March 13, 2008
The executive board wants to welcome Luis Alejo as Chicano Latino Caucus Vice Chair Region 2- Central California.
Luis Alejo is a public interest attorney based in Watsonville and has been engaged in grassroots community organizing since the age of 19. He is a founding member of the Pajaro Valley Cesar Chavez Democratic Club, served as its co-chair from 2005-2007, and currently serves as its treasurer. He has also served on the Santa Cruz County Democratic Central Committee since 2005, has been a state convention delegate since 2005, and was chosen as the “2006 Santa Cruz County Democrat of the Year” and the “2006 Democratic Party Region 9 Volunteer of the Year.” Luis has worked on numerous school board, city council, and state assembly campaigns, and was the coordinator of the Pajaro Valley Voter Registration & Education Project in 2006, which registered over 600 voters, and distributed over 3,000 flyers about local citizenship classes to non-citizens in Watsonville.
Luis graduated with honors from UC Berkeley in 1997 with dual bachelors (B.A.) degrees in political science and Chicano studies. In May 2001, he obtained his juris doctorate (J.D.) from UC Davis School of Law, King Hall, with a concentration in public interest law. In June 2003, Luis received his master’s of education degree (Ed.M) from Harvard University’s with a concentration in administration, planning and social policy. He returned to his hometown of Watsonville to work as a staff attorney for California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA), a statewide non-profit legal advocacy organization that champions the rights of the poor in California. Since 2007, he has served as a staff attorney of the Monterey County Superior Court where he assists English and Spanish speaking self-represented litigants who cannot afford private attorneys.
Luis’ grandparents and parents were migrant farm workers, and he recalls his grandfather’s countless stories of how they were exposed to toxic pesticides, paid less than what they actually earned, and about the horrendous working conditions out in the fields. In 1970, his grandparents joined the farmworker organizing efforts of the United Farm Workers led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta in Watsonville, and were strong supporters throughout their lives.
Luis was previously a Jesse M. Unruh Fellow for the California State Assembly where he worked as a legislative aide for Assemblymember Manny Diaz (D-San Jose). In the 2002 legislative session, he drafted and staffed numerous bills including education, farmworker and immigrant rights legislation. He also worked as a research assistant for the Harvard Civil Rights Project in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and as a staff attorney for the law offices of California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation in Sacramento. Luis is also a former high school teacher in Watsonville, and is currently a California State Advisory Committee member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights (nominated by former California Supreme Court Justice and former Commission Vice-Chairman Cruz Reynoso).
