The 93 B&W prints are unique in that they were hand-printed in 1995 by Willie Garcia along with Gamboa's supervision. Although several of these images have been printed elsewhere, the quality and tonality of these prints will not be reproduced by other photo lab techniques. Several of the negatives were lost. Seven of the 100 photographs are original Polaroid instant prints.

Harry Gamboa Jr. was born in 1951, the first of five children born to Harry T. Gamboa and Carmen Gamboa, a working class Mexican American couple. He grew up in East Los Angeles California, an urban area tormented by poverty, violence and racial conflict. Despite these surroundings, the inadequacy of the East L.A. public schools and his parents' lack of education, Gamboa was encouraged to value education and did fairly well in school. As a teenager he was active in community organizations and politics. As a student at High School (graduated 1969) Gamboa was active in student government and as an organizer of various student-initiated reforms, most significantly the 1968 "East L.A. Blowouts" -a series of protests against the inferior conditions of public schools in poor, non-white areas.

.25 linear ft. (93 black & white prints, 7 original Polaroid instant prints)

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