Gonzalo Mercado was the keynote speaker at Wagner College's 2012 Civic Engagement Awards program, held on Thursday, April 19. As executive director of El Centro del Inmigrante, Mercado also accepted the college's Community Partner award for the work El Centro has done with Wagner students as part of the Port Richmond Partnership. Mercado talked about his childhood in Valparaiso, Chile, one of the hometowns of the famous poet Pablo Neruda, during the Pinochet dictatorship; how he decided to emigrate to America; and how his personal background prepared him to work at El Centro as a community organizer and advocate for the rights of Latino/Latina immigrant workers in Staten Island's Port Richmond community.
