DENNIS GILMAN JUNE 8 At a memorial gathering for Gilman, one speaker compared his tireless efforts to document the nativist ugliness that swept Arizona in the 2010s to the actions of the San Patricio Battalion. The ballalion was made up of U.S. Army deserters who fought for Mexico during the Mexican- American War (and were punished with execution after Mexico lost). Gilman would have loved the comparison. An accomplished musician and an alarm tech- nician by trade, Gilman poured his time, money and considerable talent into documenting racism and injustice on his YouTube page, HumanLeague002. He filmed Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s anti-immigration raids, dogged the heels of bigoted politicians such as Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce and made a record of members of the anti-immigrant crowd at protests against Arizona’s immigration law, Senate Bill 1070. Gilman, who died at 67 of natural causes, was unflinching and unafraid, driven by an inner morality that despised bullies and oppression. More than once, he was attacked by nativists and neo-Nazis, who could not stand the way they were portrayed in Gilman’s videos. But all Gilman did was hold up a mirror to them, allowing them to damn themselves with their ill words and deeds. Gilman was a citizen journalist and not a professional one, but he could teach the latter a thing or two. A few years ago, he retired and bought a home in Miami, Arizona, devoting much of his time to music. With a new, more powerful nativism on the march, Gilman and his camera are much missed. Thankfully, as can be seen in videos of federal immigration cops on TikTok and X, others have taken up the fight. – Stephen Lemons RAÚL GRIJALVA MARCH 13 Perhaps the most legendary progressive Democrat in Arizona’s recent political memory, Grijalva was born 30 miles south of Tucson in 1948, the son of a Mexican guest worker in the country under the Bracero Program. After decades of holding local political office, Grijalva was elected to Congress in 2002, occupying the seat until his death from lung cancer in March. A champion of Latino and Chicano culture — as well as American multiculturalism — Grijalva was known throughout his political career as a staunch advocate for bilingual education, tribal sovereignty and environ- mental justice. His interest in and knowledge of conservation earned him a 10-year role as the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee. Grijalva’s personable approach made him widely liked on both sides of the aisle, even if his stances were largely left-of-center. “Arizona lost a friend today,” GOP Rep. Andy Biggs wrote after Grijalva’s death, calling him “a dedicated public servant who served his constituents well.” Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego said Grijalva “spent his life as a voice for equality.” Grijalva was an activist before he was a politician, coming up with the Chicano nation- alist Raza Unida Party. He lost his first local elec- tion in 1972 but came back two years later with a more polished style to win a seat on the governing board of the Tucson Unified School District. He also sat on the Pima County Board of Supervisors from 1989 until his 2002 congres- sional run. It’s the same body that his daughter, Adelita Grijalva, served on before winning a special elec- tion to fill her father’s seat this summer. She won the seat at 54 years old, the same age her father was when he was first elected to Congress. – TJ L’Heureux STEVE BENSON JULY 8 Like any good political cartoonist, Steve Benson knew how to ruffle feathers. And Benson, who died at 71 due to complications from a 2024 stroke, was a great political cartoonist. Born in Sacramento and raised in a devoutly Mormon family (his grandfather was president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), Benson abandoned a possible career in the LDS church for a career skewering the powerful with pen and ink. Spending most of his cartooning life at the Arizona Republic — though, after he was let go by the Republic in 2019, his work also appeared in New Times and the Arizona Mirror — Benson won a Pulitzer Prize in 1993 and was a finalist on four other occasions. He wasn’t afraid of going after the powerful. Barry Goldwater once famously took offense at a Benson cartoon. In the late 1980s, Benson hammered Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham, a fellow Mormon who lasted less than two years in office before he was impeached, even worse. Those cartoons widened a rift between Benson and the LDS church, which he eventually left. He spent the rest of his career as an avowed atheist and liberal. Benson’s cartoons sometimes offended more than just career politicians and the LDS church. In particular, a 1997 anti-death penalty cartoon — which tweaked a famous image of a firefighter carrying the bloodied body of a child killed in the Oklahoma City bombing — angered firefighters and also the child’s mother. But Benson never backed down or apologized for it, saying his cartoons are meant to provoke. “I don’t aim to please,” he liked to say. “I just aim.” – Zach Buchanan ALFREDO GUTIERREZ JULY 28 Gutierrez was a Phoenix legend. He was a civil rights activist, co-founded a hugely influential nonprofit and rose to a position of leadership in the Democratic Party as a state legislator. He did all that before age 30 — though even in his later years, he was known as a vocal opponent of one of Arizona’s most infamous discrimination laws. Growing up in Miami, Arizona, Gutierrez admitted to having a juvenile police record and was a “guest of county facilities on a number of occasions,” chalking it up to a lack of anything to do. “I was from a tough family; it was a tough place,” Gutierrez told New Times in 1991. “I survived. What else can I say?” He served in the Vietnam War and later worked in the mines of his hometown, coming to Phoenix only when a mining strike stalled his work. He was eligible for the G.I. Bill, so he split and went to Arizona State University before being pushed out over his campus activism. He then helped Cesar Chavez orga- nize farmworkers and worked on Robert F. Kennedy’s ill-fated 1968 presidential campaign. In 1969, Gutierrez founded Chicanos Por La Causa, which remains one of the largest Latino-focused community development orga- nizations in the country. Gutierrez then turned to politics, winning an Arizona Senate seat in 1972 as a Democrat; two years later, he was tabbed the Senate Majority Leader. He spent 14 years in the Arizona Legislature. Decades after leaving the legislature, Gutierrez became a foremost activist against the controversial Senate Bill 1070, even getting arrested as a result. That activist streak never quite left him — just before his July death from esophageal cancer at 79, Gutierrez was spotted mixing it up with a counterprotester at an anti- Trump demonstration. – TJ L’Heureux MARILYN ZEITLIN NOV. 10 When Marilyn Zeitlin passed away in November at 84, the tributes about the longtime Phoenix arts community figure began to pour in. From Arizona State University Art Museum, where she was director and chief curator for years: “During her 15-year tenure, she brought forward innovative exhibitions and opened doors for emerging artists at pivotal moments in their careers. Her commitment (to) artist-centered practice continues to resonate throughout the museum.” In layman’s terms: Zeitlin traveled to El Salvador to meet with artists whose work depicted the country’s civil war and organized the first trip of U.S. university students to post- revolutionary Cuba; she was the U.S. commis- sioner for the 1995 Venice Biennale, an important international cultural exhibition; she mentored and encouraged artists and arts professionals; and she markedly raised the profile and reputation of the ASU Art Museum as a vital Southwest cultural institution. Her legacy echoes through its halls. – Jennifer Goldberg >> p 11 (All portraits by David Morgan)
