A Blog by Michael Alvarado

The purpose of this blog is to advance my understanding about what it means to be a part of the Community Rights Campaign. What I have learned here is this: social struggles go beyond challenging the ubiquity of violence in our society. It is, to a very high degree, about doing it alongside comrades that represent a collective conscious. The rich complexity of interpersonal relationships that develop here at The Strategy Center examine how to dismantle the compartmentalization of individual qualities while pushing for analytically independent concepts essential for theoretical re-conceptualizations.

Not many people are fortunate enough to be involved in deep conversations like these. This is, in part, why I come here.

I know that the future of this work is directly dependent on the generations yet tocome because although there are many individuals who actively fight social injustices til the day they die, it is their younger allies who keep the struggle alive. It is imperative to recruit any youth interested in learning more or joining the cause, not just Black and Brown youth. I am not opposed to the ideas of Black Nationalism and self-determination for Latinos and Latinas, but I strongly believe that the struggle for human rights involves constructive interactions from all racial angles. Students, in particular, have proven themselves pivotal in struggles for human rights.

College students reaching out to High Schools students

College students with committed involvement can be instrumental in that their status of student maintains a sense of leverage that can be influential at the teenage level. At The Center I see peers my age take young revolutionaries under their wings, just as their mentors had done for them. This cyclical process, for me, demonstrates the power of relationships that help expose the social unconscious on an intellectual and, most importantly, real level. 

A professor of mine, Diane Kelley, said something one day that has stuck with me since, "Keep true to your vision and dreams, you make your own reality." Every time I come here a part of that reality--the equal treatment and recognition of individuals--unfolds with every political victory, seminar, and conversation. Although my role is a minor one in a major collective of progressive intellectuals, the connection between spirituality and work is not hard to see on the people who come here everyday. I commute to The Center because I like surrounding myself with impacting and knowledgeable individuals and because it is hard to realize a mindset without first finding like-minded individuals. They enrich my thoughts and ultimately my life, by way of addressing and detailing the open oppression of non-conformists by society, the government, and the self.