Watsonville High senior overcomes tragedy, earns statewide courage award

Watsonville High School graduating senior Chris Delgado learned the value of speaking up for yourself after tragic events at a young age. 

While in therapy to process his father’s death when he was 9, he said he blamed himself for his passing because he didn’t tell his dad to go to the doctor more often. His therapist helped him understand that his father’s death wasn’t his fault and, in the future, that he can speak up when he feels there’s something he can do to help a situation. 

“They helped me learn that it wasn’t my fault at all,” he said. “I couldn’t do anything, I was just a kid, and if anything, if I felt like I should have spoken up back then, then I should learn to speak up now.”

With that lesson in mind, just months after his father’s death, Delgado revealed to his mother that a relative had raped him in the prior year. 

“I felt like that whole situation is what helped me get a voice,” he said. “It allowed me to speak up about what my [relative] did to me.”

Now, after competing as a varsity swimmer for four years and as a decorated senior with a 4.0 grade-point average headed this fall to California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, to study mechanical engineering, Delgado is sharing his story of overcoming those dark times to help other youth in similar situations.

Teachers, family members and his swim coach say the 18-year-old’s loving and positive personality outshine the dark tragedies he faced as a young boy.  

This spring, he was recognized with a CalHOPE Courage Award, which selects student-athletes from across the state who have overcome hardship. Delgado and other recipients received a $2,500 college scholarship. In addition, each student’s athletic department received a $500 donation to support future student-athletes.

On Friday at Watsonville High, he’ll walk across the graduation stage alongside his classmates. 

Watsonville teacher Bobby Pelz said Delgado is insightful, tenacious and always makes an effort to make people feel seen. 

“He is very positive, and one of the most positive students I’ve ever had – to the point where you would never know what he’s been through,” he said. “What’s so inspiring about that to me is that that’s the way that he’s chosen to respond to what has happened to him by being somebody who’s so positive and being somebody who’s so friendly.”

Delgado spent his early years with his family in Guadalupe, a town west of Santa Maria in Santa Barbara County. When he was just 9 years old, his father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and died less than a year later, in June 2019. 

Shortly after, Delgado revealed to his mom that a relative had raped him for about six months in the prior year. The relative, who was older than Delgado but still a minor, was put on house arrest as punishment, and police encouraged Delgado’s mother to move their family out of town for their safety.

In 2020, Delgado arrived with his mom and younger sister in the Pajaro Valley shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic started.

Delgado and his mother said it was a very challenging time, but they helped each other get through it. His mother, Paulina Rodriguez, said her son is a respectful, caring and hardworking person, and she’s very proud of all he’s accomplished. 

“He has a lot of dreams ahead of him,” she said. “He’s very strong, he thinks very positively.”

Rodriguez, who said she was also sexually assaulted by a relative at a young age, understands how important it is for her son to speak up about what he went through, as it could help other young people going through the same things. 

Delgado said his mother told him she was grateful that he did speak up and that he “was the one who broke the chain.” 

Delgado’s swim coach, Joey Barrera, said he was immediately impressed with his kindness, charisma and work ethic. 

“He always finds the positive in the situation,” Barrera said. “I think his intentionality of giving it his all in anything he does, I think that’s the reason why he has success.”

Barrera said Delgado is also good at creating a good atmosphere for people around him. He remembers how Delgado would play music from a speaker before swim practice and get friends and Barrera dancing. Barrera said it set a great tone for the practice. 

“It ended up changing my spirit and my mood and I ended up dancing with them – that’s probably one of the best memories I have of him,” he said. “And look at what he went through, and for him to be dancing in life and doing all those small [positive] things.”

Delgado did a lot of things over these past several years and while in high school. He was part of a 15-member youth band that played paid performances for birthday parties for the past six years, he worked at a local retail store for his four years of high school, he participated in the school’s robotics, automotive and chemistry clubs and still found time to be in the top 10% of his class. 

Looking back on all he went through, and now, all he’s accomplished, he sees how he turned the adversity into something positive. 

“In a way it was a blessing in disguise that I was able to be given a voice because of my father’s death,” he said. “I feel like that’s what honestly helped me become the person that I am today. I’m able to speak up about anything, I’m able to talk to anyone.”

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