Discovering a home and a heritage: Director of El Centro Chicano shares his experience with the USC Latinx community

Everyday he wakes up with a burning desire to help Latinx students at USC. As the director of El Centro Chicano, Billy Vela leads the cultural center for Latinx students. Like many Latinx students at USC, Vela went through many hardships growing up. Vela was born in 1972 to Guatemalan immigrant parents and grew up in Highland Park.

“We were on welfare but [my mother] was working like a mad woman,” Vela said. “At that time just because you were on welfare did not mean you were coasting.”

Despite the challenges he faced, Vela graduated from Franklin High School and went on to attend Occidental College where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Vela said he has always been an advocate for Central Americans. At Occidental College, Vela co-founded the Central American Student Association.

He then attended Columbia University, Teacher’s College and received his master’s degree in Student Personnel Administration with an emphasis in Multiculturalism.

After graduating from Columbia, Vela worked as a resident director at UC Berkeley and as the director of Chicano Latino Student Services at Loyola Marymount University.

Vela joined USC as director of El Centro Chicano in 2005, recruited by Corliss Bennett-McBride, former director of  the Center for Black Cultural and Student Affairs. Since then Vela has used his experiences to encourage and support students facing the struggles he faced as a first-generation Latinx student.

“As leaders of this center, I am glad we are here to advocate,” Vela said. “To make sure El Centro feels welcoming and has murals and images that make people feel included.”

Along with providing a place for Latinx students to visit and do work, El Centro Chicano also hosts the “El Sol y la Luna” Latino Floor in Fluor Tower. Created in 1974-75, the Latino Floor residential program is an opportunity offered to first-year students looking to connect with other students with similar interests and cultural backgrounds.

Angeles Medina is one of the many students who found home as one of the residents of The Latino Floor. Now a rising sophomore, she said she feels fortunate to have worked with Vela.

“Billy is the kind of person who makes you feel comfortable, but he pushes your thinking,” Medina said. “He’s woke. He is very progressive and inclusive. He stays informed politically and encourages students he encounters to do so as well.”

Alberto Bravo, a sophomore majoring in history, is a special projects assistant at El Centro. He works closely with Vela and also was a resident on the Latino Floor.

“I think Billy is the kind of Latinx who is proud of his culture, but he [also] acknowledges outdated views and adversity our community face,” Bravo said. “And he wants to push his community out of that mentality and way of living.”

Along with aiding Latinx students at USC, Vela said he finds much of his inspiration from his mother and his family. He said that, like him, many Latinx students try to succeed because of their family.

“There’s not a student without family,” Vela said. “There’s not a student without mom, without dad, without your tia or your tio or your abuelita. Whoever it was. People are people, but Latinos — we’re family based. It’s so important to us.”

As for the future, Vela hopes to obtain his Ph.D and continue to advocate for diversity and inclusion. Vela states that one of his greatest accomplishments is finding his path and passion for education.

“[One of my greatest accomplishments] has been finding my identity. Finding my history. Becoming a whole person because that was a big thing that was missing and I think it’s missing for a lot of us,” Vela said. “At the same time while that’s happening finding out a way to help others because that’s what my mom taught me.”