The Helper Foundation
The Helper Foundation is a nonprofit organization with headquarters in Los Angeles. Its main function is to provide gang prevention and intervention services, with the aim of altering gang members' perspectives and addressing both internal and external gang problems. Their goal is to assist young people who are struggling and at risk of succumbing to economic immorality by offering the necessary resources and guidance. (HELPER Foundation). In an effort to advance the foundation's objectives through the inventiveness of art and design, the group has begun working with Otis College of Art and Design on a project. This is accomplished by producing expressive artwork, such as coloring books, comics, and many other articles and works of art. The school is assigned several duties, and our group is in charge of making the coloring books for the young kids in the gang community to accomplish addressing the importance of different aspects of humanity. This book will work as a tool of advice to the child to avoid joining a gang.
Choosing a Positive Role Model
After the task was divided into the different groups, we equally subdivided the tasks to individuals. I have tasked the job to research the role model to be used in the coloring book. I found it wise to choose a role model who would portray a positive picture and attitude towards the readers. With a role model with such characteristics, the readers will be interested in reading the book and will imitate some of the characteristics hence a positive change in them. More so, my role is important because it will set the tone of the book hence an important tool in the production of the book. Choosing the wrong role model will lead to a low impact as admired hence, I need to find the right role model. After considering all these factors, I chose Reuben Salazar. Reuben Salazar born on 3rd March 1928, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico was brought to the United States in 1929. He was enrolled in the Texas Western College where he undertook Journalism and graduated in 1954 with a degree in Journalism (Rodriguez).
Reuben Salazar: A Reporter for the Los Angeles Times
Ruben Salazar became a reporter for the Los Angeles Times and was the first American journalist in the mainstream media, and his main task was to cover the Chicano community. He lived a life, which led to him labeled the man in the middle. He was a strong supporter of the radical Chicano movement during the late 1960s. Although he was not in support of the things the movement was doing, he still supported their struggles of being treated equally by the Americans. He fought against mental slavery. Due to his growing popularity in this fight, he was given a chance to be covering the Latinos and the Chicano Moratorium protests.
The Tragic End of Reuben Salazar
On August 29, 1970, there was a protest, which had a crowd of over 30,000 people, the largest Mexican-American rally to date. An incident occurred which led to chaos and sheriffs were forced to firing tear gas and Billy clubs. It became the biggest and deadly bloodiest riot in L.A. since Watts (Rodriguez). Salazar was covering the day's event, and after the chaos was contained, Salazar was dead.
My Impact on the Group's Goals
My work is going to advance the group's goals because it will act as the primarily objective of the group. The role model I chose will be used to deliver the final lesson to the kid's that is the image he will present will be what the kids will remember. I choosing a good role model will work towards the advancement of the group goals. This will hence determine the impact our mission will have on the kids and then a need for enough and well-researched information.
Challenges and Overcoming Difficulties
Undertaking this task in itself was a challenge because initially, I did not have an idea of who Salazar was and what mission he had. To be able to deliver the relevant information, I had to go through the history of Salazar and jot down short notes. Additionally, I struggled with compiling the information together to be able to flow because it was a different task from the previous ones. To be able to understand the task well, I had to ask for advice and assistance where necessary, and together with the shared knowledge, it became possible. In addition, having to source the information from different sources was a challenge because information varied somehow from the other hence I had to spend a lot of time in researching for the accurate data and information. Other than that, I had difficulties in choosing the right person used as the role model. I did not want to mess up and end up choosing the wrong role model and hence a challenge before I landed on Reuben Salazar. But after overcoming the difficulties, the rest of the task was able to flow on smoothly.
Sources and Research
To accomplish the task, I had to use sources. I used the available online information because I did not find any book or any other material talking about Reuben Salazar. Also, I asked around about the information and how I was to quote the information. I also relied on some visual audio information talking about the history of Salazar. The sources were of great help.
Changing Perceptions and Impacting Lives
The ideas I had and preconceptions towards this project was that the HELPER foundation would not use our task or be treated with great importance. More-so, after being given the tasks to create a coloring book for the kids, I thought it was not important in the fight against the joining of gangs. My perception was that we would work with things that directly involved the gang members. But through working with the group, I was able to understand the reason behind targeting the young youths was because they were joining gangs in large numbers and the only effective way was by giving them the truth behind the gang's involvement. More-so, I understood that the information we provided to the organization was to be used in teaching the kids and it would change their lives.
The information and ideas I provided in the project were a major contributor to the success of the whole project at large because I know and believe that the targeted group will access the information herein and their lives will not be the same again. More-so, the research we have carried out has been well researched for and the grammar used is convenient for the readers too to understand. This means that the information recorded in the coloring book will be able to pass the message of inciting the youths from avoiding the gangs and by doing this, they will be avoiding some of the consequences that come through the gangs.
The Lesson from Reuben Salazar's Story
In addition, my research on the role model will play as part of advising the young youths and teenagers who feel tempted to join a gang. Through Ruben Salazar's story, we see the negative of the gangs including brutality, deaths, and even long-term prison condemnation. Reuben, despite fighting for the rights of the less marginalized in society, ends up being killed due to his involvement in the Chicano movement. Any gang is bounded by some rituals and rules they believe in. Reuben Salazar knew that the Chicano movement was working against the rules of the state, but after he had known the American government was ill-treating the Latinos and having his roots from Mexico, he decided to fight for their rights through broadcasting their events on which they were requesting for their rights. This led to him being marked and identified by the government and when chaos arose. He was cornered and was pronounced dead. It was not clearly known what led to his death. This example of Salazar's death will be used to advise the youth that despite joining a gang with good intentions, you can still suffer the consequences.
Works Cited
"HELPER Foundation." 2012. HELPER. 14 April 2017 .
Rodriguez, Philip. "RUBEN SALAZAR." 29 April 2014. MAN IN THE MIDDLE. 14 April 2017 .
