PROGRAM GUIDE 2013

comfest.com community Festival 2013 11Ruben Castilla Herrera’s work has on its ownechoed the core values of ComFest. The 2013 HonoredCommunity Activist “lives our principles every dayand makes our community more livable for everyone,”according to longtime ComFest organizer Connie Everett.Among his various efforts, Ruben works withthe Ohio Action Circle, a coalition of organizationsand individuals advocatingimmigration reform. “Ourgoal, as I define it,” Ruben saidrecently, “is not immigrationreform. It’s redefining what itmeans to be a citizen in thiscountry. Having a green card orhaving been a citizen doesn’tmean everything’s great. Infact, most injustices are againstcitizens.”Ruben also works withLGBT issues and their particular“intersection with the gay Latinocommunity in the Short North.”He also works with the Ohio FairFood Project, which includessupporting farm workers’rights. Ruben comes to theirconcerns firsthand. He was bornin Seguin, TX, but worked thefields in California, Oregon andWashington with his family.Ruben contributed to acampaign waged for the tomatopickers in Florida who produce 90% of our tomatoes inwinter time. “(They) asked for one penny more per poundthat they pick,” he recalled. “That actually translates toquite a bit. Rather than going against the farm owners …they’re owned by the banks, (and in debt for) the tractors,the seed, everything … We’re trying to partner withthem and get the people who buy the tomatoes, the bigcorporations, the McDonalds, the fast food, the grocerystores, the food service, we’re asking them to pay apenny per pound more. And we’ve been successful.”Castilla Herrera earned a degree from WillametteHonored COMMUNITY ACTIVISTRuben Castilla HerreraUniversity in Oregon and later attended the MethodistTheological School in Delaware OH. He has served as theregional director of the A World of Difference Institute,was executive director of City Year Columbus, and hastaught Conflict Resolution at Capital University andDiversity in the Workforce at OSU’s Fisher College ofBusiness.“He embodies the spirit ofcollective action, cooperation,respect for other people and theenvironment, peace and justice,”said Everett. “How much moreComFesty can you be?”At the festival, he has ledworkshops on organizing andimmigration and speaks regularlyfrom the event’s various stages.Ruben’s work dovetails withComFest’s ideal of diversity andcommunity unity. He has seensome change over the years butwould like to see more.“I think it’s getting there. It’slocated off of High St. and that’svery limited in access. Lowincomepeople are passengers,the bus or what not. You don’tget diversity of class, maybe.The way to do that is to startPhoto by Michael Gruberincluding diversity in theplanning process. Otherwise youplan for people, not with people.People support what they help plan, generally.”Still, he understands the challenges of change and theneed for new ideas, especially from the next generationof organizers.Ruben’s personal ComFest fantasy entails reachingout to the immigrant population. “It would be great to seeComFest be the first immigrant welcoming festival. I’dput up signs (saying, ‘Welcome Immigrants’). You don’thave to do any work, just say it. That’s big.”—Curtis Schieber