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eXtra History: Esperanza Echavarri

Esperanza Echavarri's journey leads her to work with EMUNYO and RAP. A retired licensed clinical social worker, community activist, organizer, and cultural practitioner for over 40 years, Esperanza's commitment to social change significantly contributed to revolutionizing the mental health systems of San Francisco.

In this installment of the RAMA Blueprints eXtra, we listened to Esperanza Echavarri talk about her experiences during the Third World Liberation Front Strikes of 1968 at San Francisco State University.

Transcript
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Esperanza Echavarri's journey leads her to work with EMUNYO and RAP.

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Her background in mental health would serve as an asset to help young people

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being released from Juvenile Hall.

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She helps to establish mental health services within the

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Mission District, which eventually leads to the establishment of

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Instituto Familiar de La Raza.

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After years of working with RAP, she became the director of Mission

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Mental Health and served as a commissioner with the San Francisco

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Juvenile Justice Commission and on the board of Directors for both RAP

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and Instituto Familiar de La Raza.

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A retired licensed clinical social worker, community activist, organizer,

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and cultural practitioner for over 40 years, Esperanza's commitment

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to social change significantly contributed to revolutionizing the

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mental health systems of San Francisco.

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In this installment of the RAMA Blueprints eXtra, we listened to Esperanza

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Echavarri talk about her experiences during the Third World Liberation

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Front Strikes of 1968 at San Francisco State University and how it set her

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career path in community based work.

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With a corazón and commitment to social change, here is Esperanza Echavarri.

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I think because my mom had such strong spirit, I always

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had that sense of injustice.

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And then being in a third world environment in school,

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it was very segregated.

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It was white, black, and Asian, and there was hardly any Latinos.

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John F.

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Kennedy was a major thing that he died and then assassinations.

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I really sensed a social kind of disorder about how people are treated and it raises

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a consciousness when you're a young teen.

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I'm a young 13, 14, 15 year old person being exposed.

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So that got me thinking politically what's really going on here in this country.

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But I think, what hit it for me was when I went to San Francisco State and that was

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the pivotal time just before the strike.

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When I went to State is really where I got my education when they were

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protesting about this professor who was terminated and the students

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were out demanding his return.

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So I started to go to those rallies.

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And so then that turned into, we need a department, we need a ethnic studies,

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but to see the repression of that come back at you with horses on the lawns.

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That kind of re repression where you're doing something where you think is right.

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You need to demand something you want because something

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isn't there or this isn't right.

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And you start to get involved as a young person.

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And then you see what is the reaction.

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Well, Hayakawa was putting the troops in and they were actually running

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their horses down on the lawns at San Francisco state to disrupt getting

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people out the way, banging their heads.

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And so that exposure was like, whoa!

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It just like, BING!

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And because you're demanding or insisting on something you feel

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is just, this is the response.

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So then that was my kind of political education.

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Got very involved with the strike in the La Raza Studies Department

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and the whole curriculum development and the organization there.

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And the whole philosophy of that department was, you get yourselves

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educated and you go back to your community to improve conditions.

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And so that was my mantra.

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I was already getting politicized through that environment and that

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exposure and experience, and also demanding being in a position of

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students, demanding . Not asking.

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Not recommending.

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No, we have to stand up because the people on the other side of the room

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who had the power or the decision making, they weren't hearing it.

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So you had to demand it and you had to put pressure in whichever way

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that you could, whether it's rallies, whether it's attention, whether it's

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disruption, whatever you had to push it.

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You had to keep pushing it to demand what you wanted.

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so that was my awakening.

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The eXtras of RAMA Blueprint's podcast are intended to help the listener

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with a deeper understanding of the people, events and places that created the Mission

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District and the series as a whole.

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Thank you for listening to this eXtra and remember to listen is to heal.

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About the Podcast

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RAMA Blueprints
The History of the Real Alternatives Program (RAP), a Revolutionary Youth Organization practicing Self-Determination.

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About your hosts

Profile picture for Darren J. de Leon

Darren J. de Leon

Darren J. de Leon is an award winning poet from San Bernardino, CA., playwright, podcast/radio producer, street DJ, high school teacher, taquero and community activist. For 12 years, he produced and hosted Radio 2050, a Latino Arts Radio Magazine for KPFA in Berkeley, CA. In the mid 90’s, Darren was a teacher at Real Alternative Programs (RAP High School) where he developed a curriculum that emphasized the practice of non-violence, composition, and self-expression for juvenile delinquents and the chronically truant. Currently, Darren lives in San Bernardino, CA in his family’s house of over 50 years. He continues to write, create art, and tend to his garden of vegetables and fruits. He produced Podcast Descarga: A History of Los Delicados and Project 1521, a poetry podcast. An avid bicycle rider, he can be spotted around the L.A. area on weekends pedaling and enjoying the art and literary scene. He loves mezcal and hates gasoline.
Profile picture for Socorro Gamboa

Socorro Gamboa

Socorro R. Gamboa is a conscious and passionate leader born and raised in Oxnard, California, she is a Community Activist, Artvist, an original Chicano Park muralist, a former high school principal, former Gang Reduction Intervention/Outreach specialist, a podcast producer and a community engagement consultant.
Socorro is truly a renaissance artivist. Socorro moved to San Francisco in 1988 where she began her journey working at the Real Alternatives Program (RAP) where she worked for 15 years as Case Manager, Education DIrector and the interim Executive Director of R.A.P. She also worked as the Director of the Community Response Network (CRN) a city wide community youth violence street intervention program, supervising 25 formerly incarcerated individuals, providing outreach and professionalism development. She is currently the co-founder of the 5 Sisters Audio Garden Production Company and co-producer and host of the RAMA Blueprints Podcast. She is rooted deeply in her spiritual practices, working the land, gardening and preserving the legacy of the elders by leaving a repository of valuable life lessons and insights.