Javier Gomez
Editor’s note: Amigos805 will be presenting a regular profile of the winners of El Concilio Family Services’ 2011 Latino Leadership Awards, to be presented March 26 in Oxnard. The awards this year focus on educators who make a difference in the community.
While Javier Gomez may have retired from his position as an educator, he continues to educate and motivate youth through the Inlakech Cultural Arts Center in Oxnard, which he founded in 1976.
Inlakech provides a bilingual artistic education program that promotes cultural awareness. It offers a traditional Mexican ballet folklorico dance program; a music program that provides musical training in both vocalization and instrumentation; a theater program where youth write, stage and perform original productions, and a visual arts program.
Gomez migrated to the United States in 1955, attended schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District and earned his bachelor’s degree from San Fernando State College, now known as California State University, Northridge.
He is a past recipient of El Concilio’s Latino Leadership Award for preserving Latino heritage through the arts. He is a resident of Oxnard.
Besides Gomez, the award winners being honored this year include Elmelda P. Almanza, retired from the Oxnard School District; Carmen Guerrero, dean of Career & Technical Education at Oxnard College; Ventura County Community College District Trustee Art Hernandez; Fundi Legohn of Oxnard High School; Joseph M. Medina of California State University, Northridge; Lupe Murillo of Pacifica High School in Oxnard; Pilar Pacheco of California State University, Channel Islands; and Alex Rivera of Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.
Reservations for El Concilio Family Services’ annual Latino Leadership Awards gala dinner are due by March 14. Tickets are $125 per person, $1,500 to sponsor a table.
For more information about the awards or sponsorship opportunities call Yvonne R. Gutierrez at 805.486.9777, ext. 228, send an e-mail to events@elconcilioventura.org or visit www.elconcilioventura.org