BILL AGUADO DIDN'T CARRY A SWITCHBLADE
Retired Bronx Council for the Arts Leader profiled in the NY Times
“My father loved to read poetry,” recalled Mr. Aguado, 63, who retired as director in May. “As a kid I sat in his lap while he read poetry in Spanish to me. It was such an important experience that I could feel his passion sitting there.”
Those lessons, from a man who owned a Harlem candy store, taught him that culture is found in any neighborhood, not just in august institutions.
“When we got here in 1982, the South Bronx was still smoldering,” said Wally Edgecombe, the director of the Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture. “We got the charge from our president to come up with cultural programming. Somebody came to me and said we’d never get any audiences. But Aguado said, ‘This is where it is needed the most.’ The arts brought this community back.”