César Cruz is a gang violence prevention advocate and Dean of Secondary Schools Program at Harvard University. He was born in Guadalajara c. 1974, coming to the United States as an undocumented immigrant at age 9, and holds a B.A. in history from UC Berkeley, and a doctorate in educational leadership from Harvard Graduate School of Education. On May 1, 1992, he was one of 65 people arrested marching on the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge after the acquittal of officers charged with beating Rodney King. In 1995, he was involved in a fifteen-day hunger strike at University of California, Irvine. The 1995 strike was undertaken by Cruz and others from UC Berkeley and UC Irvine to protect and promote affirmative action at UC Irvine. Cruz was later part of a 26-day hunger strike in 2004, which