Vega, Carlos

Carlos Vega

An Ecuadorian-born community activist, Carlos Vega moved to Holyoke, Massachusetts, with his family in 1955, settling in the city's "Flats" neighborhood, a working-class community then populated largely by Irish and French Canadians. As a child, Vega witnessed the end of the post-war economic boom and the downturn in Holyoke's fortunes as many of the factories that formed the city's lifeblood began to relocate to the U.S. South or Asia.

By the time he was 14, Vega found that the only job he could get was on the local tobacco farms where he first encountered the new influx of migrants, mostly from Puerto Rico. Driven by the dire economic situation on the island and the promise of agricultural employment extended by the U.S. Department of Labor, many of these migrants settled permanently in the Pioneer Valley, but they soon discovered that the economy here was little better than the economy they had left. Exacerbated by racism and rising urban decay, this newest wave of migrants were blamed for the downturn and found their hopes for upward mobility blocked.

Radicalized by the anti-colonial, antiwar, and Civil Rights movements of the late 1960s, Vega emerged as an important community organizer in the 1970s, working with Fair Share, New Unity, Urban Ministry, and other progressive organizations: anything that involved civic engagement and feeling for social justice. With a backdrop of riots, arson, and racial tension, these organizations focused on issues relevant to the Puerto Rican community of Holyoke, particularly voter education and registration, fair housing, education, employment, and safe streets.

Vega's impact on Holyoke ranged from involvement in the desegregation lawsuits against the city's schools in the 1970s to perhaps his most lasting legacy, Nueva Esperanza, a not-for-profit community development organization seeking to restore and maintain blighted buildings in the city and saving 30 buildings and developing space for small business and nearly 400 units of affordable housing. Two years after being diagnosed with brain cancer in 1995, Vega resigned as Executive Director, but remained active on the Board of Directors. He survived until April 2012.