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Being a Bus Driver is Like Being a Counselor
Otto Herrera, Dispatcher,
Division 4
Otto Herrera, an AC Transit employee for 30 years this June 2009, has worked as a bus operator, line instructor, and now as a dispatcher, preparing pouches, paddles and keeping everything in running order. Recently interviewed by Channel 14 for his work in the community, he's also created another job.
“Being a bus operator is like being a counselor,” he said at Division 4 on Seminary Avenue. “People tell you stories and you listen. They have so many things on their minds.”
Herrera whose list of activities reads like a community organizer's resumé, first came to this country from Guatemala when he was 18. He briefly remained in the United States, and then returned at age 25. “The first thing I had to do,” he said, “was to learn English.” Herrera took classes at an adult school before enrolling at the College of Alameda where he received his AA degree. To this day, he proudly wears his class ring on his right hand.
Shortly after beginning in 1979 with AC Transit as a driver, he began to volunteer at Crece, a church on 54th Avenue, where he assembled bags of food from the Alameda Food Bank to help feed approximately 100 refugee families every week. He remembers how his friend Francisco would drive a truck every Friday to Santa Rosa to pick up fresh produce to place inside grocery bags.
As a bus operator, Herrera began to offer his fellow drivers classes in Spanish. He was beginning to see that a number of them were hampered by their inability to communicate with Spanish-speaking riders. “I helped them to better explain to customers how to get to hospitals, schools, and how to make transfers.”
Another volunteer opportunity opened up at St Vincent de Paul in Oakland. Herrera was introduced to the manager and began cleaning and fixing shelves of food, and after a while, suggested that workers also be given bags of food as many of them also were in need. “The manager said to me, 'You're right.'” Herrera continued in this position until November 2008.
He saw other needs. He was a co-founder of a men's support group located at Casa Ché, 1537 Fruitvale Avenue in Oakland. This is a group where men come and talk about “whatever is on their minds,” he said, cradling the back of his head inside folded palms. The center helps individuals, many assigned by the court, with court appearances, visitation rights, or support for getting clean and sober. “We talk about everything,” he said. There also are classes where representatives from different organizations come to teach life skills. Casa Ché currently holds its men's groups every Wednesday from 6pm to 8pm.
Herrera also helped to found an AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) group located at 35th Avenue and Foothill Boulevard, which is open 24 hours a day. The site of a former spiritualist and reader, Lavantate Lucha is now a 24-hour help center where people can remain as long as they need to get their lives back on track. The center is supported by donations from group meetings.
Herrera also has visited Guatemala with his mother and aunt to assist seniors at Casa Hogar in Guatemala City.
A father of three children, Rodriego, 18; Bonita, 17; and James, 16, Herrera is an active parent at their schools.
Herrera also reconnected with his father in Guatemala who had left the family when he was two years old. Until recently, he had never met him as an adult.
His father is ill, he said. “I talked to him on the telephone and made him laugh. After I hung up, I was told that he cried.”