undergraduate and graduate students in his research projects, empowering them to bring their skills and interests to social justice issues,” another nominator stated.

“Our true nature relies on the generosity of service, in knowing that the project of life goes beyond what we have,” said Deacon Solorzano, who is assigned to Sacred Heart Parish in Salt Lake City.