- Date Of Birth: August 6, 1923
- Date Of Death: February 8, 2022
- State: Illinois
Alfred Arroyo was born in Denver, Colorado in 1923 of Mexican parents. Prior to entering the Denver Public School System, he was placed in a boarding school for toddlers for a few months thus losing daily contact with his Spanish speaking parents. The ability to speak Spanish fluently did not appear until years later. After learning it brokenly and incorrectly at home, his Spanish became apparently more refined after a year and a half of study of the language in a Chicago Public High School.
Arroyo enlisted in the U.S. Navy at age 19, ten months after the beginning of the war with Japan during World War Two.
He learned surgical technique at the U.S. Navy Hospital Corps School in San Diego, California and continued on to the U.S. Naval Hospital in Bremerton, Washington for his internship as a Navy Hospital Corpsman.
After the war, Arroyo took a four year course in Heating, Air Conditioning and Field Engineering under the G.I. Bill of Rights. He entered the Air Conditioning business and remained in that field for more than forty years
In retirement Arroyo studied art informally and became adept at sketching and painting in oils. At age 40, he became what art scholars and enthusiasts call a ‘naive’ artist, He now specializes in portraits and landscapes in oil on canvas.
At age 95 in 2018, Alfred Arroyo continues to paint using his talent as a source of therapy and relaxation (in order to preserve his sanity, he says). He plans to continue his artistic endeavors as long as he is physically and mentally able.
Arroyo has also written a novel titled ‘Francisca and the Boys’ based on his family life during the depression years of the late 1920’s through the early 1930’s and into the years of World War Two.
