Albino Garcia (KNFP 15), Founder and Executive Director, La Plazita Institute, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
This article was originally published in the October 2006 issue of the KFLA Newsletter.
Albino Garcia is a community activist for violence prevention, cultural diversity, and positive youth development. He describes himself as a "BTDT", been there, done that. He explains, "I came up hard. I was stabbed at 13, shot at 14, and imprisoned at 17. Somehow, I found my way on this road that I'm on now. Helping people and giving back to the Earth and the Earth people became my medicine." He describes his passion as "more like a spiritual mission: to make life more manageable for people." After working in California for several years, starting a gang-intervention program and an alternative school, among other programs, Albino founded the grassroots organization, La Plazita Institute, in Albuquerque in 2004. "The Make a Difference Grant from KFLA really incubated the La Plazita Institute; it was the first grant we received," Albino acknowledges.
He describes his passion as "more like a spiritual mission: to make life more manageable for people." After working in California for several years, starting a gang-intervention program and an alternative school, among other programs, Albino founded the grassroots organization, La Plazita Institute, in Albuquerque in 2004. "The Make a Difference Grant from KFLA really incubated the La Plazita Institute; it was the first grant we received," Albino acknowledges. La Plazita aims to guide young people and their families to find a sense of cultural identity, ownership, and belonging in their local community. Its programs operate under a philosophy derived from ancient Indigenous cultures from this hemisphere, a person must journey inward and connect to core cultural values, before continuing the journey with one's family, one's community, and the institutionalized world.
"My core philosophy of La Cultura Cura (Culture Heals), and my approach of Multiple Worlds, are very ancient ways of engaging in one's life and existence," Albino explains. "There is a place, a spiritual place, that culminates all those worlds. It allows you to still engage with the institutional, market-force world and be who you are. My challenge is keeping everything connected." Albino is intent on following the core cultural values of the community in all La Plazita's operations. For instance, he says, "We don't take money from any group or institution unless it's on our terms. If funders want quantitative results, we don't take their money." He says, "Once you quantify something, you remove its sacredness, it becomes science versus spirit.
By way of example, Albino somberly recounts, "I had a boy die not long ago. He was shot in the head. That's the seventeenth youth I've worked with over the years who has died. How many have lived? Does that make us more successful?" Albino's leadership in his community differs from his responsibilities as a ceremonial leader in the Sun Dance way of life, which was bestowed on him by Chief Leonard Crowdog of the Rosebud Reservation. Albino, who is of Apache and Mexican Indian descent, says, "I used to lead like a warrior of warriors, doing great sacrifice for the community. Then, because of that way of leadership, I received this other acknowledgment of a ceremonial leader, I wear a bonnet. You have to be careful how you lead because you could end up having more responsibilities," he laughs.
Albino's advice to aspiring leaders in his field is: "Don't forget to pray for yourself." He relates, "One elder said in a four-door sweat lodge, 'You start the first door praying for yourself. If you don't get yourself prepared, how well will you pray for others?'"
"Helping people and giving back to the Earth and the Earth people became my medicine."