The Life of an Activist: In the Frontlines 24/7

May 14th, 2013 by Randy Jurado Ertll Add Your Comment »

The Life of an Activist: In the Frontlines 24/7

Join us on Wed. May 1 at 6 p.m. Pasadena Central Library – 285 E. Walnut Ave. Pasadena, CA 91101

April 30th, 2013 by Randy Jurado Ertll Add Your Comment »

CNN

April 20th, 2013 by Randy Jurado Ertll Add Your Comment »

SEE YOU IN WHITTIER – THURSDAY APRIL 18 AT 6 P.M.

April 8th, 2013 by Randy Jurado Ertll Add Your Comment »

Do you want to know how to write and publish a book? To tell your own story – from your heart, soul, and mind? This is an opportunity to get useful, practical information, and how to tools and insights from the author of the bestselling book Hope in Times of Darkness: A Salvadoran American Experience and upcoming book The Life of an Activist: In the Frontlines 24/7.

Date:               Thursday, April 18, at 6:00 PM

Location:        Half Off Bookstore
6708 Greenleaf Avenue, Whittier, CA, 90601

CNN Latino – Sin Limites

April 8th, 2013 by Randy Jurado Ertll Add Your Comment »

Please click on link:

CNN Latino – Sin Limite

State of Latinos in Pasadena Presentation at the Democratic Club of the Foothills

March 14th, 2013 by Randy Jurado Ertll Add Your Comment »

State of Latinos in Pasadena Presentation at the Democratic Club of the Foothills

I will be speaking at the Democratic Club of the Foothills on Thursday, March 21, 2013 at 7:30 p.m. Located at Villa Gardens: 842 E. Villa St. Pasadena, CA.

I will address the following issues: The State of Latinos/as in Pasadena, how more community members need to be more involved in civic engagement and civic education issues. I will also have my book Hope in Times of Darkness: A Salvadoran American Experience – that serves as an education and empowerment mechanism. I will have copies available – to sign.

Heading to Whittier on Thurs. April 18 at 6 p.m. – Please join us!

March 14th, 2013 by Randy Jurado Ertll Add Your Comment »

Book talk and signing at HALF OFF BOOKS RECORDS FILMS BOOKSTORE IN WHITTIER

Thursday, April 18, at 6:00 PM
Half Off Bookstore
6708 Greenleaf Avenue, Whittier, CA, 90601

L.A. Times

February 17th, 2013 by Randy Jurado Ertll Add Your Comment »

Latino voters gain more clout in Pasadena school board races

By Joe Piasecki
February 17, 2013 |  2:40 pm
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For more than a decade, the majority of students attending Pasadena public schools have come from lower-income Latino families in northwest Pasadena.

But when it came to choosing who runs the schools, those most reliant on public education were heavily outnumbered at the polls.

Now, new voter districts debuting in the March 5 school board elections — including a northwest Pasadena district where 56% of residents are Latino — have made the working-class Latino vote an emerging force at the ballot box.

Nowhere is the change more pronounced than in school board District 3, which stretches from the 210 Freeway to Woodbury Road along the eastern edge of the Arroyo Seco, to Lake Avenue on the north and narrowing to Fair Oaks Avenue at its southern terminus.

District 3 is home to more public school students than any other school board district. It also has the highest percentage of Latinos of any district, said Ken Chawkins, who last year headed a volunteer task force that drew new district boundaries according to income, educational attainment and ethnicity.

“Whether they elect a Latino or not, that community is now speaking for itself,” he said.

Four school board candidates — two Latinos and two African Americans — are running to represent the district’s roughly 29,000 residents. Though more than half of the residents are Latino, African Americans represent a larger share of the district’s 13,802 registered voters.

District 3 candidate Guillermo Arce, a social services administrator and public school parent critical of the district’s special-education services, said the contest should not center on ethnic identity. But Arce also said the defeat of Latino candidates would “be the biggest disenfranchisement of the Hispanic community in Pasadena.”

The departure in May of outgoing school board member Ramon Miramontes could leave the board without a Latino member, but Latino hopefuls are competing in three of the four March 5 board races.

District 3 candidate Tyron Hampton, a graduate of northwest Pasadena schools who is black, said race is a topic candidates “need to keep as far away from as possible” or risk alienating voters.

All District 3 candidates say northwest Pasadena needs an advocate able to engage parents whose financial struggles leave them without the time or resources to get involved in school affairs.

The need for greater parent involvement exists in both Latino and African American families, said Randy Ertll, executive director of the education-focused nonprofit El Centro de Acción Social.

“Candidates [in District 3] will have to transcend their own ethnicity to win,” Ertll said.

Pixie Boyden, a District 3 resident who also served on the districting task force, said she hoped the shift from at-large races to districts would make face-to-face contact between candidates and voters a better campaign strategy than blanketing homes with political mailers.

District 3 candidate Ruben Hueso, a Los Angeles elementary school teacher and public school parent, had raised $6,175 as of Jan. 19, the last required reporting date. Hampton, Arce and foster parent Deidre Duncan did not report raising funds.

“Until now, this was the forgotten district,” Hueso said. “I’m getting comments [from residents] that no other candidate has ever knocked on their door — whether it’s a mayoral race, City Council or school board. People are saying they’ve never been approached.”

– Joe Piasecki

With Rev. Al Sharpton & other key leaders in South Central Los Angeles

February 5th, 2013 by Randy Jurado Ertll Add Your Comment »

Book Talk-Discussion at Pasadena Presbyterian Church

January 24th, 2013 by Randy Jurado Ertll Add Your Comment »
I will be doing a book talk/discussion at Pasadena Presbyterian Church on Sunday, February 3, 2013 at 11:20 a.m.
585 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, California 91101

Hope you can join us. The theme/focus of the talk will be:

Was Jesus Christ an activist? social movements, activism, and non-profits.