Armando Vazquez
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By Armando Vazquez / Guest contributor
Two of my best friends growing up in the barrios of Pacoima and San Fernando, Calif., were Bobby and Richard.
These two young, lost warriors resolved everything with their fists.
By the time Richard got out of his teens he was already supporting a nasty drug habit and on the run for a barroom killing. Bobby’s violent trajectory, while longer and sanctioned by a society that can’t get enough of somebody else’s blood, was no less tragic.
Bobby’s older son was killed in a drive-by shooting. His wife, Val, committed suicide. Bobby’s fights after Val’s death were macabre testaments to his own self-inflicted tragic and sadistic bloody exorcisms; they were part murder and part suicide viewed by millions of blood-thirsty fans.
Once, I am here to testify, these two tragic friends radiated incredible moments of brilliant, caring, loyal and creative love to their family and friends. But just below the surface of these young men’s disarming smiles there smoldered a rage for an enemy only they knew, frequently exploding into a war waged blindly against the unsuspecting world.
What I witnessed about Bobby and Richard is that their fathers abandoned them when they were babies. They were raised by single, financially destitute mothers who walked around like ghosts, their souls gutted by secrets and cruel circumstances that would take them to early graves. In fact, Bobby and Richard mostly raised themselves; by the time they were in elementary school they didn’t need adults getting in their way.
The two trusted no one; young or old, you were either ignored, manipulated or physically dispatched. Bobby and Richard were very smart, they could be charming and witty, yet they acted out their psychopathic melodrama wherever they went.
In Oxnard, indeed throughout the Ventura County area, we have hundreds if not thousands of potential Bobbys and Richards ticking away, ready to explode among us. I am writing this piece because as much as I want to bury the ghosts of the past, they always come back to life again, in the faces, the anguished alienation and the actions of many of the young men I work with.
My organization, The KEYS Leadership Academy of Oxnard, was recently awarded a Probation Department contract to provide leadership training to a group of highly at-risk youth who are subject to intensive supervision from local law enforcement. All the youth are on probation; three wear electronic monitoring ankle devices to supervise their very limited daily activities.
All of these young men are repeat offenders. They all are angry, anti-social and use a warped sense of bravado and violence as two of their primary means of communication. They have experienced precious little love in their lives, so naturally it is almost impossible for them to give love to themselves or anyone else.
They often appear to be on a circular fast-track to nowhere — to inflict foolish, thoughtless and sometimes violent and tragic mistakes on themselves, their families and the community — unless there is a supernatural intervention or a small miracle.
Why does this violent disconnect from the norms of society curse so many of our youth in the community?
Recently some black leaders approached me in the wake of the deadly brown on black violence that erupted in our communities. One black leader pointed out that these most recent killings “have our young black and brown youth walking around in their community in constant fear for their safety.”
Tragically, the danger and the fear that these young men and women feel is real; there have been four or more shootings in the past two months involving black and brown youth.
In response to the latest eruption of death and violence, community leaders from the black and brown communities have decided to come together and work in a collaborative effort that we call the Summer of 2013 Black and Brown Youth KEYS Peace Project.
This group is now meeting at the Café on A and other locations throughout Oxnard with the primary goal of eradicating youth violence by providing peace methodology/theory classes (modeled after the KEYS Leadership Academy) and community peace activities and encounters for 20 to 30 black and brown at-risk youth of the greater Oxnard plains area.
We have the experience and the capacity; all we need is the will and the unconditional love to transform the summer of 2013 in Oxnard into the summer of peace and love, where all residents, especially those vulnerable and fearful at-risk youth, can be violence-free, with the unfettered capacity to embrace love and its infinite possibilities.
Oxnard, we can and must be the agents of change. Get involved with our Summer of 2013 Black and Brown KEYS Peace Project. You can give a kid a job, mentor a kid, and share your life experience, time and patience with a troubled youth. You can be there when a troubled young man needs to talk to an adult who cares.
For further information on the Black and Brown Youth KEYS Peace Project, call Armando Vazquez, 805-216-4560; Debbie De Vries, 805-216-4530; Jim Gilmer, 805-228-2386, or Lonnie McGown, 805-336-7205.
*The son replied, “Father, I grew up to be like you!”
— Armando Vazquez and Deborad De Vries are co-executive director of The KEYS Leadership Academy@ Café on A in Oxnard.
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