The Metro: A Detroiter’s dedication to Latino music and community
Musician and activist Ozzie Rivera joined the show to discuss the importance of Latino culture in southeast Michigan and work done to support the community.
Dancers Angela Lugo (from left), Sheila Royster and Celia Benvenutti performed with Ozzie Rivera and Rican Struction at the 2024 Concert of Colors.
It’s the last day of Hispanic Heritage Month, and to celebrate, The Metro was joined by a Detroit musician, activist, historian, and educator who has dedicated his career to improving the lives of Latino residents in southeast Michigan.
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Osvaldo “Ozzie” Rivera currently teaches at Wayne State and the University of Michigan. He also writes for “El Central” newspaper, serves on Detroit’s Historic Designation Advisory Board and is the former director of Southwest Solutions. He was instrumental in the creation of the Wayne State Center for Latino/a American Studies, established 1971.
Rivera was born on the island of Puerto Rico but is a lifelong Detroiter. His father was a musician and early in life, Rivera became interested in both music and activism. If you attended this year’s Concert of Colors, you might’ve seen Rivera perform with his band Rican Struction, a Bomba music ensemble.
Rivera joined the show to discuss the importance of Latino culture in southeast Michigan and work done to support the community. One of the issues in the Detroit Latino community that Rivera fought against was systemic racism in public schools.
“There’s some broad brushes to discuss in terms of just acknowledgement and civil rights, but specifically as it related to the Latino community in Detroit, there were issues with the lack of bilingual education,” Rivera said. “Actually, many students were funneled into special-ed classes only because they spoke Spanish. So La Sed … also put in a successful lawsuit against the Detroit Public School system for funneling, directing Spanish speaking students and some who weren’t even Spanish speaking, they were put in special rooms and some would say some closets. And so you have to fight for bilingual education and against standardization or delegitimizing Latin students.”
Use the media player above to hear the full conversation with Rivera.
More headlines from The Metro on Oct. 15, 2024:
- A new early childhood educator workforce index shows that child care wages remain low in Michigan and across the United States. Director of Multi-State and International Programs at Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Child Care Employment Caitlin McLean joined the show to discuss the new report.
- There are a lot of issues voters care about, but depending on your party, voter priorities are very different. We’re less than a month away from the presidential election, and that leaves us wondering what might turn out the vote most for either party. Joining us to discuss the upcoming election and what’s on voters’ minds, The Atlantic staff writer Tim Alberta joined The Metro. He’s covered politics with a close eye on both the white, evangelical christian movement in this country and the shifts happening in the Republican Party. He will also be speaking at an event called “Democracy at a Crossroads” at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday on Michigan State University’s campus.
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