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eXtra Bio: Gene Royale · RAMA Blueprints

0:00
Socorro : You are listening to the
0:01
RAMA Blueprints podcast eXtra
0:03
Bio: Gene Royale.
0:13
In this
0:13
eXtra we talk with Gene Royale, one
0:15
of the original Real Alternatives
0:17
Program employees and retired
0:19
San Francisco State University
0:20
professor, where he helped found
0:22
the Cesar E.
0:24
Chavez Institute.
0:25
In the early 1970s, he founded Centro
0:28
de Cambio, an outpatient drug
0:30
treatment program serving the youth
0:32
and families of the Mission District.
0:34
He was instrumental in negotiating
0:36
and advocating for many community
0:38
projects, including the development and
0:40
founding of the Real Alternatives Program
0:42
High School, San Francisco Unified
0:44
School District's Wellness Centers,
0:46
and the building of low income housing.
0:49
As a long time community activist
0:51
and consultant, Gene wore many hats
0:54
and worked for many causes including the
0:56
United Farm Workers.
0:58
Gene Royale passed away in
1:01
Hanford, California on September
1:04
27th, 2024.
1:06
Socorro: So Gene, thank you for being
1:08
with us today.
1:09
I have a very broad question, what was
1:12
your journey in getting connected
1:14
to community work?
1:15
How did it come about for you?
1:18
Gene Royale: Well, I was at State.
1:20
I was recruited from Precita Park.
1:23
And I went to state and I
1:26
started to work with the student
1:28
organizations there.
1:31
I got involved in the South Market
1:34
during the time that they were doing
1:36
evictions and I started to work as
1:39
an organizer over the years there.
1:43
Then I met Jim Queen, and he
1:45
convinced me
1:46
that because I was raised in
1:48
Mission and Bernal Heights, I should
1:51
come and work with him in RAP.
1:53
And I did that.
1:54
Socorro: And what year are we, what
1:56
year is this?
1:58
Gene Royale: 1968 69.
2:00
Socorro: Okay, great.
2:02
So, it's 1968, you're working
2:05
in the community.
2:06
And tell us a little bit about that
2:08
experiencing and how you then begin to
2:11
evolve in your own development as a
2:13
community organizer.
2:14
Gene Royale: Well, to tell you
2:15
the truth, early on, there were
2:17
two women, Liz Finn and Judy,
2:20
I can't remember her last name.
2:22
She was a social worker in San
2:24
Francisco.
2:25
And Liz had a newsletter that
2:28
she put out, a progressive
2:30
newsletter.
2:31
And I joined with them, or they took
2:34
me under their wing.
2:36
And I worked with something called
2:38
Tenants and Owners in Opposition to
2:41
Redevelopment in the South Market.
2:44
And I think I got my basic education
2:47
in organizing there.
2:49
Then, when I got to RAP, there was
2:52
already Ray Rivera Tom Kinn, and Jim
2:56
were the leadership.
2:57
Georgia Quinones, who was at that
3:00
time with Horizons Unlimited.
3:03
Jim had EMUNYO.
3:05
A number of our students from
3:07
the Raza Studies at State started
3:10
to work there.
3:11
Myself, Fernando Castillo, a
3:13
number of us.
3:15
Jim came to us one day and said,
3:17
I worked this deal with VISTA
3:19
volunteers and be the first VISTA
3:22
volunteers to work in our own
3:24
community and, you know, get paid.
3:27
So I became a full time community
3:30
organizer as a VISTA volunteer.
3:33
When they moved to Guerrero Street
3:35
with RAP, I, focused a lot on kids and
3:39
drugs and families.
3:40
And over the years developed,
3:43
I guess, a skill to understand
3:45
that network and how it worked in
3:47
San Francisco.
3:48
And I spun off with Jim, and I decided
3:54
I should kind of do an independent
3:56
thing on drugs.
3:57
And so came another social worker named
4:01
Bob Hernandez, who was a social
4:04
worker in the Mission, We designed
4:07
Centro de Cambio.
4:09
We actually called it the Center
4:11
of Change, but in Spanish it's
4:13
Centro de Cambio.
4:15
So, we found a spot on 24th
4:18
and Harrison, and started a
4:20
drug program connected very
4:22
closely with RAP.
4:24
Socorro: And that partnership, that
4:26
connection that happened with Centro
4:28
de Cambio, was a result of that There
4:31
was a huge amount of drug abuse and
4:33
substance abuses and you know, there
4:35
wasn't adequate needs being met.
4:37
Can you talk a little bit about
4:38
what, were some of the program goals
4:40
and philosophy of Centro de Cambio?
4:42
Gene Royale: We were basically reading
4:44
the Red Book at the time and very
4:47
involved in kind of that point of view.
4:49
And that was very compatible with
4:51
Jim's really strong concept of community
4:55
independence.
4:56
The program was not as much any form of
4:59
medical treatment as much as it was
5:03
a philosophy, and that is Drug abuse
5:06
was socially caused, that the best way
5:09
to deal with it is to make drug addicts
5:12
organizers, and it changes their view.
5:16
As opposed to other programs that
5:20
looked at changing the individual.
5:22
We saw changing the point of view
5:25
of the individual and by that leaving
5:28
drug abuse, which we saw as a symptom,
5:31
not a disease.
5:32
So that was the philosophy.
5:34
Mostly what we were dealing with,
5:37
with teenagers was Seconal reds.
5:41
And you might've heard the poem,
5:43
Blame it on the Reds with Roberto Vargas,
5:46
that was a lot of what the philosophy
5:49
of Centro was.
5:51
So, Seconal, and then on Friday
5:53
and Saturday nights, alcohol.
5:56
They don't mix good.
5:57
And we work with the RAP van that's maybe
6:01
when it conceived, but we used to
6:03
drive around on Friday and Saturday
6:06
nights pick up kids who were overdosed
6:09
or really messed up, bring them to
6:10
the, to Central.
6:12
We stay open all night, and we had
6:15
volunteer doctors from San Francisco
6:17
General that would give them
6:19
IPCAP, which made them throw up.
6:21
You know, we had a, party going on.
6:23
of kids being sick in one room and
6:26
then just hanging out in the other,
6:28
coming off Seconal And then what we
6:32
would do is connect with their families.
6:34
We'd get to know them, bring in their
6:36
family, talk about it, and then do the
6:39
process of basically political education.
6:43
We looked at it what we saw
6:45
as dialectical materialism, but was
6:47
really four steps.
6:49
One was to show the family the
6:52
contradiction in the community in
6:54
various forms, money, whatever they
6:57
were going through.
6:58
Second, we would connect that
7:01
with the idea of organizing
7:04
bringing families together that had
7:07
the same issues.
7:09
Then we would gradually see
7:11
changes in the kids and sometimes
7:13
the families.
7:15
Sometimes this didn't work at all,
7:17
but when it did, that was our goal.
7:19
And in the end, we tried to connect
7:22
them with things like the MCO
7:25
committees to start working on issues.
7:28
And so jobs, of course, many of
7:30
the young people wanted jobs.
7:33
You might have heard about a
7:34
strike at Sears, where we picketed.
7:37
Well, that was a lot of the kids
7:40
and families we were working both
7:43
at RAP and Centro.
7:45
And we were pretty close to Mission
7:48
Coalition, So, we did that
7:51
for a number of years with youth.
7:53
On the other side, the adult, heroin.
7:56
There was a lawyer named Bruce
7:58
Plumber, who worked for RAP, and we
8:00
brought him on at Centro, full time.
8:03
Put them in a little room and said, Your
8:05
job is to defend heroin addicts.
8:08
And so, we bring in heroin addicts
8:11
we all had criminal shit going on.
8:15
we would, basically advise them legally
8:19
through Bruce.
8:20
And then, Bruce would go to
8:22
court, and deal with their cases.
8:25
And, at that time, we had
8:27
their attention, so we talked
8:30
a lot to them.
8:31
Many of them had families.
8:33
We brought the families in.
8:36
The idea there is, the third step is
8:39
that they identify, as opposed to the
8:42
problem of drug addiction, they
8:45
identify the social problem that they
8:48
were involved with and how it
8:51
was a political issue as opposed
8:53
to a disease.
8:56
much like RAP did at YGC with Ray.
9:00
we focused mostly on providing them
9:04
the service of court representation, and
9:08
for that, they kind of went through
9:10
the same process as the youth, where we
9:12
tried to encourage them to participate
9:15
in community organizing.
9:18
Socorro: Wow, that's intense.
9:21
I'm interested in exploring a little
9:22
bit more about, as Centro del
9:25
Cambio, evolves as an organization
9:28
what are the next steps around Centro
9:29
de Cambio and how does it continue
9:31
to collaborate with RAP?
9:33
Gene Royale: In common, Jim and I,
9:35
and those folks from around then did not
9:39
want to deal with public funds, with
9:41
government funds.
9:43
We wanted complete independence.
9:45
And at that time, the San Francisco
9:47
Foundation and other groups saw us, I
9:51
don't know, maybe as novelties, but they
9:54
gave us complete carte blanche.
9:56
We had no training, but they trusted
10:00
that what we wanted to do was sincere.
10:02
very much.
10:02
And that's, I think, the basis
10:04
of the money that they would give
10:06
us to organize.
10:08
And remember, we were all
10:10
very satisfied with a salary
10:13
of 500 a month.
10:15
because rent was low, we were
10:18
basically living communally, so
10:21
the cost of running a program was
10:24
significantly lower.
10:27
My time with Centro, I could
10:29
be anti police, I could support
10:33
candidates, I could do all of that,
10:35
and we felt that once you started
10:37
taking federal money or state
10:40
money, that left.
10:42
So, when police would come to us
10:45
and want to know who our clients
10:47
were, we could give them a little box
10:50
that had numbers, and that's how we
10:52
identified people.
10:54
We did not use names.
10:56
in the written material.
10:58
So that's what we were doing.
11:00
We were resisting taking
11:01
federal funds.
11:03
And up until the time that I left
11:06
to become staff director for MCO,
11:09
that's pretty much my involvement.
11:12
After that, Centro did accept federal
11:15
funds and ran a halfway house on
11:18
Dolores Street.
11:20
And it changed in that, where you
11:23
had to give up a lot of information
11:26
to get served.
11:27
And I didn't like that.
11:28
Mm-Hmm.
11:29
And I didn't really wanna get
11:31
involved with the federal dollars.
11:33
Socorro: Well, if we recall our brother
11:35
Mitchell Salazar, right, when people
11:37
would question where money was
11:39
coming from, and Mitch would always
11:40
say, all money is dirty, Socorro.
11:43
Right?
11:44
And so I think that taking that
11:46
political stance, taking that stance
11:49
of integrity back then is huge, Gene.
11:51
So I appreciate you and those
11:53
others that took that stance
11:54
during that time.
11:56
Gene Royale: but remember,
11:58
it cost nothing to live then.
12:00
Socorro: Yes.
12:00
Gene Royale: I mean, really.
12:01
It depends on what we have.
12:03
And, in retrospect, probably couldn't be
12:07
replicated that way.
12:09
Socorro: So you go to MCO, you start
12:11
working as you you mentioned the staff
12:13
director there what are some of
12:16
the highlights of being with MCO and
12:18
then how do you circle back to RAP?
12:21
Gene Royale: Okay, well MCO, while I
12:23
was at Centro de Cambio, I became
12:26
the chairman of the health committee.
12:28
of the Mission Coalition.
12:30
Okay.
12:30
And, there were, I'm not sure, maybe
12:32
12 committees.
12:33
And, they were basically
12:35
organizing groups.
12:36
We'd meet once, twice a week.
12:39
We'd take up issues.
12:40
We'd approach, in my case, the
12:42
Health Department.
12:44
and basically organize around
12:46
that issue.
12:47
I did that for a couple of years
12:49
and then became very close to
12:51
Ben Martinez, who was the chair or
12:54
director of MCO, the chief organizer
12:57
and a guy named Mike Miller.
12:59
I basically was trained in that
13:01
kind of mass based organizing.
13:04
It was an Alinsky model.
13:07
The Los Siete group was not willing
13:10
to participate in, I guess, what
13:13
they considered democratic,
13:15
because we were connected to the
13:17
Democratic Party.
13:18
MCO goes on to become a
13:21
very powerful organization.
13:23
RAP was a member of MCO, as well as 150
13:29
other organizations.
13:31
Of course, RAP became in charge
13:34
of the youth organizing.
13:36
So Jim is at the table.
13:38
I'm at the table.
13:39
Rich Sorro became the chair of
13:42
the Employment Committee, he's
13:44
at the table.
13:45
Larry, who's from Rolph Park.
13:47
And so there's a number of of us who
13:50
become trained and work in organizing
13:54
through the MCO.
13:55
We could turn out, I don't know, 200
13:58
people on a Saturday morning in front of
14:01
a landlord's house.
14:02
When I go into, uh, Los Jarritos?
14:06
There's a picture of this viejito
14:09
and his wife above the counters.
14:12
Do you remember that?
14:13
Socorro: Yeah, I've seen that picture.
14:15
I've seen that picture, yes.
14:17
Gene Royale: That was Senor Padilla.
14:19
He was a Spanish speaking chairman
14:22
of the Employment Committee, and he
14:24
was a very powerful organizer in MCO.
14:28
His family knows our connection to
14:31
MCO, but there's a lot of roots there.
14:34
So MCO goes on.
14:36
at one point, Ben, who rode a
14:38
motorcycle, got in an accident,
14:41
and was disabled for a while.
14:44
That's when they came to me at
14:46
Centro and asked if I would take
14:48
over as organizing staff director,
14:51
and I agreed.
14:52
It's the same time.
14:53
I'm at State and I guess I got in
14:56
psychology because of Centro and it
14:58
was a natural fit because at that
15:02
time State was very laid back.
15:05
Could be in psychology and
15:07
ethnic studies and community.
15:10
And it was kind of like a natural
15:12
way of being.
15:13
That's what I did every day.
15:15
so it flowed very easily.
15:17
And I guess I remember leaving
15:20
for a while, I went to UC Santa Cruz
15:24
for my PhD, and when I came back
15:27
Mitch, Roberto, and Sam, Ruiz, said,
15:30
Gene, you have to come with us.
15:33
I said, what's this?
15:34
They take me to Stanford to some
15:36
training program for community leaders.
15:40
and it was exactly what I didn't
15:42
want to be part of, which how to
15:44
be a businessman.
15:45
You know, the model of community
15:48
self determination that we had.
15:50
And I guess I left when I went to Santa
15:53
Cruz and when I came back, it was how to
15:56
get the money to do what you want to do.
15:59
and it was the acceptance of
16:01
corporate and federal dollars.
16:04
And so I didn't participate in
16:06
that very much.
16:08
Until, I met Mitch, and he came out to
16:11
the stage, and we became very close
16:14
over the years collaborating.
16:16
What he told me was he'd been given
16:19
this contract for a RAP school, and it
16:21
was in a playground on Mission Street.
16:24
on 16th Mission, and in a bungalow.
16:27
And he took me there.
16:28
And I forgot the Filipina's sister.
16:31
Holly Calica
16:33
yeah, she was basically almost in
16:35
tears because they gave her a classroom
16:38
with 9th graders and 12th graders
16:41
all mixed together, and they just
16:44
said, teach with no curriculum, nothing.
16:47
So what I got involved with
16:50
was the idea of putting that into
16:52
a contextual plan by which you could.
16:55
actually do a school, like
16:58
demanding that ninth graders
17:00
have a ninth grade class, through
17:02
that, and the charisma of Mitch,
17:04
we became very close to the then
17:07
superintendent of education, Cortinas.
17:10
He'd call us.
17:11
At seven in the morning, come down
17:13
to the office.
17:14
Mitch and I would go in, he'd say, what
17:17
do you guys need?
17:18
And he would provide various,
17:21
buses or whatever we would need.
17:24
He would cut all the red tape.
17:26
Then, one day, he, said, I want you
17:28
guys to come with me over to the school,
17:31
Sunshine School, on Bryant Street.
17:34
He takes us up on the second floor,
17:36
whatever it was, and he says, what
17:38
if we gave you this as a place to
17:41
have your school?
17:42
And that was pretty cool.
17:44
And then Mitch put together, you guys,
17:48
I you all started coming, teachers.
17:51
counselors.
17:52
The RAP concept became part of
17:54
a school, and, it was great.
17:57
Yeah.
17:57
And so, my involvement there
18:00
was in helping Mitch design,
18:01
the environment for a school and
18:03
to move and work with Cortinas.
18:06
After that, our relationship was,
18:09
with Rojas, next superintendent,
18:12
He didn't exactly understand what we
18:14
were doing, but he was an excellent,
18:17
I think the best superintendent
18:19
we've had, and had the right idea
18:21
about what was wrong with schools.
18:24
And that became another issue
18:27
we dealt with.
18:28
Socorro: As you're speaking, I'm
18:29
remembering a conversation with
18:31
Superintendent Rojas as we were doing
18:33
the planning to transition into a
18:35
four year program.
18:36
And he says to Mitch, don't tell
18:40
me what you're going to do.
18:43
Tell me how you're going to do it.
18:44
And because he understood the
18:46
model, but he knew there was
18:49
challenges within the school district
18:51
with other programs and other schools.
18:53
And so he had seen the results
18:56
and behaviors were changing and
18:58
different things were going on as
18:59
well as motivating young people to
19:01
go to school.
19:02
Gene, how then do you get
19:04
connected through Step to College?
19:07
How does that come about that you
19:09
begin to do that?
19:10
Gene Royale: Well, you know, I'm a
19:12
State and I was director of Student
19:14
Affirmative Action at the time.
19:17
And, I taught organizing.
19:20
So I had a lot of students.
19:22
who didn't know community, but
19:24
they wanted to.
19:26
So, we gave them the opportunity
19:28
to work at school under Mitch And
19:31
that worked out really well.
19:32
But Jake Perea was then the
19:32
Chair of Education
19:35
at, State, and he had a program called
19:41
Step to College.
19:42
And so that's pretty open admission.
19:45
Much like I went to college, I was
19:48
sitting in Precita Park, and a guy
19:51
named Roger Alvarado said you want to
19:53
go to college.
19:54
I didn't really, but I signed on
19:57
with him because we got financial aid.
19:59
There was no tests, no
20:01
paperwork, nothing.
20:02
And that was, for many of us
20:04
in the early 60s, that was our
20:07
admission process.
20:09
Step to College was trying to take those
20:12
barriers away also and admit primarily
20:15
Latino students into the university.
20:18
And once they got there, we
20:21
had to construct, through Student
20:23
Affirmative Action, the retention
20:25
of students.
20:26
Because it was like, you know,
20:28
you could go in, but six months
20:30
later they're gone.
20:31
Nobody looked for them, unless they
20:34
got into Ethnic Studies, and were
20:36
lucky enough.
20:37
It was very difficult.
20:38
So, when we did Student Affirmative
20:40
Action, at that level, we were
20:42
trying to retain those students.
20:45
And then at a later point, we wanted
20:47
to graduate and it progressively
20:49
got tighter over the years.
20:52
Socorro: Correct.
20:52
and one of the outcomes
20:53
and one of the accomplishments of
20:55
that program is Dr.
20:56
Aisha Beliso.
20:57
And Aisha, being a student at RAP
21:00
school, who was involved in the Step
21:02
to College program, actually SCORE,
21:04
then Step2College, and then eventually
21:07
getting into State, transferring
21:08
to Stanford, eventually becoming,
21:10
a professor eventually now
21:12
she's at Princeton, and coming out
21:14
of that program.
21:15
And so when I think about how the Step
21:17
to College staff worked with her
21:19
and created that opportunity, it's
21:22
a direct result to seeing and
21:24
actualizing the RAP program goals
21:27
and philosophy of Youth for Self
21:28
Determination.
21:30
So, all this time, you're continuing to
21:32
work in education, and I begin to see
21:36
your involvement progress with
21:38
RAP even more as the development
21:41
of the Community Peace Initiative.
21:43
A lot of folks have asked us about these
21:45
initiatives that RAP was involved with.
21:48
the Community Peace Initiative is
21:50
what is now called the Mission Peace
21:52
Collaborative, the Mission Peace Plan.
21:54
So they've evolved, it's changed
21:56
into a name.
21:56
So just briefly touch on your
21:58
connection and involvement with
22:00
the design of the Community
22:02
Peace Initiative and some of the
22:03
program goals and objectives of that.
22:06
Gene Royale: Well, that was a meeting
22:07
with Mitch and I in my own office
22:09
at home, which we did quite often.
22:12
There was a lot of youth violence
22:13
going on, and he was very involved
22:15
in that with you and RAP and everything.
22:19
And he said, I want to do something.
22:21
While at the same time, I was working.
22:25
in Organizational Psychology with
22:27
a model called Linking Pin Model.
22:30
And Mitch and I used to draw these
22:32
circles, and we started to put names
22:34
in them, or people, institutions,
22:37
departments, city departments.
22:39
And it fit perfectly.
22:41
And Mitch took that model and reified
22:43
it, made it real, with people in the
22:46
slots, and it was a great experience
22:49
when you go to a meeting with almost
22:52
every director of a city department
22:54
talking about youth violence along
22:56
with every CBO.
22:58
And, but it started in the design.
23:00
And it's one of the things Mitch and
23:03
I shared a lot of love about, was that
23:06
experience designing that thing that
23:08
became the Community Peace Initiative.
23:11
and a number of other people were
23:13
involved in that.
23:16
Socorro: I think you get a lot of
23:16
new generation leaders, right?
23:19
Young people that are sitting in
23:20
roles not having a perspective or
23:23
having a slight understanding
23:25
of the work, the foundation, the
23:28
groundbreaking work that was being done,
23:30
like you said, and others have said,
23:32
without federal dollars, without
23:34
public funding.
23:35
Obviously today, it's very difficult
23:37
to do that, but at the same time
23:39
what it took.
23:40
And when I think of the Community Peace
23:42
Initiative, and the expansiveness
23:44
of that model, and when we are
23:46
exploring the story of RAP, what we're
23:49
comparing it to is to a tree and the
23:51
branches that begin to grow further
23:55
and further out.
23:56
And not only to focus on the Mission
23:57
community, but to focus on other
24:00
neighborhoods.
24:01
and creating those same type
24:02
of services or access to services,
24:05
where people feel empowered and people
24:06
feel that they have the right to
24:08
have just as much as everybody else.
24:10
And I think Initiative did that
24:12
for a lot of folks and holding the
24:14
city accountable.
24:15
Gene Royale: The same philosophy of
24:16
organizing, Mitch had it naturally
24:19
in his brain.
24:20
I mean, he, he understood the
24:22
organizing part of it and pulling
24:24
that together.
24:25
And then many of us, yourself involved
24:28
with a social justice point of
24:30
view, you made it very consistent from
24:33
day one with RAP.
24:35
And we see MCO as that same vision
24:38
and the Community Peace Initiative
24:41
as the same vision, theoretically.
24:43
But it took people to actually do it,
24:46
to make it real.
24:48
And I think we succeeded in that.
24:50
And the different evolution of those
24:53
things, I'm sure have at the root,
24:55
the ideas that were involved in the
24:58
first days of RAP.
25:00
Socorro: Absolutely.
25:00
and I appreciate, you making that,
25:02
comparison, because It's extremely
25:05
important to see where it generated
25:07
its roots.
25:08
When you go back to EMUNYO, to
25:09
RAP, you can talk about all the
25:11
organizations that were in the Mission.
25:13
And out of MCO, all the different things
25:16
that have happened.
25:17
Obviously, it is evolved into
25:19
what it is now, and where you
25:20
have these larger collaborations, but
25:22
coming out of that work of, people
25:24
working together for the greater good
25:26
and the common goal.
25:27
But with the social justice priority, in
25:29
the beginning of it, whether it be mental
25:31
health, whether it be youth organizing,
25:33
jobs, housing.
25:35
I know you worked with, the CPI
25:36
model And RAP closes in 1999.
25:39
And, what happens and where did
25:42
you eventually go to once all
25:44
that started to transition?
25:46
Where does your journey take you?
25:47
Gene Royale: Well, probably
25:49
into academia.
25:50
Once I did Student Affirmative Action,
25:53
I went back to teaching and
25:55
then I retired.
25:57
And when I retired, I spent most of my
25:59
time with Mitch.
26:00
If there was organizing going on,
26:03
it was in support of Mitch and what
26:05
he was doing.
26:06
But I went to work first for Rojas,
26:10
who was then Superintendent of
26:12
Education, and he brought me and Larry
26:15
Del Carlo together.
26:16
And he said, we want you to take over
26:19
this program called a School to Work.
26:22
So we started that department within
26:25
the school district.
26:27
And we had to convince old shop
26:29
teachers that we had to do it different.
26:32
It wasn't just shop to learn how
26:34
to make a cabinet.
26:35
You teach to that, but your
26:38
students get to work in a real
26:40
live setting, where they make cabinets.
26:42
And make some connection with
26:44
the workforce.
26:46
Well, a lot of the old timers
26:48
didn't see that.
26:49
They liked what they did, and the
26:51
political tension was to support Rojas
26:54
and him supporting us in changing the
26:58
thinking of many teachers and schools
27:00
that you need to connect the academic
27:03
with the work world.
27:05
We worked for about five years
27:07
on that project.
27:09
It became institutionalized
27:11
eventually in the school.
27:13
And even my daughter, who's
27:14
a teacher in the school now, they
27:17
look at it as a natural process.
27:19
But at the time it didn't exist.
27:21
Socorro: Correct.
27:22
I think that's around the time
27:23
where we were starting to
27:24
hear workforce development within
27:26
the schools.
27:27
And I remember you and Larry
27:28
leading that charge and dibbling and
27:30
dabbling a little bit with all the
27:32
community programs.
27:33
I think as organizations like
27:34
Mission Neighborhood Centers and folks
27:36
hearing about that we're saying, wait,
27:38
how do we get some of our students
27:40
enrolled in those classes that leads
27:42
to a real job?
27:44
Gene Royale: Everybody looks at
27:45
it that way now, but it didn't, then.
27:48
After I worked with Larry for those
27:50
years, Mitch and I hooked up again,
27:52
and we went to work for the then
27:55
very progressive District Attorney,
27:57
Terran Hallinan.
27:59
Socorro: That's correct.
27:59
Gene Royale: And he brought us in and
28:00
said, Hey, you guys.
28:02
Remember, I'm you're boss, We said,
28:04
well, yeah, we know.
28:05
Yeah, but I need you to design a program
28:08
that didn't send people to jail, you
28:11
know, on the first, time or something.
28:13
So, Mitch and I worked for him for
28:16
three or four years putting together a
28:19
diversion program.
28:21
Terrence always wanted to remember
28:23
that he was the prosecutor, not the
28:25
defense, so, the program had to look
28:28
like a criminal justice program.
28:30
So we designed a community court
28:33
for Terrence.
28:34
And that was right up Mitch's alley
28:36
because every homie in the community
28:40
would come to see him about closing
28:42
their records, and this and that.
28:44
But I was much more on the design
28:47
part of it, and Mitch was at a
28:49
flow of homies that needed services.
28:52
And Terrence was happy with what
28:54
eventually became a community court
28:56
that I guess still exists.
28:58
Socorro: That's correct.
28:59
After the community courts, you and
29:01
Mitch continue to work together
29:03
or what happens?
29:05
Gene Royale: Every year we did work
29:06
with Eva with the parade, the
29:09
farm workers.
29:10
I would just want to see Mitch's work.
29:13
When you guys were at RAP and he would,
29:15
call me and say, Hey Gene, I don't
29:17
have the money for payroll coming up.
29:20
Come with me.
29:21
And I go with him, and he takes me
29:23
over to some crazy place, in this
29:25
case, Tiburon.
29:26
And he says, we're going to meet with
29:28
this guy who's the vice president
29:30
of Charles Schwab and have lunch
29:33
at his house.
29:34
We get to his house.
29:36
He has two gigantic houses in
29:38
Tiburon on hills.
29:41
And he says, one's my office, the
29:43
other's my house.
29:45
Where do you want to have lunch?
29:47
Holy shit.
29:51
We go in there I don't know
29:53
what to expect.
29:55
And out of the blue, Mitch says,
29:57
you know, I'm not making payroll and
30:00
I need you to give me 5, 000 dollars.
30:04
And I would watch the executive just
30:07
believe Mitch and say, ah, not again,
30:11
and write the check.
30:12
And, that sure was different than
30:14
federal funds.
30:15
I've never seen another organizer
30:18
that had that kind of charisma.
30:20
After Terrence, I retired and we were
30:23
friends for many years after that.
30:26
Socorro: First of all, I want to thank
30:27
you for, in, in a lot of ways, setting
30:29
the record straight, in regards to
30:31
conversations and, your accounting of
30:34
the history of, the Centro de Cambios
30:36
work and also the collaboration
30:38
with RAP, and in particular
30:40
the CPI work.
30:42
A lot of folks have this idea that
30:44
it was a one man show, a one person
30:46
show, but there were so many moving
30:48
parts to the RAP organization, and
30:51
in particular the development and
30:52
the involvement and the context
30:54
and the connections and the networking.
30:56
And I know, Gene, you were
30:57
instrumental, in so many facets
30:59
in so many ways.
31:01
I want to personally thank you for always
31:02
sticking through it and doing what you
31:04
did and your wisdom, your leadership.
31:07
The organizing that you did and the
31:09
community contact, the keeping the
31:11
community connected to education and
31:14
the strength and work that you pull
31:15
together, especially with School to Work.
31:17
There is one of the RAP philosophies
31:19
deinstitutionalize the institution by
31:22
any means necessary in some way, right?
31:24
Infiltrate those walls, get
31:26
inside, and create the change for
31:29
our community.
31:30
And I think you were one of those
31:31
change agents.
31:32
Santiago Ruiz talks about we weren't
31:35
just organizers, we were change agents.
31:38
And I believe you were one of
31:39
those individuals.
31:40
Is there anything you'd like to say,
31:44
in regards to the impact that you
31:46
had in connection with RAP and what
31:49
it meant to you?
31:50
This would be like a final thought
31:52
that you might want to leave for
31:53
people to hear.
31:55
Gene Royale: What I think about more
31:56
than anything is to look at what's
31:58
going on today.
31:59
You know, I'm Proud to see all the
32:01
work that from my point of view spun
32:04
off that work, but I was lucky
32:06
enough to come up at a time I could,
32:08
take that time.
32:10
I didn't need that money because
32:12
it wasn't what it is today.
32:15
And I love all the people that
32:18
got into that kind of work for the
32:20
right reasons and make it a career.
32:23
And even if they don't know it,
32:25
often, uh, the philosophy of RAP is
32:29
what started it all.
32:31
The last job that I really did in
32:33
the community with Larry, kind of took
32:36
it another step.
32:38
Larry says look, there's a developer
32:40
that wants to develop the building
32:42
on 16th and Mission.
32:44
And he wants community
32:46
benefits involved.
32:48
Can we design a program to do that?
32:51
So, we did and it backfired.
32:54
In the beginning with RAP, there
32:56
was the RAP philosophy, and then
32:58
there was the Los Siete philosophy.
33:01
And the Los Siete philosophy was
33:03
pick up the gun in revolution
33:05
in that way.
33:06
Ours was more, again, a dialectical
33:09
materialist view, to view the
33:11
contradiction and deal with it in
33:13
the real world.
33:14
And the organizing that was not
33:17
connected to RAP, I saw evolve into,
33:21
uh, not sure how to explain it, but
33:23
they completely rejected the
33:26
idea of community involvement in
33:28
the development of a real thing.
33:31
We worked there for four years,
33:33
built a community organization, and,
33:35
uh, basically the, anti development
33:39
group was much more for the
33:41
revolution than for the kind of change
33:45
that RAP meant, that MCO meant.
33:49
And so I'm not sure where it is now,
33:52
but I think there were flaws in the
33:54
model in respect to different organizing
33:57
strategies and how they evolve.
34:00
So my last experience told
34:02
me, it's time to kind of hang up
34:04
the boots because maybe they don't
34:06
want to organize that way anymore.
34:09
I'm not sure where it is, but really
34:11
good people like Sam disagreed with the
34:14
model of community working with
34:17
the institutions in designing
34:19
something viable.
34:21
CPI was different.
34:23
It saw bringing in institutions,
34:26
working with them, and evolving
34:28
something that would benefit community.
34:31
And, in the last effort, my plan
34:33
didn't work.
34:34
Socorro: Well, I'll tell you, there's a
34:36
lot of full circles and experiences
34:37
that we have.
34:38
And I think, part of the purpose of
34:40
the podcast is to get that perspective
34:42
out there.
34:43
I think, at one point, this new
34:45
generation of leaders might run
34:46
into a very similar wall and will
34:50
reflect and think, well, how do we
34:53
do it differently?
34:54
I appreciate the work.
34:56
I appreciate the history and I thank
34:58
you for your work.
34:59
And again, thank you for your time.
35:01
And we were talking with Gene Royale,
35:03
former community organizer, Centro
35:05
de Cambio founder, activist, and also
35:09
educator academia at San Francisco State.
35:12
All around, progressive change
35:14
agent in the development of the
35:15
Mission communities activism.
35:17
Thank you, Gene, for your time.
35:19
Gene Royale: Thank you.
35:22
Socorro : This concludes
35:23
this episode.
35:24
Thank you for listening to
35:25
this eXtra.
35:27
We dedicate this episode con todo
35:29
corazon to La Familia Royale.
35:32
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35:39
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And a special thanks to all
35:48
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35:50
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35:52
ongoing support.
35:54
Our theme song was written and
35:55
performed by Orlando Torriente and Lolo.
35:58
This episode was produced and
36:00
edited by Darren J.
36:01
de Leon and Socorro Gamboa for
36:04
the Five Sisters Audio Garden.
36:06
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