Author: Marjorie Camarda
The month of November has been designated for a Social Justice Series organized by Student-Community Alliance (SCA), Oxy Global Action and the Student Labor Action Coalition (SLAC). The series is being co-sponsored by Environmental Action Coalition, RHA, MEChA-ALAS, CCBL, UEPI, TOA and ASOC. Last week was “Week 2, A Closer Look: Urban Los Angeles.” To pop the “Oxy bubble” and acquaint themselves with Los Angeles, students were invited to Boyle Heights in East LA for a tour of Homeboy Industries.
Homeboy Industries was created in 1992 by Jesuit Priest Father Gregory Boyle, or as the homeboys call him, Father G or just G. The organization serves recovering gang members, providing an array of services from employment assistance to legal advising to free tattoo removal.
The Homeboy Industries’ website sites Boyle Heights as “a community with arguably the highest concentration of gang activity in Los Angeles.” As Father G stated in the documentary Father G and the Homeboys, screened in Weingart on November 8, the key to eradicating violence is not building more jails or increasing police presence. Father G called only for “unconditional love.”
However, few policy makers share this philosophy. In the documentary, George H.W. Bush is shown delivering a speech in 1992 on violent crime. He said of criminals, “As far as this President is concerned, they can go to jail, and they can stay in jail, and they can rot in jail.”
But Father G sees the gang members as the victims. “Gang violence is a symptom . . . of poverty and despair and families that don’t function under the weight of all they have to carry,” Father G said in the film. He has made it his mission to give the men and women of Boyle Heights the tools to lift themselves out of poverty, so that they can provide their own children with the support they might otherwise seek from the gangs.
Most recovering gang members come to Homeboy Industries in search of a job. Some are hired to work in the office or the Homeboy Bakery or the Homegirl Café. Others are guided in building a resume to find outside employment. Many take advantage of the free tattoo removal services, though there are currently 2,000 individuals on the waiting list. Though the removal process is painful, tattoos on the face and neck make it impossible to find jobs without the procedure.
Student reactions to the film varied. Several students were unable to suppress tears during the testimony of a mother who had lost two sons to gang violence, or when a gang member named Joe had a relapse and sank back into the world of violence and drugs. However, some students detected a bias in the film. “I don’t like how my whole neighborhood was portrayed as a battlefield,” Leo Magallon (junior), a native of Boyle Heights, said.
Organizers of the event were not disappointed about Magallon’s criticism of the film. They were happy that students were discussing the issue. “[Our goal] was to get students to realize they are part of the larger community of LA and that [the community’s problems] are our problems,” member of SCA e-board Jessica Nizar (junior) said.
The Social Justice Series will continue with “Week 3, Public and Environmental Health” and “Week 4, Culmination and Reflection,” featuring a panel, spoken word and an open-mic night.
Father G’s work will also continue. Though he was recently diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), he says jokingly he is “getting that shit fixed.” Although Father G said sometimes “[his] arms [are] too short to wrap around this kind of grief,” many of the former gang members acknowledge that they would have been killed years ago had it not been for Father G’s love.
Every year, Homeboy Industries hosts an award ceremony called Lo Maximo, during which a few outstanding homeboys and homegirls are recognized for their progress and dedication to the program. Last year’s winner, a girl named Frances, expressed the community’s feelings about Father G in her acceptance speech.
“I want to say thank you to Father Greg,” she said. “You taught me that we are all the same. That we are all human . . . That you can be in the hardest of hard places and you can change.”
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