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About Erik Friend

Erik Friend, grew up in the Philadelphia area and now has been living and working in Cuernavaca, Mexico for 20 years. His work in Mexico started with the formation of worker-owner auto repair shop cooperatives. More recently he has been dedicating his time to three different activities:

1) Autonomia, Libertad en Movimiento A.C., a project to train people with disabilities to make special tricycles for others with disabilities and eventually establish a social enterprise to produce and sell these commercially,

2) Fundacion Comunidad A.C., a community foundation that works to help network local social organization creating opportunities for training and sharing and helping them relate to businesses in the area,

3) On his own and with other institutions in creating “immersion” programs for North Americans who want to understand the cultural, political, and economic issues facing Latin America often as a result of U.S. economic policies. The reflection process within these programs is: humanist, theological and ecumenical.

There is a common thread or vision within all my work. Much of human suffering is a result of feeling separate and distant from others; we lack community. We only know each other for what we have or we do not have, instead of for who we are. Today’s propaganda and consumerism has us searching for identity and acceptation in the things we buy, yet, ironically, these “things” create more division. Working with marginalized people with disabilities one can appreciate, within their struggle, honesty and vulnerability that is liberating. When we can meet and know each other at this level we recover our humanity and we become part of a community. Social justice is not just about economic equality; it is about healing for all the victims of the system, rich and poor.