La Raza Radio - Thursday, June 18, 2026

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1. Chris Channeling is streaming universally at kpfk.org. Radio powered by you, the people.
2. La Raza Radio with Matt Cedillo.
3. And welcome to La Raza Radio.
4. We're here at La Raza Radio, believing, drawing, and understanding from the study of history and economics and our sense of direction for the demands of the people and the movement.
5. Welcome to La Raza Radio.
6. So very excited this hour to be joined by the artist Carlos Callejo, the legendary Carlos Callejo, as well as Veronica Haurigui, who is doing some incredible work in the community, an incredible Sufi poet.
7. And she's going to share some poetry and tell us a little bit about the work she's doing with Food Not Bombs, helping people out.
8. I have just recently returned from Havana where I read the Havana International Poetry Festival.
9. Very, very exciting. I was there with Margarita Garcia.
10. We covered a little bit of that last week. And right now I just want to share with you a poem I read there.
11. and let it be said that could not be done that a small island nation ninety miles off the coast of empire could not rise up and let it be known
12. That history will not lie and wait for the perfect moment to arrive.
13. That revolution does not fall like a ripe apple that we must grab hold of society, shake its branches, seize the moment by the primary contradiction, the means of production.
14. That a handful of exiles on rebel ships with the will of the people could take the shores, the mountains, the capital.
15. that are weeks made up of decades
16. days that shake the world
17. moments beautiful and heroic
18. that defy death and defeat
19. be realistic
20. demand the impossible
21. let Cuba live
22. and the risk of sounding ridiculous
23. let it echo through history's halls and canyons
24. that a people once free
25. generation to generation
26. could defend a revolution
27. the fire of the tropics
28. a white rose to tend
29. a freedom already won
30. could rebuild society
31. the full measure of human dignity
32. with the right to land
33. labor, healthcare, education
34. practical and scientific assert national sovereignty,
35. could send doctors across the globe a beacon of hope,
36. achieve full literacy in record time
37. in these wretched days defined by murder,
38. mayhem, coups, assassinations, forced famines,
39. and the chaotic whims of mad emperors and the blockade.
40. The bloodthirst.
41. The war.
42. Let Cuba live.
43. Let Cuba thrive.
44. a cube will shine its light upon the world lead by example another world is possible for bombs may kill the hungry the sick the ignorant they will not teach the children they will not build the hospitals they will only poison the soil
45. It's every nation against the stranglehold of imperialism and dying solidarity.
46. It's every citizen of empire a mirror.
47. It's not our fault.
48. It is our responsibility.
49. History will not absolve our silence.
50. Lucky Miller.
51. And welcome to Alorasa Radio we now joined by Carlos Callejo we very excited to have him
52. for the hour uh Carlos is an incredible neuralist he's been an organizer uh he's been at you know
53. at the really in many different times right there at the cross-section of history he's he's really
54. been part of a lot of historical movements uh shaped by history and also a shaper of history
55. We're really, really honored to have Carlos for the hour.
56. So, Carlos, let us begin this interview.
57. Let's talk about this.
58. You were actually, you know, you were participating in the East L.A. Walkout.
59. So you were actually at Roosevelt.
60. And, well, you tell the story.
61. Okay.
62. Yeah.
63. Well, East L.A. Walkout, the blowout.
64. Oh, that was back in 1968.
65. I was a high school student.
66. I was, I think, in the 10th, 11th grade.
67. So I just was a participant.
68. I was not a leader or anything like that.
69. Even though nowadays they do kind of recognize me
70. because I became involved after.
71. But during that time, I was just,
72. I just wanted to get out of class.
73. But I think that, I mean, the Waukos played
74. a very significant role that sort of inspired me.
75. Like I said, I was just a participant. I was not a leader. But at that time, I was also being influenced a lot by a program that I was involved in called Upward Bangu, which was kind of a program to elevate your education experience.
76. and they would take high school kids from poverty-stricken areas
77. and place them in UCLA and take classes there during the summer.
78. So that sort of helped a lot in shaping my development
79. in the Chicano movement and in the walkouts and all that.
80. So that's how I am.
81. Yeah, so for our audience who might not be familiar with the walkouts,
82. you originally were at Roosevelt, but then you were sent to Wilson.
83. Can you tell us a little about how that happened
84. and how the activists at Roosevelt were a little different than the ones at Wilson.
85. Well, the walkouts, you probably won't, if you're honest,
86. basically was an effort by high school students to walk out of the schools
87. in order to protest the substandard education systems
88. and the double standard of our own U.S. education systems.
89. We had the most inferiority type of education and many, many things.
90. So there were demands was to many, many demands.
91. And so there was the walkouts, which now, I mean, it's highly recognized as a historical moment.
92. So I suggest to your audience to look at the references there is.
93. There's an HBO movie and the walkouts.
94. There's several documentaries and the walkouts.
95. But at that time, I guess, like I said, I was just a participant and also kind of a little bit role maker.
96. You know, I wanted to get out of class.
97. I wasn't really thinking of any ulterior motives.
98. A lot of people I did get.
99. This was my 10th, 11th grade.
100. But I did get transferred out.
101. Did not get kicked out.
102. I got transferred out from Roosevelt to Wilson in my senior year.
103. A lot of people think it was because of my participation in the walkouts, and that's
104. not true.
105. I would be lying if I tell you I was just a control maker And so actually it was mostly of what I was doing at the time The difference between Roosevelt and Godfrey well you know actually that was a very important
106. time of my life. In Roosevelt, like I said, I was more of a troublemaker. And Wilson is when it's
107. a very critical stage in my life because it made me change my life change in my senior year and
108. I'll tell you why I went to Wilson after being in the walkouts and of course but of course coming
109. from a different school you want to protect yourself you know you were especially hanging
110. around with certain groups of students and stuff, you get picked at or you get sought
111. after to get beat up.
112. So there was different groups in Wilson and I didn't want to, I wanted to keep very low
113. key that started in trouble because I was by myself there.
114. So I was trying to play very low key.
115. and it was the beginning of a semester
116. that I went to Wilson
117. and it was customary
118. that every beginning of the semester
119. that back then they had a boys vice principal
120. and a girls vice principal
121. and there was always like an assembly
122. to talk about, to set up the rules and regulations
123. the dress standards
124. to sort of set the course for the rest of the semester
125. so I was there
126. at the auditorium
127. at the assembly
128. and the boys vice principal
129. which I got to meet later Mr. Royer
130. was in the middle
131. of a speech talking about the rules
132. and regulations the different dress standards
133. and
134. apparently they were
135. pretty harsh you know the
136. rules and regulations and he was
137. noticing that the student body
138. in the auditorium
139. were making these faces of being too harsh.
140. And once he saw that, he said,
141. no, you have to realize that these rules and regulations makes us better.
142. Then he proceeded to continue and said,
143. and we are better in comparison to the other East LA high school.
144. And he's specifically named Garfield and Roosevelt.
145. He goes, and the reason we are better is that here in Wilson,
146. We're more closer to an Anglo way of life.
147. Now, to me, once he said that, after coming from Roosevelt, it sparked my interest.
148. And I said, oh, wait, that's a racist comment.
149. And I said, no.
150. And I couldn't believe that he actually has said that.
151. And so it just bothered me.
152. so I decided to raise my hand and just to simply to ask him if he could restate his statement or
153. you know so I'm not to start any trouble but I just basically just raised my hand
154. he basically ignored me and I guess he noticed that I was going to be pursuing and being you
155. know so he's he finally noticed me and he said young man you might as well put your hand down
156. because I'm not going to recognize you yet.
157. No, I know for a fact that you recently been transferred out
158. and you're still that part of our family.
159. And then I figured, OK, so he just doesn't recognize it.
160. But I still couldn't believe he had said that because it was really a racist.
161. The reason I couldn believe it is that I also looked at the back of me to see if anybody else had a reaction to what his comments said And I really didn see anything different
162. So I said, no, it was me.
163. I misunderstood it.
164. It must have been me.
165. It was going to be him.
166. You know, at Roosevelt, we would have already walked out or done, you know, protests or something for hearing that.
167. You know, so I really thought that I had misunderstood him.
168. So after the assembly, it bothered me.
169. And I asked my teacher, going back to class, I thought, can I have permission to go ask?
170. And he goes, yeah, sure, sure.
171. You know, go ask whatever you want.
172. So I noticed that he was in the middle of discussing something with another teacher that I got to meet later, Mr. Walters.
173. He was a math teacher who I asked.
174. Actually, I remember him because I asked him to be one of my sponsors for the new Mecha group.
175. and they were in the middle of speaking and I you know being that I'm the student you know and I had
176. to be respectful I sort of noticed I wanted to to wait until the conversation was over but it was
177. taking too long and I had to go back to class so I kind of let my presence be known and all he did
178. once he saw me all he did was he told Mr. Walters excuse me and instead of saying anything he just
179. made a reaction he got his hand and put it in his back pocket of his pants like grabbing his wallet
180. and then he looked at me he goes young man how much would it cost to take a bus to tj
181. and so i literally after that oh that that so and so really actually said it he's a racist
182. so i did not do anything and did not say anything i just simply turned around
183. and walked out of the auditorium.
184. Little did he know, after being in the walkouts
185. and after being in Upward Bound,
186. I had connections with all these community groups,
187. parents groups.
188. Like after the walkouts,
189. we had formed a parents committee to bail out 13 kids
190. that got busted at the walkouts.
191. So I went to all these groups and told them what happened.
192. And the next day, as I'm walking into the school,
193. into his campus and to his office.
194. There's all these people around him with notepads
195. and basically to find out what had happened.
196. And he was in the middle of telling them
197. that the young man had misunderstood him.
198. And all I did was basically went to his desk
199. and I told him, Mr. Royer, you know what?
200. These people are very important.
201. I'm taking time out of their daily lives.
202. And so when you accuse me of me misunderstanding you,
203. it makes me feel bad.
204. It makes me feel bad for these people
205. that I'm taking their time out of their work.
206. So you know what?
207. I'm not going to want to pursue anything any further,
208. but this needs to stop.
209. And so anyway, so that was a very pitiful moment in my life.
210. Why?
211. Because it made me realize that I had a little bit
212. of leadership capabilities and that I had to be more disciplined.
213. And now that I was going to be more in the public eye
214. with that school, I had a cut down on my
215. trouble making experience. So it kind of gave me some
216. motive to sort of become more politically
217. inclined. So anyway, I share that story
218. because that time there was starting to be
219. an UMAS. UMAS was United Mexican American
220. Students. Wilson did not have an UMAS.
221. and only Roosevelt that.
222. And so when I talk to students and they kind of,
223. you know, ask me, well, what happened?
224. And, you know, at Roosevelt, we would have had walked out.
225. And I told them about UBAS.
226. And that's where it sparked the idea to start an UBAS.
227. And I was very grateful because I was not even really have leadership capabilities.
228. But I was very fortunate that I had some allies there.
229. One of them being Ana Rodriguez, who's the daughter of Senia Rodriguez.
230. I don't know if you're familiar with those names, but she was very, the parent that was very instrumental in the walkouts.
231. So that was very fortunate in my part.
232. Anyway, I've already made a long story, but that's my walkout and my Wilson experience.
233. You listen to KBFK, La Raza Radio.
234. We're now joined by Carlos Callejo.
235. Very excited to talk to him about some living history.
236. We're talking now about the history of the walkouts, which involved Garfield, Roosevelt, Lincoln, and Wilson.
237. So really, really excited to have you on, Carlos.
238. So, Carlos, the thing I really want to talk to you now about is you were there.
239. You were there present during the walkouts.
240. You say you just kind of walked out for fun.
241. And then later on, you got politicized there at Wilson with this incident.
242. So that kind of puts you into UMAS.
243. So can you tell our audience a little bit more about UMAS and how did that at UMAS get together?
244. Because you were really there kind of at the beginning stages of it.
245. So tell our audience about UMAS, which is the precursor to what people might be a little more familiar with, which is Mecha.
246. But tell us how UMAS in the early days.
247. Umas actually was a Mexican-American organization of students for fighting for injustices and things like that.
248. It didn't become Mecha until 69, which I was right out of high school, I believe.
249. It's actually 69 to 70 when the Plan de Santa Barbara.
250. But UMAS used to have national student conferences on a national and also on a statewide level.
251. There was a conference that happened in Santa Barbara University, Cal State Santa Barbara.
252. And that is where they adapted the whole resolution about changing the name from UMAS, United Mexican American Students, to MECHA.
253. So basically, I was just a participant.
254. I was a student, and I was always part of Mecha, always part of UMAs.
255. UMAs very, very early on, like I said, that was my Wilson experience.
256. And that was in the year of year 69.
257. And after 70 is when that change happened.
258. So I became part of Mecha at Cal State LA, then being a university student.
259. Yeah, and it just, you know, I was very much participating.
260. I went to different conferences.
261. There was some Chicano student conferences that happened at the time in Denver, Colorado, sponsored by the Crusade for Justice by Corky Rodolfo Gonzalez.
262. So I was part of all those conferences that sort of shaped my, you know, my interest.
263. So did you see Corky speak?
264. oh yeah oh yeah many times so to tell our audience a little bit who might not be familiar
265. so yeah no it was very it's inspiring and uh he was one of our chicano leaders so yeah
266. i i would have to have too much to say about that so i would just uh suggest to your audience to
267. make some research yeah so so you known uh um as as an organizer as always also somebody that you know deeply involved the movement like uh somebody that that uh at all times has been involved deeply in the struggles of the Chicano people for liberation
268. But your artistic practice is that mostly as a muralist.
269. Can you tell our audience a little bit, when did you start getting involved in painting?
270. When did the canvas, the public art, when did that all begin to speak to you?
271. Okay.
272. Okay, you know, I've always had a little artistic bug within me.
273. I think it's innate.
274. It's not like learned.
275. I think early on in my formative years, I had a speech disability.
276. I used to stutter a lot, like I probably still do.
277. So I had a complex about speaking, being articulate.
278. So my way of expression was always in the visual or in the artistic sense.
279. So I always had that kind of sense.
280. In my early high school years, I didn't do too much painting.
281. I did a lot of drawings.
282. But once I got into college, because of my political influence,
283. but you got a movement interest, I became involved in silkscreens.
284. So the actual, my first efforts in the arts was actually poster making.
285. So I did a lot of the posters back in, starting from the 69 to 70s.
286. My mural experience happened around that same time too, only simply because back then when you were doing silkscreen, there was a lot of toxic materials you used.
287. And I was doing too much.
288. I just thought I'm going to kill myself.
289. I used to work in a garage where there's no ventilation.
290. And I literally used to catch myself coming down and seeing fumes coming out of me.
291. So I said, you know, this, I'm going to kill myself.
292. So that sort of shape.
293. And by the way, my still screen equipment back then, I think there was a, there was a someone very involved.
294. Sister Karen was very involved in the art scene in the East LA area.
295. and she was one of the founder of self-help graphics.
296. And people don't realize that once I closed my studio down
297. of my silkscreen equipment and I took everything out of the garage
298. and I donated it to her.
299. The people, you know, now they're known for silkscreening.
300. So some of the first equipment of silkscreen was actually donated
301. to Sister Karen.
302. That's an interesting story.
303. But anyway, so I closed down my silkscreen little workshop
304. and I started pursuing murals and murals only because uh you know murals in the late 60s early
305. 70s there was this little uh public art renaissance going down in real metropolitan
306. city New York Chicago LA and it was and it was actually more of a of a artists
307. and community artists that were very politically conscious individuals
308. and wanted to take the message to the world.
309. What are murals are the most interesting things
310. because they're exposed to the general public,
311. literally seen by thousands about thousands of people
312. and taking your message across.
313. So that's what sparked my interest,
314. and that's what basically I started doing murals.
315. You're listening to Cape of Kayla at Asa Radio.
316. We are now joined by Carlos Callejo.
317. This is very, very exciting.
318. Now, I want to talk to you about one of the really important, one of your kind of first
319. forays into doing something that was really historic and discussed by many, many people
320. and really made some you know your own little piece of Chicano history here Can you tell us about your work at the Estrada Courts and why it was important to you to do what you did and kind of the aftermath of that
321. Okay.
322. Oh, boy.
323. I know you're going to bring that up.
324. Estrada Courts.
325. At Estrada Courts, it's a housing project in the East LA area.
326. It's recognized by all the murals that were done in the housing projects
327. that started around, like, the 70s, the 1970s.
328. And I was working, being a sales screen instructor for a nonprofit agency that actually was given to me by UMAS or by MECHA.
329. And I got sought after to do a mural in Estrada Courts.
330. There was a lot of artists from different parts of citywide areas to do murals in Estrada Courts.
331. And at that time, that was one of my first murals.
332. That mural was done in 1972.
333. It was interesting because 72, you know, 1970 is when the National Chicano Moratorium happened.
334. And I was very much part of that.
335. I was just fresh out of high school.
336. And I had noticed how in 1970, there was a lot of like conscious racings.
337. and being that LA is a gang,
338. like the gang city of the world
339. was recognized as a gang city of the world.
340. That particular year,
341. there was not a lot of gang violence.
342. They had kind of each other had called a truce
343. to go fight like the problem with the police brutality
344. and because of the Vietnam War,
345. because the war actually happened
346. because of not just a protest of the Vietnam War,
347. but was the secondary.
348. The primary was that the high death rate
349. of Chicanos dying in Vietnam
350. because at that time we made 28% of the casualties
351. when we only made 7% of the population.
352. So there was a big discrepancy.
353. So that was 1970.
354. And then 1972 happened,
355. and I started noticing that those truths had been broken.
356. There was a lot more what I could consider repressive drugs
357. coming into the community.
358. There was a lot more gang violence going on
359. in the different neighborhoods of East L.A.
360. So one of the things that 1972 did to me was 1972,
361. a situation happened where the Pentagon Papers got exposed.
362. It's like the WikiLeaks, the modern-day WikiLeaks of today.
363. Back then, it was the Pentagon Papers.
364. And actually, people went to jail, like Ellsberg, Daniel Ellsberg,
365. various people went to jail for exposing this.
366. And the many things that were exposed, like the Allende overthrow of Chile, newly elected socialist government of Chile was overthrown by the CIA, many, many, many things were revealed.
367. But one very interesting thing that got my eye was that 75% of all heroin traffic coming into our country was coming through Air America Airlines, which is not a commercial airline, it's a CIA-run airline.
368. Now, you could ask yourself, why would our own government be involved in drug trap, in
369. repressive drug trafficking?
370. So you could make your own conclusions, but I was in the firm belief that it was in order
371. to curtail that conscious racing that I was telling you about earlier, like the 1970s.
372. I think exploitation comes in various forms.
373. only is it the physical form of you know hard working conditions bad healthcare all that stuff but also by a psychological and it was a way of a controlling So that what I kind of started seeing a lot of repressive drugs coming into the communities
374. to curtail that conscious raising.
375. So I decided that would make a very good theme for this mural in Strata Chords.
376. So the very first mural is actually this wall.
377. And it was back then there was used to be a program every Sunday night called the Wonderful
378. World of Color, a Walt Disney production. And I changed my
379. mural entitled The Wonderful World of Corruption, where it
380. has Mickey Mouse and the conveyor belt with a spotlight
381. like a stage introducing the wonderful of corruption. And the
382. stage and the stage line is actually coming from me from a
383. helicopter like Vietnam helicopter. And all you see is
384. like these ghostly, heuristic figures coming out of this.
385. Oh, it's hard to explain.
386. I should show you a picture.
387. But anyway, it has hypodermic needles with wings like airplanes.
388. So it was one of the most, I think,
389. one of the most political works that I've done in my life.
390. And it dealt with that.
391. It did receive a lot of controversy.
392. So it never got, I think it lasted there about eight years.
393. after that they whitewashed it and never came back again so so even as um our like activists
394. you're still kind of a troublemaker you're still trying to you know what i think i tend to say that
395. i was more of a troublemaker then because i think that i didn't want my audience that view my art
396. to make his or her own interpretation of my art i wanted to be straight on your face yeah
397. And I think, no.
398. I'm saying, you know, you could have just done it straight, like, okay, these are war crimes.
399. Here's my lie.
400. Here's Allende getting shot.
401. Here's the bomb.
402. But you're still a travieso.
403. I mean, you still put, like, Mickey Mouse.
404. You're still like a little rascal, man.
405. I tend to be more diplomatic about it.
406. In other words, I don't sell out by the idea, but I do put the idea out there.
407. and in a very interesting form,
408. very non-confrontational form,
409. so that you make your own interpretation.
410. So I become more diplomatic about it.
411. So I got a little bit of a...
412. Which still works.
413. Is that like I sold myself out?
414. No, no, no.
415. I mean, it's hilarious.
416. It's very satirical.
417. It's got that kind of...
418. Yeah, exactly.
419. Very satirical, yeah.
420. No, no.
421. It's like when a class clown gets political,
422. they tend to make satire.
423. You have to do with a dose of humor.
424. you know yeah that's that's right that's that you if you notice my art it has a lot of that quality
425. no that's wonderful uh you listen to kpk la raza radio and we're joined by carlos callejo and we're
426. talking right now about his work in the strata court so you've done you've done a lot of work
427. uh here in los angeles but also um in um in texas as well uh can you tell us about your time in texas
428. and some of the murals uh that you're involved in out there sure i well i moved to texas well i'm
429. originally from El Paso, Texas. I was transported or transplanted into LA when I was about eight
430. years old. So all my adult life, I lived here until I was about 36. And then I went back and
431. I got married. And so for the next 20 years after that, I was in Texas. So I received a lot of
432. art commissions. I have one of the biggest art commissions in the state of Texas, which is the
433. Paso County Courthouse, I suggest you could look it up.
434. And it dealt with the history of the West,
435. West Texas, Southern New Mexico area, where particular emphasis
436. Some parts of history that are normally covered by a traditional means of education or history books. So, yeah, I did a lot of murals in Texas and the state of New Mexico.
437. So, you were covering history, not traditionally covered in history books. So that was like your idea or that was what you that was kind of what you were. No, no, that was my idea. Yeah. I tried to kind of implement little little.
438. Little dips there here there, you know, again, more diplomatic about it.
439. but but you know showing because sometimes when you look at history like people look at history
440. more in a stereotypical method so when you think about paso you think about dusty old country town
441. you know country flowing from data and it it wasn't it was very metropolitan the el paso
442. plays a very significant role in in the whole united states you know everybody el paso del
443. norte has a lot of history people don't realize el paso del norte the original paso de norte was
444. Ciudad Juarez Chihuahua, which is across the border.
445. Ciudad Juarez Chihuahua did not become Ciudad Juarez Chihuahua until Benito Juarez, our
446. Mexican president, was being persecuted by Maximilian.
447. That's when it got changed.
448. And then across the border, across the river, was nothing but farmlands.
449. That became El Paso del Norte.
450. So it has a lot of history.
451. And it's a very, very unique area because you're talking a binational city, a tri-state city.
452. You've got Chihuahua, New Mexico, and Texas.
453. So there's a lot of things that happen.
454. And I'm not going to bore the audience with the historical significance, but there's a lot of contributions that often get neglected.
455. People don't realize that it comes from there.
456. Our own Los Angeles, you know, they don't like that.
457. We tend to put the Pachuco kind of high end, the whole suit suit, the whole Pachuco era, you know.
458. What do you think El Paso sometimes referred to as El Chuco?
459. Right, right.
460. You know, so it has a lot, a lot of influence, a lot of metropolitan influence, not just the ghostly little desert town.
461. You know, it's very metropolitan.
462. People used to go there, all these actors, Sofia Lomer and Elizabeth Taylor got married there.
463. So it was very metropolitan.
464. And that's actually what has basically made El Paso.
465. So it was a very, very two cities in one, very international.
466. It's, of course, throughout the years, it has changed, I guess, because of the devaluation of the peso and the immigration issues.
467. It's changed a lot.
468. Back in the day, if you were born in El Paso, back in the very early 60s, you had dual citizenship.
469. The whole Chavizal issue.
470. I don't know if people don't know about the shifting of the river.
471. Anyway, so there's a lot of historical facts there.
472. So much of your work, like many of the murals of the era, so much of it is the juxtaposition of historical figures and moments
473. against kind of, you know, cultural touchstones, landmarks,
474. and so much of the brilliance of the work comes from
475. what images are paired with each other.
476. Now, so much of that seems to me to be influenced
477. by a lot of the Mexican muralist movement,
478. like, you know, with the Rivera and Siqueiros and Orozco.
479. So how does the Mexican muralist movement,
480. how did it influence your work
481. or was it influenced by your contemporaries
482. or what did this kind of,
483. you kind of developed a palette out of?
484. Well you know we would be lying if it doesn say the whole Chicano art experience or the whole chicano art movement has been influenced by our our masters or past past you know uh uh post the mexican revolution
485. uh influence and not just in the arts or the fine arts but in the music in the theater
486. all the street theater you know all the music the corridos come from from that era so that has a lot
487. of influence a lot of the imagery the icons comes from that you know so yeah it plays a very
488. significant role very significant movement a lot of people think when they compare my work out of
489. all the tres grandes i think i got influenced more uh by the cicado style of work but the difference
490. is that you know you have to understand that when they were when they were doing murals back then
491. they were dealing with illiterate population so that was like the people's newspaper and that's
492. where they got the information where our contemporary mural movement it's actually more
493. where you also involve the community in the decision making process of the concept of the
494. mural concept so that's the difference we we engage the community to be part of that
495. And I think that's very helpful in developing my career because early on as a social worker where I was part of a youth program, my work wasn't very much recognized.
496. a lot of our work, not just me, because your big art institution, funding institutions,
497. were never, they very conveniently pigeonholed our movement, our Chicano mural movement,
498. as poor art for poor people, as protest art or for for cloning art in order to disqualify
499. for serious consideration of funding.
500. So as very innovative kind of artists,
501. we became our own resources.
502. We became dependent on our own resources.
503. And I was very influential in that
504. because as a youth worker,
505. I was able to plug into more humanitarian type of funding
506. by selling the idea,
507. not necessarily the product like the bureau,
508. but also selling the idea of the process
509. because I would say I'll tell them look I'm going to get rival gang members to work together
510. thereby curtailing gang warfare thereby curtailing graffiti so there was very very these methodologies
511. were very non-traditional ways of educating and inspiring and receiving uh uh support funding
512. support so I don't know if it makes sense but it makes absolute sense the the work of Siqueiros
513. definitely shows through. I mean, I know Siqueiros actually
514. came to Los Angeles and not just
515. influenced people. He actually had a hands-on
516. and from what I heard from
517. Chican Movement.
518. Yeah, I remember once talking to Luis Garza
519. about it. He was talking about how
520. deeply... He did a drawing, which
521. we have in our...
522. Well, one of my
523. friends has it. In a collection, he did
524. a drawing of
525. Rubén Salazar.
526. Yeah, he was deeply involved and he cared.
527. He cared deeply.
528. about the Chicano movement and he definitely wasn't just just influenced
529. from a distance he actually had hands-on approach that that's really beautiful um
530. so I want to talk to you about I you know I just recently got back from the
531. Havana International Poetry Festival I got to read in Havana this is probably
532. my fourth of a time and I know you done work in Cuba so I really actually curious for you to tell our audience about what your experiences were in uh in cuba i started going to cuba and having a relationship with an organization called
533. mori aliando where there's a lot of the whole community has a lot of murals around the community
534. because being a muralist of course i i tended to go there and i formed a very close relationship
535. with them. I was there around two years, about two, three years ago. I went there almost nine times.
536. I took people from LA over there as a group, as a . And one of the times I organized a group
537. of Chicano artists and we did three murals around the, that immediate community in Havana.
538. It's actually a little community called Colonia Lawton, L-O-W-T-O-N.
539. And actually, it's an old neighborhood where Camilo Sinfuegos is originally from.
540. So people don't know who Camilo Sinfuegos is, a Cuban leader.
541. And so that's it.
542. We did three murals, kind of fast murals.
543. We didn't want to take the artist's time and just doing work.
544. So we wanted to have time to have a good time and to relate and to exchange, cultural exchange.
545. So, you know, we did it kind of, we organized them so we could do them kind of quickly.
546. The artists, I will mention their name.
547. I don't know if I should get their permission first, but they're pretty well-known artists from the L.A.
548. Well, two from L.A., one from San Diego.
549. That's incredible.
550. It's incredible that you were able to get delegation down there to do that.
551. I know I've done the same with poets to speak at Casas Americas, as well as inviting other poets I knew to read at the International Poetry Festival.
552. It's really always great to be able to have doors open for you, but also to open doors in return.
553. So, yeah, that's incredible.
554. So I really, we are coming from time here, but I do really want our audience to hear one of my favorite stories of yours, which is the story of a baseball game in Nicaragua.
555. Could you share?
556. Oh, I don't know.
557. I have too many stories, brother.
558. I don't know.
559. When you sat in the wrong seat.
560. Oh.
561. Oh, God.
562. Wow, this is an interesting story.
563. Actually, it wasn't a baseball.
564. It was a concert.
565. Oh, a concert.
566. Peter, Paul, and Mary was playing.
567. And the other group, real famous group,
568. was called Carlos Godoy.
569. And they were going to be playing.
570. But of course, this was during the time
571. that there was the war songs
572. and Manawa Nicaragua
573. was being torn by
574. all this violence and all this.
575. So they didn't really have
576. a national theater.
577. They had actually a big circus
578. because of the war.
579. Because of the whole contra affair.
580. So it was a big, huge
581. circus.
582. And so I was lucky
583. enough to receive a pass
584. because I had a camera and I was
585. kind of documenting
586. around there. So I had like a press pass. So I had like special privileges.
587. And back then, because of the war zones, all the soldiers were in what they call the war zones,
588. where tourists couldn't go, because it was outside of Nicaragua. So they had what they
589. call, I don't know what's the Spanish word for cubs, like little bear cubs, as their national
590. guard for the city.
591. Little kids like 17 16 kids sort of being plain host to the people the tourists So anyway being that I had this pass I saw that there was front row seats in front of the stage kind of roped off
592. And since I had this pass with me, I kind of were able to get into this little section of rope area.
593. and so I went and sat down in the seat and after a while this national guard this cut what they
594. call a kichorro or I don't remember what they called them like this little national guard kid
595. like 16 year old kid came in real apologetic and says you know señor like you really can't sit
596. there it's been reserved it's it's it's a special place to be reserved you know you can't sit there
597. so I said okay people don't worry
598. it's okay you're doing your job
599. don't worry about it
600. so I left and I went to another place
601. kind of more up that was watching
602. and as the
603. stadium
604. the circus stadium started getting
605. more populated with people coming in
606. I noticed that there's
607. a lot of people made a big reaction
608. because there's a big entourage coming in
609. from a side door
610. and actually it was Ortega the president
611. of the time. And he went
612. and sat in the same damn chair I was
613. sitting in a couple of minutes before
614. and I go, oh my god, I was sitting
615. in the president's chair.
616. That was a funny
617. story.
618. I think that's the story you wanted to hear.
619. That's the story I wanted to hear.
620. That's hilarious.
621. For our audience, can you tell us,
622. oftentimes people get
623. labeled certain things when they're involved in the Chicago
624. movement, this, nationalist, this, that, the other.
625. So many people that I've known
626. who've been jagged with that
627. are some of the most internationally-minded people
628. I've ever known.
629. So can you tell our eyes a little bit about
630. why this kind of spirit of internationalism
631. has meant so much to you and so many others
632. who've been deeply involved in the Chicano movement?
633. Because as Chicano artists or as Chicano activists,
634. you know, the whole movement actually is about economics.
635. It is about class struggle.
636. And that's international.
637. It's not between races.
638. So I think that's what plays a significant role.
639. I always tend to think that as a Chicano, we're not a nation.
640. We're like a subculture and a predominantly dominant culture.
641. And we play a very international significant role in the overall trade union movements internationally.
642. People don't realize, you know, when they think of Chicago, sometimes they're real stereotypical.
643. They see more like the music or the car clubs or the dress codes or the dress standards.
644. People don't realize that we also played a very politically significant role.
645. And I give ourselves a lot of credit because we're not a nation, but we still made international moves and international policies,
646. especially like in the labor movement especially back early and people don't realize that so i
647. need it for the new generation i need for them to acknowledge that we have played a role we're very
648. we're very significant that that we're because of a colonized people and because of our struggle
649. there's we have opened some doors international anyway i don't want to seem like a beat my soap
650. box but i think that's the nutshell this is kpfk lorasa radio and you know the
651. the nature of being on a radio station is to be on a soapbox. I mean, this is a modern day soapbox.
652. That's what it is. So feel free. Speak your mind, speak your truth. So it's been an honor to have
653. you on, Carlos. So I guess the final question is, where can people see more of your work? Where can
654. people find out more about your work? And when can people find out what you're doing next?
655. Simply Google my name or go to YouTube and put my name up and you'll see different. I don't have
656. an official website i should i'm fortunately i kind of regret saying that but i do have a lot
657. of works but they're more like site specific so you have to go to each one to see but they're
658. site specific works uh there's many many things in documentaries it would just just put my name
659. on youtube or google that's as simple as that or or or contact mezzanino and they'll refer you to
660. And I'm free to. And so what's next for Carlos Cayo?
661. What's next? Well, I'm retired. So I've been doing a lot of what I call studio work,
662. good community work. So we're organizing a couple of exhibitions in the future, which I will keep
663. you posted. I do have a project coming up where I have to restore one of my old, old murals in El
664. El Paso, Texas.
665. I believe that there's some things in the making.
666. And actually, this might be interesting.
667. There's some people running, progressive people running in the state of New Mexico,
668. and they want to create more of a street, a one-weekend mural project.
669. And they want me to be part of one of the internationally or nationally known artists,
670. be one of them.
671. So there's a couple of things in the making.
672. We'll see what happens.
673. That's fantastic.
674. Talk soon. And thank you for all that you've done over the years. And thank you for being on stage.
675. Thank you for having me.
676. And welcome back to La Rosaria.
677. We're now joined by Veronica Hauerge.
678. Veronica Hauerge is joining us now in the capacity as somebody who is here to represent Food Not Bombs in Hound Park.
679. She's been giving out food to the hungry for the past few years now.
680. And yeah, Veronica, tell us a little about this effort of Food Not Bombs in Hound Park.
681. Yeah, we've been doing it for maybe like two years now.
682. And we started Avenue 58 with my friend Chris, Sergeant Lepper.
683. He was homeless, actually, in that corner.
684. And he used to do Food Not Bombs for 15 years, 20 years maybe, in Highland Park.
685. And I really wanted him to research that.
686. So I said, let's do that.
687. And he was playing music with solar panels.
688. So kind of electronic, all kinds.
689. And I thought that was amazing.
690. So I said, let's combine the two.
691. and have like music and we'll give out food we've been giving out food for two years
692. I go up there and the there's no more homeless people they all got housing and I was really
693. surprised no actually most people are housed but there's a lot of people still not housed
694. so we are still feeding people we just moved further down to the park further down um across from the bike oven Greer Park And now we do that every Sunday from 2 to 4
695. So where's that located?
696. Pasadena Avenue in Figueroa, across from the bike oven.
697. And that's a co-op.
698. And they're open on Sunday across from Avenue 50.
699. So we have music.
700. People come if they want to jam out as well with the music from 2 to 4.
701. and then we serve like try to serve tacos i mean last week i had like bolillos so i made some tortas
702. people enjoyed that because they're usually tired of tacos now i switch it up sometimes
703. yeah but um i want uh ultimately i want to expand to east la and i really want to
704. um i'm starting that effort now i have at least one volunteer so if you want to volunteer just
705. come down on Sunday uh and then we're gonna have a meeting coming up uh for the East LA
706. Food Not Bombs which I like to have it at the East LA Civic Center and hopefully we could get like
707. music and do like a little bit pavilion there because I feel that that was made to kind of
708. be a center for us but not nothing really happens there so I'm gonna talk to Solis and we'll see
709. what we could do all right so well let's focus on what's going on in Highland Park so in Highland
710. park uh you've added music uh and uh what what prompted you to decide that you know in order in
711. addition to giving out food that you also wanted to make tunes entertain people and well we wanted
712. to use public space so like the sidewalk is a public space and right now everybody that is
713. homeless that's their public that's what they are ultimately left to use that's all that's where
714. we're left to and that's how you know people are skirted around uh being homeless they clean
715. the sidewalks every two to three months we spend a lot of money in that instead of instead of
716. making housing so hopefully the new mayor will be focused on that well you know in addition to um
717. in addition to struggling with uh you know housing even when people do find housing
718. still the question of food insecurity is still uh very high uh in the city and um yeah so it's
719. really it's really wonderful thing i think you're doing not just feeding people but also you know
720. bringing one kind of culture to the experience as well.
721. And it's not just feeding people. We have like a pantry.
722. So regular people can be a part.
723. So we could actually address a few different levels.
724. So there's regular people that can't put food on the table and they could just
725. get, you know, stuff.
726. There's people that could just come and hang out at a park in a picnic
727. situation where they could enjoy music, you know,
728. for maybe like two hours and enjoy some food and enjoy each other's company.
729. I mean the biggest thing is for people to come together
730. yeah now in addition to being
731. you know an advocate
732. for people you're also a poet
733. a Sufi poet of East LA
734. so I'd be remiss not to
735. ask you to share with us some poetry
736. oh thank you
737. thank you yeah I'm a Sufi poet
738. I live in East LA
739. I've done poetry for like five years
740. so I have one book but
741. that I published
742. at COVID
743. right when COVID began.
744. It was, and so we were number one on the charts
745. because people were going to digital at that point.
746. I published it with my, a friend I never,
747. I've never met, a Moroccan poet, M. Atali.
748. So, and it was like a duets.
749. I think I'll try to get it republished,
750. you know, even if it's self-published,
751. but I've been writing more like political
752. and I do swerve a little bit into my Sufi stuff But here we go The one within the other but just a drop of it enough to taint the whole to give new meaning to the old to kiss new lips to soften skin
753. to release ourselves of the circumference, the perimeter of this enclosure. Then it comes on.
754. It's only this world, meaningless, this flotch is the spark of it we left behind
755. to never forget lest our entirety is gone with. I'd rather die on my feet than
756. live on my knees. Yet more than a hundred years passed and we live more this life
757. than any dignity that was dreamed of. And as they collect slaves in a huge slave
758. trade of money and work. We can't put food on the table. We can't even specify why,
759. because it hits us at all points. The decline of civilization is taking us down as well,
760. and we are crawling rather than on our knees, senselessly dragging our body through the
761. motions of this life, awaiting its decline, waiting in fear, yet unable to grasp. It's in our hands.
762. the entirety of this time.
763. Life is what we make it.
764. The ultimate freedom is that nothing and no one can take your freedom
765. unless you give it.
766. I don't like to title my poems.
767. But the other one was inspired by a prompt, the quote in the beginning.
768. And lastly, this prompt was of faith.
769. So when nothing else is left
770. There is that feeling
771. The gum
772. That glue
773. You don't even know what to call it
774. Faith
775. Gut feeling
776. That you'll survive this
777. That you might make it to 100
778. Despite the disease you've had
779. For 25 years
780. How the body goes
781. You need to spend half the day in maintenance
782. Faith
783. That without doing anything
784. It will do itself
785. And it does
786. And sometimes I feel lazy for it's doing its thing.
787. Faith is that boat that never stops, that sails past the sunset into the new world with conquest, desire, and future, unthinkable futures.
788. Wow.
789. That was an incredible suite of poems.
790. Thank you so much, Veronica.
791. One last time, can you tell our audience where you're going to be this Sunday and what Food Not Bombs is doing?
792. Oh, yeah. So this Sunday is a special one. We're going to have Lorna DeServantes be a poet. Maybe we'll have a few more poems, poets and poems. We have had poets in the past and even Matt DeDue has done like a poetry.
793. Yeah.
794. I remember like sometime last year.
795. So it's a two to four at Gray's Park, which is across from the bike oven.
796. We usually make like some sort of vegetable tacos and have rice and a lot of hot sauce.
797. And we bring a blanket.
798. You could bring stuff to share, like food you make or, you know, leftovers you've got, whatever.
799. It's all about sharing and coming together and meeting new people because we're not going to win any of this without talking to each other.
800. Yeah.
801. Thank you again, Veronica.
802. And we'll see you this Sunday.
803. Thank you.
804. Thank you for having me on.
805. And with that, we want to thank our guests, Carlos Callejo, as well as Veronica Hauerge.
806. We want to encourage everyone to go check out what Veronica is doing and check out Carlos' work.
807. We want to thank you the listener Always always want to thank Gary Baca without whom the show is not possible Thank you to our producer Gary Baca And as always que viva la raza
808. Thank you.
809. Thank you.
810. Thank you.
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