Home

Author Archives: Álvaro Huerta

Álvaro Huerta, Ph.D., is a Religion and Public Life Organizing Fellow, Harvard Divinity
School (HDS). He’s also an Associate Professor at Cal Poly Pomona. Dr. Huerta is the author of the forthcoming book, Jardineros: Cultivating Los Angeles’ Green Landscapes with Brown Hands, Migrant Networks and Technology (The MIT Press). As a first-generation graduate and Ford Foundation Fellow, he holds a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from UC Berkeley. He also holds an M.A. in Urban Planning and a B.A. in History from UCLA.
Posted inOpinion

COMMENTARY: A journey through Chicana/o art

by Álvaro Huerta

For over 50 years, Chicanas/os have been creating art in various mediums at various venues. A great sample of beautiful Chicana/o art can be found in The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture of the Riverside Art Museum. While not all Chicana/o artists have had the opportunity to exhibit at prestigious museums and galleries, the art pioneers of the past have broken the doors open for brown artists–present and future. The artists of Mexican origin in el Norte must be understood in the context of racial capitalism and anti-Mexicanism—a term best understood by the late and great historian, Dr. Juan Gómez-Quiñones, in his brilliant essay “La Realidad: the Realities of Anti-Mexicanism.”

In short, if we want more brown kids from America’s barrios to become great artists and exhibit their art–domestically and internationally–they must first see themselves in the best museums and galleries the world has to offer

Posted inOpinion

COMMENTARY: En memoria de (in memory of) Dr. Roberto ‘Cintli’ Rodriguez

by Álvaro Huerta

On March 23, 1979, Roberto Rodriguez was a young photojournalist on assignment when he was severely beaten by law enforcement officers in his East Los Angeles neighborhood along Whittier Boulevard, this while photographing an incident of police violence. He was criminally charged with assaulting four deputies with a deadly weapon with a total of eight charges. He would go on to win his criminal trial and then, seven years later, won a lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Born in Aguascalientes, Mexico, and raised in East Los Angeles, Roberto apparently died July 31 while living in Mexico’s sacred Teotihuacan. The symptom of his untimely death is a reported heart attack. Yet, the root cause of his sudden death occurred 44 years on East Los Angeles’ Whittier Boulevard—the capital of lowrider cruising—when the cops brutally assaulted him.

Posted inOpinion

COMMENTARY: Homeboy Industries: An Ode to Father Gregory Boyle and the Homies

by Álvaro Huerta

In 1992, after working with residents and staff to help the homies to secure employment through a non-profit, Jobs for a Future (JJF), Father Boyle founded Homeboy Industries. While Father Boyle deservedly gets credit for founding Homeboy Industries, any successful organization requires the collective work of many individuals who believe in the mission of the organization, especially for progressive non-profits or social enterprises. As the mottos of the embryonic Homeboy Industries included “Jobs not Jails” and “Nothing stops a bullet like a job,” this gang rehabilitation and re-entry program initially started with a few social enterprises to provide viable employment opportunities for marginalized individuals who were/are regularly blocked from the racist labor market. This includes Homeboy Bakery; Homeboy Silkscreen; Homeboy Graffiti Removal Services and Homeboy Maintenance Service and Homeboy Merchandise.

Posted inOpinion

COMMENTARY: My father never told me “I love you”

by Álvaro Huerta

I ask, “Why was my father incapable of saying the three magic words—’I love you’—to his children and wife?” Without getting all Freudian, I’ve learned that it goes back to his turbulent and harsh upbringing in a small Mexican rancho in the beautiful state of Michoacán: Zajo Grande. At the rancho, along with his parents and 10 siblings, he experienced/witnessed poverty, violence and death.

Posted inagriculture

CALÓ ESSAY: From Bracero to ‘Braincero’

by Álvaro Huerta

As a “guest” of the American government, my father—Salomón Huerta, Sr.—worked as a farmworker during the early 1960s under the Bracero Program. Officially known as the Mexican Farm Labor Program (1942-1964), this guest worker program recruited 4.6 million Mexican laborers to toil in America’s agricultural fields, along with the railroad and mining sectors.

Posted inCulture

COMMENTARY: From Bracero to ‘Braincero’

by Álvaro Huerta

As a “guest” of the American government, my father—Salomón Huerta, Sr.—worked as a farmworker during the early 1960s under the Bracero Program. Officially known as the Mexican Farm Labor Program (1942-1964), this guest worker program recruited 4.6 million Mexican laborers to toil in America’s agricultural fields, along with the railroad and mining sectors.

Posted inEducation

CALÓ COMMENTARY: The importance of higher education for La Raza, reflections of an East LA Chicano scholar

by Álvaro Huerta

Yet, if not for my participation in Upward Bound (a federally funded program to help prepare historically marginalized, first-gen kids to pursue higher education), I wouldn’t be able to compete at the highest level in my mathematics. More specifically, if not for my childhood friend Hector from the projects, who peer pressured me to apply to Upward Bound at Occidental College (Oxy) – a six-week, residential program – I would be oblivious to the college application process.

Posted inCulture, Education, Opinion, Representation

COMMENTARY: Higher education, La Raza, reflections of LA Chicano scholar

by Álvaro Huerta

Yet, if not for my participation in Upward Bound (a federally funded program to help prepare historically marginalized, first-gen kids to pursue higher education), I wouldn’t be able to compete at the highest level in my mathematics. More specifically, if not for my childhood friend Hector from the projects, who peer pressured me to apply to Upward Bound at Occidental College (Oxy) – a six-week, residential program – I would be oblivious to the college application process.