Rodriguez - Hearts & hands: creating community in violent times

hearts & hands

creating community

in violent times

Luis J. Rodriguez

Seven Stories Press

New York Oakland

Copyright 2001, 2014 by Luis J. Rodriguez

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means, including mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Seven Stories Press

140 Watts Street

New York, NY 10013

www.sevenstories.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rodriguez, Luis J., 1954

Hearts and hands : creating community in violent times / Luis Rodriguez.

pages cm

2014 edition.

ISBN 978-1-60980-553-1 (pbk)

1. Problem youthUnited States. 2. Juvenile delinquentsUnited States. 3. Gang membersUnited States. 4. Youth and violenceUnitedStates. 5. Social integrationUnited States. 6. Community lifeUnited States. I. Title.

HV1431 .R65 2014

362.7450973dc232013050805

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

College professors and high school and middle school teachers may order free examination copies of Seven Stories Press titles. To order, visit www.sevenstories.com/textbook, or fax on school letterhead to (212) 226-1411.

Book design by Jon Gilbert

Printed in the U.S.A.

To the memory of

Marcos Cordoba, Erik Arellano, Eddie Ramos, Alfredo Mercado, Arlene Osuna

killed during our intense battles for justice and peace in Chicago;

and

Walter Guzman, Nathan Allen, and Manual Manazar Gamboa

mentors, friends, and peace warriors.

And for the 2014 edition:

Guido De Rienzo, Delia Gamez, Anthony Hernandez, James Lilly, Frank Chavez, Darren Bo Taylor, Johnny Godinez,

Lee Thompson Young

And Native elders/teachers:

Tlacaelel of Mexico; Macuiltochtli of Mexico and Chicago; John C. Smith of the Dine (Navajo) Nation

acknowledgments

I give thanks to the people and organizations that have helped shape my thoughts in creating intentional, whole and just communities over the past twenty five years. They include Tia Chuchas Centro Cultural & Bookstore of the Northeast San Fernando Valley, including cofounders Trini Rodriguez, Enrique Sanchez, Angelica Loa Perez, Victor Mendoza; Tia Chucha Press; Mayra Zaragoza and the Young Warriors; Michael Meade and all the youth, staff, mentors, and teachers of the Mosaic Multicultural Foundation; From the Heart of Violence TV program and gatherings as well as leaders in the gang intervention/urban peace work in Los Angeles, including U.S. Congressman (and former L.A. City Councilperson) Tony Cardenas and the Spreading Seeds/Healing Network; Chicagos Community Renewal Societys Anti-Violence Initiative of the Churches-in-Communities Unit; my fellow founders of Chicagos Humboldt Park Teen Reach, including Freddie Calixto, former director of the Broader Urban Involvement and Leadership Development program (BUILD), Kenny Ruiz, formerly of the Street Intervention Project of the Logan Square YMCA, and Carmen Flores-Rance of St. Lucas Church; Chicagos Increase the Peace Network; Gerardo Serna and others of the National Gathering for Peace; Nane Alejandrez and the peace warriors of Barrios Unidos; Magdaleno Rose-Avila, Alex Sanchez, Silvia Beltran of Homies Unidos from El Salvador and Los Angeles; Tom Hayden; Father Greg Boyle and Homeboy Industries; Albino Garcia and La Plazita Institute; the Transnational Advisory Group in Support of the Peace Process in El Salvador; my friends in North Carolinas Word Wide Project; Priscilla Aydelott, Lori Loschert, and the others of Youth Empowerment Services of Din Bekahi (the Navajo Nation), including the young women of R.O.O.D. (Ruling Our Own Destinies); Ed Young Man Afraid of His Horse and other spiritual guides of the Lakota Nation, Pine Ridge, South Dakota; Chuck Coleman and family of the Muscogee Creek Nation, Oklahoma; Anthony Lee, his wife, Delores, and family, as well as the elders and teachers of the Din Nation (Navajo) in Tsaile, Chinle, and Lukachukai, Arizona; Mexika indigenous elders Tlakaelel of the Kalpulli Koakalko/Tenochtitlan, and Macuiltochtli, Tekpatltzin, Xochimeh, and everyone else at the Kalpulli Yetlanezi-Tolteka Trese of Illinois.; Maryann, La Dona, Panduro and other teachers/elders among the Quechua people of Peru; Chicagos Guild Complex; the League of Revolutionaries for a New America; Video Machete, especially Chris Bratton and Maria Benfield; my fellow companions in the beautiful, often painful, but rewarding work in the 1990s of Youth Struggling for Survival, including Pat Zamora, Camila Barros, Frank Blazquez, Louise Blazquez, Julia Harmon-Chavez, Antonio Sacre, and all our youth leaders (including my son Ramiro and daughter Andrea, Nydia Hernandez, Jay Taifa, Victor Nambo [Tepechihuaz], Dolly Arguello, Miguel Gonzalez [Ocelotl], James Anderson, Santos Ventura, Jesus Hernandez, Hector Hernandez, Shayna Plaut, Kathy Regalado, Rocio Restrepo, Andres Garcia, Tanee Blazquez, Frankie Blazquez, Luisa Hernandez, her daughter, Jocelyn, and family; Tony, Lupe, Pepe, and the rest of the Vasquez family; Luis Ruan; Rudy Buchanan; Carlos Rodrguez; Katrina Coker; Donna DeCesare; Michael Warr; Julie Aimen; Jeff Biggers; Hugo Machuca; Kenneth Hartman; John Trudell; all the incarcerated men and women Ive visited and written to over the years. Also John Densmore, drummer for the Doors, Bruce Springsteen, Cheech Marin, Lou Adler, Dave Marsh, Richard Foos, Gary Stewarts, Dan Attias, Los Lobos, and the many other donors/supporters of our work. And the Network for Revolutinoary Change, including Anthony Prince, Sheilah Garland-Olaniran, Lenny Brody, Bruce Parry, Ramiro Rodriguez, and many others. A special thanks to my agent, Susan Bergholz; Dan Spinella and Mary Kathleen Hawley for helping edit much of this text; Dan Simon and Juana Ponce de Len of Seven Stories/Siete Cuentos Press; the Cardenas and Rodrguez familiesbless you all; my wife, Trini, always my love and gratitude; and much love to my childrenAndrea, Ramiro, Ruben, and Luisas well as my grandchildren (Ricardo, Anastasia, Amanda, and Catalina), who embody much of what this book is about.

I also wish to thank Social Justice: A Journal of Crime, Conflict & Social Order for publishing, in 1998, a version of the material in this book. Also various sections of this work first appeared as editorials and reportage in the 1990s for publications like The Nation , Los Angeles Times , Chicago Tribune , Utne Reader , U.S. News & World Report , Prison Life , The Family Networker , The Peoples Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo , Grand Street , The ROCRock Out Censorship , and Latina magazine . Parts of this book also appeared in Images of Color, Images of Crime , edited by Coramae Richey Mann and Marjorie S. Zatz (Los Angeles: Roxbury Publishing, 1998) and Cultures de la rue: les barrios dAmerique du Nord , edited by Genevieve Fabre (Paris: Cahiers Charles V, Universite Paris 7Denis Diderot, 1996).

And a special thanks to the Lila WallaceReaders Digest Fund, the Lannan Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council, the Dorothea Lang/Paul Taylor Prize from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, the California Arts Council, and the North Carolina Arts Council, among others, for providing me awards, fellowships, and residencies during the writing of this text.

hearts & hands

contents

Preface to the 2014 Edition of Hearts & Hands

I appreciate your knowledge and love and the bright loud engine of all the caring...

My youngest son, Luis Jacinto, age 19 on the occasion of my 59th birthday in 2013

Since the 2001 publication of Hearts & Hands the whole tenor and tone in the national conversation about youth development and gangs has changed. While many policy makers, thinkers and researchers have been instrumental in these shifts, this book played no small part.