By Kathryn Wolper
On Wednesday, Sept. 24, Fr. Greg Boyle, S.J., founder and executive director of Homeboy Industries, and “homie” Louis Perez brought a message of kinship and justice to Fordham.
“Homeboy Industries serves high-risk, formerly gang-involved men and women with a continuum of free services and programs, and operates several social enterprises that serve as job-training sites,” reads homeboyindustries.org. The Los Angeles-based organization provides employment services, tattoo removal, educational programs, case management, legal services and counseling. Homeboy Industries is the largest gang-intervention recovery and re-entry program in the U.S. and operates 10 businesses, including a bakery, a diner, multiple cafes and a silkscreen and embroidery shop.
The representatives of Homeboy Industries were guests of the West Wing Integrated Learning Community for Ignatian Leadership and Civic Service. The West Wing ILC focuses on public policy problems during the fall semester and formulates solutions on a tangible, local level during the spring semester. Dr. Robert Hume, faculty director of the West Wing and professor of Political Science, said that, in planning this year’s West Wing syllabus last spring, making the program more structured was a serious goal.
Bridget Brennan, FCRH ’16, RA for the West Wing ILC, suggested Fr. Boyle’s Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion as required reading for the program.
A California native, Brennan has volunteered at Homeboy and heard Boyle speak multiple times. The process of bringing Boyle to Fordham began last April when the West Wing ILC RAs and directors began working on the curriculum for this year.
“When considering the Jesuit mission and its connection to political and civic action, Tattoos on the Heart immediately came to mind,” said Brennan. Brennan then reached out to Boyle and invited him to speak to the West Wing students.
When university administrators heard about the West Wing’s special guest, they asked that the talk be opened to the entire Fordham community. Alongside the sophomores and juniors of West Wing, the freshmen in the Manresa program attended Boyle’s talk as part of their integrated learning curriculum.
“Tattoos on the Heart is all about stories and the unbreakable connection of a story,” said Louis Perez, who was rehabilitated through Homeboy Industries. Perez has now worked at Homeboy for almost nine years. Working at Homeboy is about infusing people with “the idea that they are better than the worst thing they’ve done in their life,” said Perez.
“Homies” like Louis feel nothing less than admiration for Boyle. “Stand on the margins with the poor, powerless and voiceless until the margins disappear,” said Boyle, whose talk included a call to justice, humorous anecdotes about life at Homeboy and heartbreaking stories of loss. Homeboy Industries brings together members of rival gangs in pursuit of a common goal: life in an area with the highest concentration of gang violence in the United States.
“If love is the answer, community is the context and tenderness is the methodology,” said Boyle.
