Three acclaimed authors—Luis J. Rodríguez, Javier O. Huerta and Henry A. J. Ramos—will speak at the Latino Young Men and Boys in Search of Justice: A My Brother’s Keeper Forum taking place Friday, September 30, from 8 am – 2 pm at the University of Houston-Downtown. Participants will explore the unique challenges faced by Houston’s young Latino men along with successful approaches to improving positive outcomes.
The forum will feature sessions for local youth and adults who work with at-risk students. The panels for young people will focus on identity, others’ perceptions of them, and goal-setting. The panels for adults involved with youth will look into the effect of zero tolerance policies, restorative justice practices, and examples of culturally grounded restorative justice practices being used successfully in Houston and around the country.
Luis J. Rodriguez, the Poet Laureate of Los Angeles, is the author of fifteen books, including the best-selling memoir, Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. The founding editor of Tia Chucha Press and the co-founder and president of Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore in the San Fernando Valley, Rodríguez has worked as a peacemaker among gangs on a national and international level for more than 40 years. He has helped broker peace and/or helped with already existing truces with gangs in Los Angeles and Chicago. He has also worked extensively in El Salvador, where he helped to establish the first peace between members of the Mara Salvatrucha and 18th Street gangs.
JAVIER O. HUERTA is the author of American Copia (Arte Público Press, 2012) and 
Some Clarifications y otros poemas (Arte Público Press, 2007), winner of the Chicano/Latino Literature Prize. Born in Nuevo Laredo to a 19-year-old maquiladora worker and a 21-year-old coyote, Javier and his family crossed the Río Grande and settled in Houston, which became his adopted home. After living as undocumented immigrants for six years, they filed for residency under the amnesty clause of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. Javier went on to graduate from Westbury High School, the University of Houston, the University of Texas at El Paso (with an MFA in Creative Writing), and is completing his doctorate in British Literature at the University of California, Berkeley.
HENRY A. J. RAMOS, the Executive Director of Equal Voice Action, a national political action and membership organization for low-income and working-class American families, is the co-editor with Frank de Jesús Acosta of Latino Young Men and Boys in Search of Justice: Testimonies (Arte Público Press, 2016) and Overcoming Disparity: Latino Young Men and Boys (Arte Público Press, 2016); he is the author of The American GI Forum: In Pursuit of the Dream, 1948-1983 (Arte Público Press, 1998). Formerly, he was appointed by the governor of California to the California Community Colleges System and has worked at numerous philanthropic institutions, such as the Ford Foundation and Levi Strauss Foundation. The founding editor of the Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Ramos is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and Harvard University, where he earned degrees in political economics, law and public administration.
The forum is free and open to Latino youth and adults who work with them. Prospective attendees can RSVP online at http://mbklatinoforum.eventbrite.com. Attendance is on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Sponsors include Arte Público Press, the City of Houston, the Houston Arts Alliance, the Houston Health Department, the Houston Public Library, Insight Center for Community Economic Development, the My Brother’s Keeper-Houston Movement and the University of Houston-Downtown.
ARTE PÚBLICO PRESS is the nation’s largest and most established publisher of contemporary and recovered literature by U.S. Hispanic authors. Its imprint for children and young adults, Piñata Books, is dedicated to the realistic and authentic portrayal of the themes, languages, characters, and customs of Hispanic culture in the United States. Books published under the imprint are designed to serve as a bridge from the home culture to that of the school, as well as to support family literacy and elementary school education. Based at the University of Houston, Arte Público Press, Piñata Books and the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage project provide the most widely recognized and extensive showcase for Hispanic literary arts and creativity. For more information, please visit www.artepublicopress.com.
The My Brother’s Keeper Houston Movement began in Houston when former Mayor Annise Parker accepted President Obama’s community challenge in September 2014. Since then, Director Stephen Williams of the Houston Health Department has been appointed to lead the local efforts to lay the groundwork for a My Brother’s Keeper community. Together with many local partners in government agencies, nonprofit, philanthropy, business, faith-based, and other community organizations, the My Brother’s Keeper Houston Movement is building the framework of evidence-based practices and community resources to lift up all young people to have more opportunities for success.