Hecho With Corazón Profiles No. 4 — Henry Cervantes
The Hecho With Corazón™ Profiles recognizes those who inspire us and exemplify the best of Latino culture. These are real people who put their heart into everything they do.
We celebrate them by sharing their answers to three thought-provoking questions.
Henry Cervantes serves as Program Manager for The Peace Exchange- Chicago, where he leads the Peace Builder leadership development program that engages youth from Chicago’s West and Southside communities in training and international travel to study nonviolent social movements. Cervantes also leads Speaking Peace, a peace education curriculum that has engaged thousands of middle school students. Additionally, Cervantes leads weekly sessions at the Cook County Jail where he trains incarcerated young men in nonviolence as part of the Sheriff’s Anti-Violence Effort (SAVE) program and has taught for North Park Theological Seminary at maximum-security Stateville Correctional Center. Cervantes is one of 40 human rights champions featured in the permanent exhibition Take A Stand Center at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center.
WHAT DRIVES YOU TO GET OUT OF BED AND DO WHAT YOU DO EVERY MORNING?
I’m a man who is a product of poverty, violence and inequality. Because these evils disrupted my early life, I’m driven to address those forms of oppression. At heart, my service to the community has been through the roles of a trainer, educator and organizer. My work and my calling is to help build a community of justice seekers and peace makers. Everyone can lead if they are inspired to change their realities. I think that only through education and organizing we make our world a better place to live. I have been committed to teaching peace in schools, streets and in jails and know that peace education can improve our world one mind at a time whether it is in a classroom or a jail cell. Education has the power to change people’s minds, and minds combined with social action is what changes the world. The betterment of our society depend on what we do for our own lives but for the lives of those around us. My drive comes from trying to make the world I want to see. If we don’t take a stand and speak out for our communities, no one else will. That is why I teach peace to children, mentor youth and explore conflict transformation with the incarcerated. We need both prevention and intervention to reinvent our world. What gets me out of bed every morning is knowing that our people have persevered over centuries of injustice after injustice. I live in order to honor those who came before, those who fought for freedom with the power of nonviolence.
WHEN DID YOU REALIZE YOUR TRUE PASSION AND PURPOSE?
My childhood and upbringing in Little Village in Chicago (La Villita) has everything to do with what I stand for. I was raised without my father, and lived with an abusive alcoholic stepfather who taught me that violence was the answer to all of life’s problems. My earliest childhood memories are that of my mother being beaten on a daily basis, and hearing and seeing gunshots in my community. When I was 17, a domestic violence dispute caused one of my little sisters to commit suicide. My exposure to violence influenced my perspective of the world. That is when I realized and started looking for different solutions and searching for meaning, for purpose and for peace. I accepted that I had a choice to be mindful of history, to learn from it, to speak out and to act.
WHAT IS YOUR HOPE FOR THE NEXT LATINO GENERATION?
My question to the next generation is, how are you using your freedom to advance the freedom of others? My hope is that the next Latino generation will further the struggles for peace and justice and that they won’t betray the work that our ancestors have done to get us here. All of us have a role in the struggle for freedom, justice and human rights. History teaches us that it is the small acts of ordinary people that come together over time which creates social change. You don’t have to be an activist or have a degree to make a difference. Be engaged, be involved and give back to your community. The truth is that our people have contributed tremendously to this society and others only see the negative coverage that comes from our communities. James Baldwin once wrote, “The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by a millimeter the way people look at reality, then you can change it”. I believe we need to change how we see ourselves and how others see us. The next generation of Latino leaders can help us do that.
Some people talk the talk and others choose to walk the walk. Henry does both with passion and dedication to help people beyond borders (geographically, socially, racially and everything else in between.) Henry, thank you for sharing your amazing and humbling story with us.
You truly are #hechowithcorazon.
