Cesar Cruz

Dr. César Cruz is the co-founder of a community based organization Homies Empowerment based out of Oakland, CA^[1][2] and former Dean of Secondary Schools Program at Harvard University. He was born in Guadalajara c. 1974,^[2][3] coming to the United States as an undocumented immigrant at age 9. ^[4] Cruz holds a B.A. in history from UC Berkeley,^[5] and a doctorate in educational leadership from Harvard Graduate School of Education.^[6] Cruz's dissertation is titled: Letting Go of Clecha, While Holding Corazón; Developing a New Approach to Empowering Youth in Gangs the Homeboy Industries Way. Link: https://dash.harvard.edu/entities/publication/73120379-0cec-6bd4-e053-0100007fdf3b On May 1, 1992, Cruz was one of 65 people arrested marching on the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge after the acquittal of officers charged with beating Rodney King.^[2][7] Cruz later learned that the southwestern parts of the U.S. are actually his ancestral homeland. He identifies as Mexica(n) with huichol roots. In 1995, Cruz was involved in a fifteen-day hunger strike at the University of California, Irvine.^[8][9] The 1995 strike was undertaken by Cruz and others from UC Berkeley and UC Irvine to protect and promote affirmative action at UC Irvine.^[10] Cruz was later part of a 26-day hunger strike in 2004, which resulted in Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger agreeing to refinance the West Contra Costa Unified School District's high interest loans.^[11] He was keynote speaker for the Cesar Chavez Convocation at UC Santa Cruz in 2014 and Hermanos Unidos National Conference Archived 2018-04-10 at the Wayback Machine^[12] at California State University, Fullerton in 2017.^[13][14] Research at Homeboy Industries, a job skills program in the Los Angeles area for gang members, served as his Harvard doctoral capstone work.^[15][16] Cruz was the first male Mexican-immigrant to earn a doctorate at Harvard's Education Leadership program.^[17]

Homies Empowerment operates a Freedom Farm, free food pantry and their very own high school, The Freedom School.^{[citation needed]}

Cruz was awarded the Orange County Human Rights Award in 1995 and the Peacemaker of the Year award by the California State Senate in 2005.^[2] In 2011, he was awarded a local Jefferson Award for Public Service for his work with the Homies Empowerment program.^[18]

Bibliography

• Preciado-Cruz, César A, Revenge of the Illegal Alien: A Mexican Takes on the Empire, 2008, Oakland: Making Changes Press, OCLC 259714147
• Preciado-Cruz, César A, Norteños/Sureños : time to 'bang' for freedom : a brief history of the conflict between the Mexican Mafia and Nuestra familia (2009) (alternate title Bang For Freedom; A Brief History of Mexican Mafia, Nuestra Familia and Latino Activism in the U.S. (2015)), Oakland: Making Changes Press, OCLC 810178174
• Voces: A Journal of Chicana/Latina Studies Vol. 2, No. 2, Special Poetry Issue (Summer 1999) Published by Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS) JSTOR 23013237

See also