Join us for an off-the-record conversation discuss the ongoing turmoil in El Salvador and America's role in surrounding it
Norma Kershaw Auditorium, Bowers Museum, 2002 N. Main St., At 20th St., Santa Ana, CA 92706
November 26, 2024 5:30-7:30 pm
The World Affairs Council of Orange County presents:
Gangs at Our Border: The Politics of a Transnational Gang Crisis
Join us for an off-the-record conversation with Alex Sanchez, former high-ranking member of MS-13 & co-founder of Homies Unidos; William Wheeler, author of State of War; and Conor Friedersdorf, staff writer at the Atlantic, as they discuss the ongoing turmoil in El Salvador and America's role in surrounding it. Please note that filming is strictly prohibited at the event, though photography will be allowed. Additionally, as our venue is a museum, we are unable to provide refreshments. Thank you for your understanding and for helping us respect the guidelines of this unique location.
Founders Club* donors to the World Affairs Council of Orange County are invited to dine with the speakers after the event in a nearby restaurant. For the safety of our speakers, the name and address of this dinner will be provided upon RSVP.
Date & Time:
Tuesday, November 26, 2024
5:30 pm
Location:
Norma Kershaw Auditorium, Bowers Museum
2002 N. Main St., At 20th St.
Santa Ana, CA 92706
Parking:
Parking at Bowers Museum will be free
Tickets:
VIP Ticket $120.00
Includes a copy of State of War: MS-13 and El Salvador's World of Violence by guest speaker William Wheeler, and reserved seating at the front of the auditorium.
Event Sponsorship $1,000
Includes 10 VIP tickets, including the books and reserved seating
General Admission Non-Members $80.00
Memberships encouraged for additional discounted future events and special opportunities. More information HERE.
General Admission Members $60.00
Young Professionals Intercollegiate Network Members $48.00
For more information on YPIN
Students (must have student ID on arrival to enjoy this rate): $20
*Our Founders Club members commit to a gift of $10,000 or above annually to our nonprofit. This new level of giving marks the transition from the membership dues and programs fee-based fiscal model of our past, to a philanthropic model of nonprofit fundraising, thus founding a new era which will allow us to bring our programming to more diverse segments of the Orange County community, including young professionals and students. For more information or to join, please contact our President and CEO, at [email protected].
Speakers Bios:
Alex Sanchez
Alex Sanchez, is an internationally recognized peacemaker and co-founder of Homies Unidos in Los Angeles where he has developed and implemented innovative violence prevention and intervention programs since 1998 and has also led the organization as Executive Director since 2006. An outspoken community leader, Alex’s commitment to disenfranchised youth and their families in the Latino and largely Central American communities of the Pico Union, Westlake and Korea town areas of Los Angeles, is rooted in his own personal journey that includes having been a gang-involved youth, target of the INS, LAPD and Salvadoran national police and death squads. Alex’s family migrated to Los Angeles, California at the end of the 1970s, during the height of military repression in El Salvador. After being involved in gangs and serving time in state prison, he was deported in 1994 to El Salvador where he met the founder of Homies Unidos, Magdaleno Rose Avila, and others striving for social change. This turning point marked Alex’s commitment to improve his life and to help other youth do the same. He brought back that message of hope and redemption to California and helped found Homies Unidos in Los Angeles in 1998.
Alex is a hands-on prevention and intervention professional that has made a positive impact in the lives of thousands of at-risk youth and their families. As a well-respected violence prevention pioneer and expert on gang culture and youth criminalization, Alex has advocated for comprehensive intervention strategies, immigration reform and Black-Brown unity – promoting racial tolerance and cultural understanding as a form of violence prevention. Alex adeptly connects these issues to a deeper analysis of local, national and transnational politics, systems and policies. He is a proud husband and father and symbol of peace, compassion and courage to his family, friends and community.
William Wheeler
William Wheeler is an award-winning investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker. He’s interviewed Honduran hitmen about the murder of Indigenous activist Berta Cáceres; covered the Arab Spring migration crisis and the rise of Europe’s far right; and traveled from Himalayan Nepal though Pakistan to the Bay of Bengal to document the impacts of climate change on a quarter of the world’s population.
Wheeler was a part of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting team that won a National Press Club award for coverage of the failed international rebuilding effort in Haiti, and reporting on tensions between nuclear rivals over the Indus River won the Earth Journalism Award at the Copenhagen climate summit. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Republic, Foreign Affairs, USA Today, McSweeney's Quarterly, and other outlets.
As a documentary producer, he led Chinese artist Ai Weiwei through the Middle East for Human Flow, his feature film about the global refugee crisis; originated and developed stories and did on-the-ground investigations that powered Netflix’s Emmy-winning music series Remastered, as well as Showtime's Emmy-winning migration series The Trade, National Geographic Film’s International Documentary Award- and Emmy-winning feature documentary The First Wave, and Meltdown, Netflix’s International Documentary Award-winning investigative series about the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island.
Wheeler is also the author of the book State of War: MS-13 and El Salvador's World of Violence, which took him into the realm of spies, sicarios, dirty cops, and gang members to expose how failed American policies and corruption at the highest levels of the Salvadoran state contributed to Central America’s migration crisis. Wheeler has a BA in English from UC Berkeley and master’s degrees in journalism and international affairs from Columbia University.
Conor Friedersdorf
Conor Friedersdorf is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of the "Up for Debate" newsletter. Before joining The Atlantic in 2010, he was the features editor at Culture11 and a reporter for the Los Angeles News Group. He is the founding editor of "The Best of Journalism," a newsletter devoted to exceptional nonfiction.
