Statement from Michael Meth, Dean of the SJSU King Library
The San José State University Library remembers and honors the life of Alcario Castellano—a generous philanthropist, beloved father, and enduring advocate for educational and cultural equity in San José and beyond.
With his late wife, Carmen Castellano, Alcario co-founded the Castellano Family Foundation, a philanthropic force that shifted the landscape of giving in Santa Clara County. The couple stood out not only for their generosity but for who they were—Mexican Americans of working-class roots who used a life-changing lottery win in 2001 not for personal luxury, but to elevate their community.
Alcario Castellano’s impact extended far beyond financial contributions. He was a chronicler of community, a man who saw value in documenting local history when few others did. In 2023, the library celebrated the digital launch of the Castellano Family Collections—an integration of the family’s civic leadership documents and visual record of community life.
His legacy lives on in the people he mentored, the students he championed, and the community history he captured with his photography. In his final public appearance at SJSU in September 2024, Alcario reflected on his life's work with SJSU students and faculty. We are grateful to be entrusted to steward his collection of vital historical records in the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in San José, California.
Libraries are more than books or a building—they are a living archive of joy and struggle and serve as bridges between generations, guardians of information, and connections for collective memory. Libraries nurture the ties that bind communities, offering a home for discovery and dignity—and a space where every story matters.
Please read the sentiments below from Librarian Kathy Blackmer Reyes, a friend of the Castellanos and a champion of connection and belonging. Her work reminds us that libraries thrive when they reflect the people they serve.
The SJSU King Library expresses profound gratitude to the Castellano family for entrusting us with this legacy.
Alcario Castellano’s legacy and spirit will live on as a guiding light of civic generosity, deep cultural pride, and unwavering love for his family and the community he so dearly cherished.
Michael Meth
Dean, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library
San José State University
By Kathryn Blackmer Reyes
Librarian & Director, AAACNA Studies Center, SJSU King Library
Alcario Castellano, Carmen Castellano, and the Castellano Family Foundation (CFF) are just names and a non-profit foundation to most people—but to SJSU King Library and me, Alcario and Carmen were friends, patrons, and allies. In the Africana, Asian American, Chicano & Native American Studies Center and in San José, many know Alcario and Carmen well and will miss them greatly. Alcario and Carmen’s philanthropy had a huge impact on the non-profits they supported—they touched the lives of so many Mexican Americans, Chicanos, and Latinos. Carmen Castellano left us in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, the CFF gave its last award in 2023, and Alcario Castellano joined Carmen on April 26, 2025.
What made the Castellanos so important to San José philanthropy?
The Castellanos were many things that philanthropists are generally not—they were not white, not old money, and most importantly, they were humble and committed to their communities and their people. Beyond providing financial support with carefully selected grants, they advocated for the non-profits that worked to support minority communities. They also made non-profits accountable in diversifying board membership. Long before Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts, they were demanding a space for people of color. The Castellano Family Foundation was an advocate in promoting philanthropists of color for equity issues. They stood out, they were the “Brown Faces” in Philanthropy. Their “new” money did not change them from who they were before the 2001 lottery win as they were now able to take their civic engagement to another level. They now had a seat at the table. And they made sure to influence who got to sit at the table with them.
I learned about the Castellanos when I arrived at San José State University as a faculty member and librarian in 2007. The Castellanos were committed supporters of students in their pursuit of higher education and contributed to many SJSU initiatives, such as the Chicano/Latino Faculty & Staff Association’s Galarza Scholarship that helps Chicano/Latino students at SJSU, San José City College, and Evergreen College, and supports SJSU Chicana/o student organizations like Chicano Commencement and the Grupo Folklórico Luna y Sol.
At the time, the only thing I knew about them was that they had won the lottery, but to my good fortune, over the course of my 18 years at SJSU, we shared spaces and commitments that granted me the opportunity to know them professionally and personally. Along the way I also got to meet their adult children Carmela, Armando, and Maria.
While my time with Carmen was limited, I had many opportunities to speak to Alcario. Their lives took a sharp turn with the lottery win. He described to me the moment they realized they had won—he thought of places to travel, while Carmen started making a list of organizations to support. He believed that you couldn’t consider the act of giving if you hadn’t already been doing it all along. This speaks to their consciousness—which was politically, economically, and socially rooted in their way of being prior to winning the lottery. It’s something perhaps we have all wondered—who would we be if we were to win the lottery, what would we do? Who might we become? The Castellanos were an ideal model. If I were ever in their place, they would be my role models.
I admired their commitment to not just supporting non-profits but also shaping non-profit leadership to be more inclusive and mirror those they served. In 2013, I was with them in their home when Carmen and Alcario decided it was time to step away from the CFF leadership to let their children, Carmela, Armando, and Maria take the lead. During this meeting, I spoke with Alcario in his office, which was floor to ceiling full of albums and boxes of video cassettes, all documenting events in San José. Alcario saw them as personal recordings/memories but I saw an archive of San José history.
Alcario documented the San José chapter of the American GI Forum, an organization of Chicano veterans, which was the largest chapter outside of Texas, where the organization was founded. Alcario had recorded the events that documented the GI Forum chapter’s annual Cinco de Mayo and Mexican Independence Day (Sept. 16) celebrations. These parades were massive and took over the downtown area and San José was known as the place to be for these celebrations.
At the Castellanos’ home, I came to understand the impact of CFF’s work and of Alcario’s archive. As a Chicana Librarian and the Director of AAACNA, I began to express my interest in the importance of including the CFF’s work in SJSU Library’s archives. I also stressed that the work of the SJ GI Forum had gone mostly undocumented. The SJ Chapter was merely a footnote in extant research on the national organization which mostly centered on Texas. Alcario had pictures and videos showing massive crowds of people filling the streets of downtown San José. There were vendors, music stages, arts and crafts, and families. I left the Castellano home in awe hoping that both the CFF papers and Alcario’s photographs and videos could one day find a home at the library.
By 2018, five years later, I was approached by the family about assisting with the parade videos. Carmela and Alcario thought it was time to do something with the photographs and videos of the parades. They decided on making a video and asked me to index the videos and transfer them to digital format. In this project, I got to review the content of each video as I time stamped and attempted to identify each person and performer that Alcario had recorded. When the film was finally completed, I recall sitting in the theater in the Mexican Heritage Plaza, seeing Carmela interviewing her father about why he did what he did. Alcario started recording the parades because Carmela had applied for the chapter’s scholarship and was selected as a recipient, a GI Forum Queen. Thus his own daughter’s pursuit of higher education made the history of the community a process to record. I was proud to have been part of the work.
When Carmen passed away in 2021, the CFF began its thoughtful transition toward closure. Again, I asked about the Foundation papers. I was pleased that my SJSU Library colleagues in Special Collections also saw the benefit of housing these papers at the King Library. Transferring the papers from the Castellanos’ home to the library took a few years. Today the CFF records are indexed and available for viewing in SJSU Library’s Special Collections. In addition to the non-profits the CFF supported, the unexpected treasure trove is the documentation of Carmen’s work as a board member, as an activist, and as a community leader. Within this collection we see that Carmen and Alcario had unique and collaborative roles—she had vision, and he carried his video camera everywhere, documenting scholarship ceremonies, fundraising events, and significant community speakers. Carmen developed an important inventory of meetings, notes, and reports that documented her work with groups like Latinas Contra Cancer, the Arts Council of Silicon Valley, the Gardner Family Health Services, and so much more.
Once the CFF papers were received, I thoughtfully considered the new home for Alcario’s videos and photographs into the library. AAACNA and the Digital Humanities Center took the lead in integrating and digitizing the videos and the California Room of the San José Public Library took the lead on digitizing the photographs. At the time the California Room was working on curating the East Side Dreams exhibit and Alcario’s photographs became an important visual record of the Eastside. The family’s only condition was that the collections, though shared between SJSU and SJPL, remain unified and accessible as one seamless archive. The project was a true collaborative effort which we inaugurated and celebrated during the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library’s 20th Anniversary in 2023.
In September 2024 Alcario was in the library to speak about his video and photograph collections with students and faculty. It was a long time coming. The collection benefited from the efforts of then Library Development Officer, Anh Ly, who secured grants from SSRC and ALA that supported the digitization of the numerous videos, to make them all available online. Thus the three CFF/Castellano collections are now available in the King Library.
I cherish the many opportunities Alcario and I had to talk, to reminisce, and to laugh as we constructed his family archive. I loved those moments for what they were—two friends talking, but also, because of the age difference, a reminder of similar times with my own father. Getting to work on and host the Castellano Archives was a personal and professional goal for me. As I achieved this I also built an unexpected personal friendship. Alcario often spoke to me of his love for his wife, how proud he was of his children, and how the lottery created so many opportunities, not just for his family, but to support our communities.
Often when I spoke with Alcario, I could hear in his words an echo of my father talking about how much he had achieved and how proud he was of his two girls. It was great finishing the project, but it also reduced my opportunities to see Alcario. Each time I saw him gave me the gift of remembering my father.
Two weeks prior to Alcario’s passing, I had the opportunity to visit him in his home as part of his support for the fundraiser Quinteto Latino. The time I spent upon my arrival at his home was a great gift—just spending time and talking with a friend. I am honored and personally grateful to have had one last chance to interact with him. I cannot find the words to express my gratitude to Carmela, Armando, and Maria—the Castellano family—because just saying thank you doesn’t seem like enough. I also wish to express my gratitude and thanks to my many library colleagues who collaborated in making the Castellano Family Archive available for posterity.
Gracias Al—your legacy of documenting our community and your family are enduring and powerful. Que en Paz Descanse—Don Alcario—you were a gift in person and commitment.
Honor their legacy and explore the works of the Castellano Family Foundation, the remarkable work Carmen engaged in, and Alcario’s videos and photographs here: https://exhibits.sjsu.edu/s/castellano.