Jerry Velasco, Planning Commissioner for the City of El Monte, actor, producer, businessman, social activist and arts advocate has been selected to receive the ‘DISTINGUISHED MAN OF THE YEAR AWARD’ by the LA Sheriff’s Indo-American Advisory Council at the 4th Annual Sheriff’s Show, to take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Saturday, April 28, 2012. Jerry was selected to receive this award because of his advocacy in the arts, his humanitarian work, his commitment to social justice, and labor and worker’s rights, which insured an improved quality of life and benefits for workers and their families, not only in the entertainment industry, but in the U. S. labor movement in general.
Velasco is one of the founding members of the oldest Latino Arts Advocacy organizations in the U. S., Nosotros, founded by the late actor Ricardo Montalban in 1970. As a producer, Jerry, was responsible for bringing the first prime time Latino Awards show to television, the Nosotros Golden Eagle Awards. He is also responsible for co-funding the Ricardo Montalban – Nosotros Foundation and its Theater in Hollywood, California. He has also been involved over the years with many charitable and non-profit organizations including March of Dimes, City of Hope, and the Los Angeles Dept. of Adoptions, St. Turibius Catholic School Advisory Board, Dolores Huerta Foundation, San Gabriel Valley Civic Alliance, to name a few.
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