Staff Profile: Raymundo Baltazar
Get to know the people who help lead the school in this series of interviews with UCLA Arts staff members. Want to nominate a staff member for the series? Email communications@arts.ucla.edu.
Raymundo Baltazar is the community engagement coordinator for UCLA Arts’ Visual and Performing Arts Education (VAPAE) program. Baltazar is a multidisciplinary artist, arts educator, and fashion industry consultant. He has been an active volunteer in the nonprofit sector, most notably working with organizations such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Master Chorale, and The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. A first-generation UCLA alum, he graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor of arts degree in World Arts and Cultures, and a minor in Visual and Performing Arts Education (VAPAE); and received an A.A. in fashion design from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising.
 Photo courtesy Raymundo Baltazar |
How did you discover your interest in art and how did you know that it was something that you wanted to pursue professionally as an artist or as an art teacher?
It all started when I was a child living in Cuautla, Morelos, a small town about a two hour drive south of Mexico City. I had an inquisitive mind, and Cuautla was a magical town that provided me with endless opportunities to not only learn from its rich cultural traditions, but also get into beautiful trouble. I was always asking everyone questions, and though it was exhausting for some, my family encouraged me to never stop. Perhaps it was the convergence of my childhood dreams and teenage angst that pushed me to follow my passion: to become the representation I sought after my family immigrated to the United States. Initially the lack of representation discouraged me, but once I learned to speak English, there was no turning back. I decided to become the teacher I needed when I first enrolled in an American school.
Why UCLA Arts and VAPAE?
UCLA was the only university that offered a major like World Arts and Cultures (WAC). So, when I decided to return to school at 34 as a nontraditional student, WAC provided me with the advanced level of arts and cultural studies I was seeking to not only change careers, but to give back to the communities that had given me so much. VAPAE provided me with the access to return and work in the very neighborhoods in which I grew up.
I have learned that artists and educators must
double-down, re-group, re-arm, and re-deploy when the
currents of hate and division try to wipe us out.
—Raymundo Baltazar, community engagement coordinator for
UCLA Arts’ Visual and Performing Arts Education (VAPAE) program
Like many Angelenos who grew up in the “213” area codes of MacArthur Park/Mid-City and Downtown Los Angeles, attending UCLA was not only an academic challenge, but also a geographical obstacle. Now, more than 25 years later, after wondering how I could one day become a Bruin, I now proudly represent VAPAE throughout the school district. Growing up, teachers sadly were less than encouraging. It felt as if learning the language and getting just any job were more realistic aspirations. I had been labeled an “at-risk youth” because, after all, what could an undocumented, brown, queer kid expect to become? Today, it is my life’s commitment to do all I can to dismantle the many obstacles that still prevent queer BIPOC youth from asking those very same questions I did, and help them find their true calling.
An image from Raymundo Baltazar's final project as a World Arts and Cultures major.
What in your time at UCLA are you most proud of?
I am most proud to have anchored VAPAE’s community arts programs in a manner that has been equitable, transformative, and inclusive. I like to joke that I went from the “fashion runways to the academic hallways” of our mighty university and public schools, one of the best decisions I ever made! I can honestly say that I never found anything that I created, designed, or made as rewarding as witnessing my communities bond not just through a diaspora but rather by embracing the idea that we can be artists of meaning and consequence regardless of zip code or personal experiences.
What is something people might be surprised to learn about you?
I was a designer participant on the television program Project Runway.
Images from Raymundo Baltazar's life and work as VAPAE's community engagement coordinator.
What are you looking forward to in 2022?
Accountability. Lots more accountability. Within the last few years, we have all experienced and gone through so much change. I need to hold myself and others accountable to ensure a promising future for the students I serve. In times of critical need, especially now, I have learned that artists and educators must double-down, re-group, re-arm, and re-deploy when the currents of hate and division try to wipe us out. We must all unite as never before to ensure the values of fairness, equity, inclusion, and humanity guide us above all else.
And next year, I am looking forward to continuing to ask even more questions, challenge more “norms,” demand more accountability and honesty of myself, and if time permits, spend more time in Cuautla, Morelos, Mexico, the land of my birth. The land that helped make me who I am today.
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