When Joe Tovar was a kid growing up in Pacoima, he always loved drawing anything that captured his eye around his neighborhood: the roses in people’s yards, lowrider cars and girls wearing big hoop earrings.
Tovar – affectionately called “Brother Joe” by friends and loved ones – recalls using anything handy to recreate “whatever I saw around me.”
“I drew everything with whatever I had. If there was an empty pizza box, I would flip it over and draw something on it,” he said with a laugh. Tovar also enjoyed watching his grandfather “pull a limb off a tree, carve it up and make it into a back scratcher” with carved faces and other details.
Although life became tumultuous in the years that followed – from gang involvement, becoming a teen parent, drug addiction and the resulting pressures on his family – Tovar continued turning to his drawing, developing his own style of Chicano art using markers.
Today, he pulls inspiration from his decades of artistic creativity – and from his former gang life and past addiction – to mentor youth and young adults as a community intervention worker with the Alliance for Community Empowerment (ACE), a nonprofit organization based in Canoga Park that offers youth programs, workforce development opportunities and re-entry services.
Tovar encourages the young people he mentors to find and unleash their inner artist through drawing and painting, and to raise their voices by writing and performing spoken word poetry.
“Looking back, I never would have thought that I’d be doing what I’m doing now,” he said.
Looking Back
Despite having artistic talent and curiosity as a kid, and “a good upbringing” – raised by his mom and dad, aunts and grandparents – Tovar ended up going “in the direction of gangs and drugs” by the age of 13. He married and became a parent at 17, and eventually left gang life behind, but he remained a “functional addict” as a young husband and father in his late teens and throughout his 20s.
“I was in allegiance to my drug addiction and trying to, at the same time, juggle a family life and the pay bills and so forth,” recounted Tovar, who worked in maintenance for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). “I got sober at 30. … I wasn’t a young kid anymore, and my addiction had already taken a toll on my life and my marriage. I have [been] clean and sober now for about 30 years.”
After finally embracing his sobriety, Tovar focused on raising his family, repairing his marriage and continuing his art while still working for LAUSD, where he eventually did some art mentoring with students. He also started doing volunteer work in addiction recovery and gang intervention.
“As a recovering addict myself, I started working with addiction programs,” said Tovar. “I just had a want to … pour my life into other people’s lives. I think it was healing for me, especially after getting sober. I think it was a way of taking my mind off myself and thinking of others.
“So I just started raising my hand and volunteering wherever I could find an opportunity,” he said.
One of the addiction programs he ran with his wife, Monica, was faith-based, which is where his nickname “Brother Joe” was born. People had randomly started referring to him as “pastor,” but he corrected them, reminding them he wasn’t a cleric, adding, “You can call me Brother Joe.”
And the name stuck – more than two decades later, Tovar is still known as “Brother Joe.”
“Over the years, I continued doing various types of outreach within the community, but it was all as a volunteer,” he said. Tovar eventually started volunteering for ACE and, after retiring from LAUSD, he was offered a part-time paid position with the nonprofit. He immediately accepted.
“This is actually the first time I’ve ever been paid to actually work in my community,” said Tovar, who has worked at ACE for seven years, and is now a full-time team employee. “So it’s been a journey of just reaching out to help other people … that has brought me to this point.”
An Artistic Mentor
Today, Tovar works primarily with young people, including at-risk youth between the ages of 10 and 15, and as an interventionist for teens and young adults 16 to 25 who have been gang-impacted or had other struggles. His goal is to help foster their artistic and creative talents.
“But it’s not just about the art alone, because without the mentorship, it would just be a typical art class, where they learn how to draw or how to paint,” explained Tovar. “In my art and poetry classes, my intention is to be a good mentor, to help guide them all … in the right direction.”
Last year, Tovar curated and presented the inaugural “In My Varrio I See” art exhibit in partnership with the city of LA’s Department of Cultural Affairs. Held at Taxco Theatre in Canoga Park, the exhibit featured student and community artists presenting Chicano art and spoken word presentations. He plans to bring back the exhibit for a second year in late April.
Tovar said he loves working and giving back to the community he calls home. He has lived in Canoga Park with his family for over 25 years. Tovar and his wife Monica have been married for more than 40 years, and they have five adult children, ages 35 to 41, and six grandchildren.
As he nears 60, Tovar has started to think about the legacy he will leave behind for his family, his friends and the young people he mentors. He said he hopes they will view him as an example of “what a changed life can do – in their family, in their community and in their world.”
“I’ve seen the value of [my work] … firsthand,” said Tovar. “I’ve seen lives – human lives that were suffering through trauma – change through art, through poetry [and] through mentorship.”