Expertise:
Immigration, Informal Economy, Community & Economic Development, Chicano and Chicana Issues, Public Policy, Community Organizing and Social Movements, Latino and Latina Issues, Race and Ethnic Politics, Race and EthnicityDr. Alvaro Huerta teaches and conducts research on the intersecting domains of community and economic development, Chicana/o and Latina/o studies, immigration and Mexican diaspora, social movements, social networks and the informal economy. Among other scholarly publications, he’s the author of the book Reframing the Latino Immigration Debate: Towards a Humanistic Paradigm. Prior to becoming a scholar-activist, he was a community organizer. Among other campaigns, he co-led a grassroots campaign defeating the City of Los Angeles’ draconian leaf-blower ban (video link) and spearheaded an organizing campaign defeating a power-plant proposal in Southeast Los Angeles (video link). Recently, as a Cal Poly Pomona faculty member and public policy expert/advocate, he’s been a leader working on decriminalizing street vending in Los Angeles in particular and California in general. Born in the U.S., he spent his early years in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, and formative years in East Los Angeles’ notorious Ramona Gardens public housing project (or Big Hazard projects before becoming a first-generation college graduate and Ford Foundation Fellowship recipient.
Recent Grants and Fellowships:
Ford Fellow-The National Academies of the Sciences
Selected Publications:
- Defending Latina/o Immigrant Communities: The Xenophobic Era of Trump and Beyond (Rowan & Littlefield, 2019; 2020 International Latino Book Award)
- Reframing the Latino Immigration Debate: Towards a Humanistic Paradigm (San Diego State University Press, 2013)
- Editor with others, People of Color in the United States: Contemporary Issues in Education, Work, Communities, Health, and Immigration. [4 Volumes] (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO / Greenwood, 2016)
- “An Ethnic Studies Victory in California: ¡Si, Se Puede!,” Medium, Sept. 7, 2020
- “Advocating for the Immigrant Domestic Work Force: Recommendations for Planners,” in Planning with Diverse Communities, Planning Advisory Service (PAS) Report 593, p. 85, American Planning Association (APA), 2019, https://www.planning.org/pas/reports/
- “Short History of the United Farm Workers (UFW),” in Latino in American Political System: An Encyclopedia of Latinos as Voters, Candidates, and Office Holders, 507 – 508 (J.L. Monforti, ed., ABC-CLIO / Greenwood, 2019)
- With A. Morales, “The Formation of a Grassroots Movement: The Association of Latin American Gardeners of Los Angeles Challenges City Hall,” Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies 39 (2): 65 – 93, 2014
- “Informal Economy” and “Landscaping Industry” in Undocumented Immigrants in the United States Today: An Encyclopedia of Their Experiences, 395-397 and 421-423 (K.A. Tobin, ed., Greenwood, 2014)
- “It Takes More Than a Village: Racial Minorities and Higher Education” in Developing Critical Reading Skills, 9th Edition (D. Spears, ed., McGraw-Hills Companies, Inc., 2012)
- “Looking Beyond ‘Mow, Blow and Go’: Mexican Immigrant Gardeners in Los Angeles,” Berkeley Planning Journal 20: 1 – 23, 2007
- “South Gate, California: Environmental Racism Defeated in Blue-Collar Latino Suburb.” Critical Planning 12: 92 – 102, 2005
- “Viva the Scholar-Activist!” InsideHigherEd.com, March 30, 2018
- “Lessons on Community Organizing in Chicana/o-Latina/o Communities: Educate, Agitate and Organize,” KCET.org, Oct. 18, 2017
Interviews:
- “How the development of SoCal’s freeways impacted more than just LA’s traffic,” AirTalk with Larry Mantle 89.3 FM/LAist, Aug. 5, 2024
- “Leaf Blower Bans Are A Win ForClimate, But Small Businesses Are Struggling to Adapt,” LAist, Dec. 18, 2023
- “Street food for thought: The fight over regulating street vending heats up in New Orleans,” Gambit (New Orleans, La.), Nov. 5, 2023
- “A Montebello food hall is a happy place for Latinos, and marketeers are taking note,” Whittier Daily News, Sept. 9, 2023
- “They protected barrios against looting. ‘Don’t come here to tag up these walls, homie,’” Los Angeles Times, June 4, 2020
- “Street vending may be legal in Los Angeles by summer’s end,” American Public Media’s Marketplace Radio, June 22, 2018
- “ Here’s when Pomona will start cracking down on illegal street vendors,” Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, June 8, 2018
- “Latino Immigrants in the Racist Era of Trump,” Blogtalkradio, May, 2018
- “For Faculty, Civil Debate in Trump Era,” The Poly Post (Cal Poly Pomona campus paper), April 9, 2018
- “Demanding a Clean DACA Bill, Now!” Blogtalkradio, Jan. 15, 2018
- “No nos miremos como inmigrantes” or “We don’t see ourselves like immigrants,” KPFK Radio, Sept. 13, 2017
- “On Immigration and End of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA),” KPFK Radio, “Beneath the Surface with Suzi Weissman,” Sept. 8, 2017
Video Interviews:
- “Former Mayor Villaraigosa explains why he want to try (again) to be governor of California,” Noticias Telemundo, July 23, 2024
- “For the first time, the White House opens its Day of the Dead altar to the public,” Noticias Telemundo, Oct. 31, 2023
- “City Rising: The Informal Economy (Season 2, Episode 1),” KCET Television/PBS SoCal, Nov. 12, 2018
- “From Tijuanna to East L.A. to Academia: Life Lessons from a Scholar,” TEDxCPP, May 19, 2017
- “Migration as a universal human right,” TEDxClaremontColleges, July 21, 2015
Education:
B.A., history; M.A., urban planning, University of California Los Angeles
Ph.D., city and regional planning, University of California Berkeley
Languages:
English and Spanish