Darlene Kuba (right) presented the award to Mario Reyes’ niece, Nicole.
The Roosevelt High School Alumni Foundation held its 12th RHS Alumni Hall of Fame luncheon on Sept. 7 at the Quiet Cannon in Montebello.
Opening remarks were made by Sokie Quintero (’84), foundation president, who noted that the honor is given to talented alumni who have shown dedication and excellence in their fields.
Victor Cisneros (’77) sang the national anthem, RHS alumni provided music, and current students performed the RHS cheer.
Candy Tanamachi (W’69), foundation board members and RHS Hall of Fame Committee, served as emcee.
The Hall of Fame inductees were:
- Mario G. Reyes (’74) (posthumously), presented by Darlene Kuba (’74). Accepting on his behalf was his niece Nicole.
- Lucy Armendariz (’88), presented by JoAnn Tambara (S’66).
- Oscar Barragan (’88), presented by Danny Hernandez (W’65).
- Mas Imai (S’66), presented by Fred Santisteban (S’66).
- Ray Fukumoto (S’63), presented by Victoria Castro (S’63).
Steve Nagano’s profile of Mario Reyes as well as videos about the other honorees were shown during the ceremony.
Mario Reyes was born in Mexico City on Jan. 19, 1956, the oldest of four. His family relocated to Los Angeles, moving into the Maravilla Housing Projects when he was 4. He attended Riggin (now Morris K. Hamasaki) Elementary, Griffin Junior High and RHS.
Taking pictures at the Nisei Week Grand Parade in 1971 at age 15, he snapped a shot of dancers and instantly fell in love with the grace and beauty of the arts and traditions of the Japanese culture. When he was a senior at Roosevelt, he started working at The Rafu Shimpo in the mail room and press room. It was then that his love of photography intersected with his experiences within the Japanese American community.
During his 40-year career, Reyes documented the changes in and around Little Tokyo and the Japanese American community in Southern California. He documented the evolution of the Manzanar Pilgrimage for over 30 years and the biennial Tule Lake Pilgrimage for 10. His work serves as a collective memory of the Japanese American community.
Reyes also covered the 1992 Los Angeles civil unrest, the O.J. Simpson trial, the 1994 Northridge earthquake, several presidential elections, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
He photographed world leaders and celebrities such as Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko of Japan, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Toshiro Mifune, Michael Jackson, Jesse Jackson, Hideo Nomo, Tommy Lasorda and Shohei Ohtani, and was the lead photographer for the wedding of actor/activist George Takei and Brad Altman.
Steve Nagano’s documentary about Reyes, “More Than Words,” premiered in 2012. Among his many awards and honors, Reyes was recognized by the L.A. City Council (2022), Nisei Week (2022), Pacific Southwest District JACL (2019), and in 2025 by the L.A. City Council, L.A. County Board of Supervisors, and California State Legislature. His work was celebrated in a pop-up exhibition at the Japanese American National Museum titled “Obras de Luz (Works of LIght): A 40-Year History of the Japanese American Community,” which ran from Dec. 6, 2024 to Jan. 5, 2025.
Reyes passed away on Jan. 22 at his home in Boyle Heights at the age of 69 after a brief battle with cancer. He always used to say, “During the day, I lived in Japanese culture; then I’d go home and go back to living in Mexican culture at night.” Rafu columnist Sharon Yamato described him as “a gentle giant whose camera spoke louder than he ever did.”
Mas Imai was born in Tokyo in March 1948. His family lived in Tokyo’s Tsukiji district. In 1958, they moved to West Los Angeles. Imai attended Hobart Elementary School and Berendo Junior High, but was transferred to Mt. Vernon Junior High because they had a non-English-speaking program. In 1960, the family moved to Boyle Heights, where he attended Hollenbeck Junior High and RHS. After graduating from Roosevelt, he attended East L.A. Community College.
In 1968, Imai joined the Navy and was stationed at Barber’s Point Naval Air Base in Oahu. He was a flight engineer on a C118 aircraft and logged over 2,400 flight hours, including flights to Vietnam. Married in 1968 to a Roosevelt alumna, they returned to Los Angeles in 1973 with their 2-year-old son.
After receiving his BS in education from Cal State L.A., Imai started at Ernst & Young. In 1980, he was hired by Walt Disney as a management auditor. His second son was born in 1981, but his wife passed away the following year.
In 1983, Imai relocated his family to Japan to work on the Tokyo Disney project. Moving between Tokyo and California, he oversaw business operations as Tokyo Disneyland transformed into Tokyo Disney Resort. He quickly rose through the ranks at Disney, becoming director of finance and administration in Japan (1983), Disneyland International California director of business and financial affairs (1989), Disneyland International Orange, Calif. executive vice president, business and financial affairs (1996), and Walt Disney Attractions Japan president and representative director (2001).
In 2005, Imai decided on a career change. He joined Sanrio Ltd. as president and chief operating officer. He would say, “I went from working for a famous mouse to working for a famous cat.”
He retired in 2015 as president and CEO of Sanrio. He resides in Yorba Linda with his wife (remarried in 1986) and has three daughters and two sons. In 2013, he opened his own consulting firm, P-B MAS Consulting, which provides advisory services to clients and analysts with theme park/resort interests.
Reflecting on his time at RHS, Imai stated, “It was a pivotal time for my personal development as a young man. Time at RHS has helped me assimilate myself to the American lifestyle and culture. It has provided me with the basic guidance, confidence and the values to pursue my life’s goals professionally and personally. At the graduation ceremony, I personally thanked Mr. Tejerina for his guidance. To this date, he has given me the best lesson of my life. I truly believe a teacher’s role in any level of school is not only to educate students, but to help develop and motivate their students to become the best they can be.”
Ray Fukumoto was born on Nov. 15, 1945 in Aliso Village, Los Angeles. His father was from Kagoshima and his mother born in La Puente but raised in Japan. The family was incarcerated during World War II at the Poston concentration camp in the Arizona desert, where his two sisters were born. Poston was the largest camp, holding some 17,000 Japanese Americans.
Fukumoto attended Second Street Elementary, Hollenbeck Junior High and RHS. After graduation, he attended Cal State L.A. and graduated with a BA in design in 1967. He served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a captain from 1968 to 1973. He then returned to Los Angeles and earned his master’s in design from Cal State L.A. in 1977.
For the next 26 years, he honed his skills as a graphic designer. He was hired director of graphics at Gensler Graphics Corp. During his 10 years there, he helped establish its place in the design world. He has extensive experience in using graphics to enhance both exterior and interior spaces in order to promote the brand and mission of his clients. His areas of expertise include signage, corporate image development, print graphics, museum exhibit design, and theme park graphics.
In 1992, Fukumoto formed his own company, Fukumoto Design, a full-service environmental graphic design firm. Projects have included LAX Delta Airlines, Federal Reserve Bank San Francisco, Warner Bros. Studio Store, Wells Fargo History Museum, and hundreds more across the country. Despite the firm’s success, he would start to move in a completely different direction.
Fukumoto was raised in the Buddhist faith, studying and practicing the Buddha Dharma through the years. Eventually he would study other sects of Buddhism and his journey of enlightenment would begin. In 1999, he traveled to Japan on a sponsored trip for aspiring ministers. In 2010, after many years of study and dedication, he received an advanced certification to teach and was qualified to head a temple.
He returned to the U.S. in 2012 and is currently assisting the Universal Buddhist Educational Foundation as their resident reverend, providing guidance and information regarding Buddhist religious tradition. He also volunteers at the VA Hospital and is involved with various community events and organizations.
Lucy Armendariz was born at White Memorial on Aug. 19, 1970. She attended Sheridan Street Elementary, Hollenbeck Junior High and RHS. Due to family circumstances, she entered the foster care system at a very young age and bounced between foster homes until a stable, long-term placement was found.
As a teen attending Roosevelt in the 1980s, she saw girls in her group home become mothers too soon and boys lost to the streets or Juvenile Hall. Heeding those warning examples, she viewed college as a pathway to stability. “I had no parents to fall back on, no safety net, and nobody was going to save me,” she recalled. “I knew that I had to go to college.”
With the help of guidance counselors, Armendariz was accepted into UCLA, majoring in sociology and economics. She earned her law degree in 1997 from UC Hastings School of Law.
Having committed her career to public service, she served as chief of staff to the State Senate majority leader and gained extensive experience at the Capitol in Sacramento as counsel to both the Assembly and Senate committees on public safety.
Gov. Gray Davis appointed Armendariz as ombudsman for women’s prisons in California. She presided over cases at the State Bar Court of California for over a decade. Appointed to the bench in 2007, she maintained a heavy docket of cases that included trials, motion hearings and status conferences.
Armendariz won the election in June 2018 to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Donna F. Goldstein. She was appointed to the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in 2018 by Gov. Jerry Brown to fill the vacancy; this allowed her to immediately assume the position instead of waiting until January 2019, when her elected term began.
She served at the East Los Angeles Courthouse, presiding over misdemeanor trials. In 2024 she won re-election outright in the primary after the primary and general election were canceled.
Motivated by her experiences as a foster child, Armendariz has a long history of community involvement. Determined to “pay it forward,” she has volunteered her time as a member of the Supreme Court Blue Ribbon Commission on Foster Care and as a board member of Leadership California, an organization dedicated to advancing the leadership roles of women and girls. At RHS she serves as a Teen Court judge.
Oscar Barragan was born and raised in Boyle Heights. He attended Breed Street and Bridge Street elementary schools. For junior high, he was bused to Paul Revere Charter School, but for high school he returned to Boyle Heights to attend Roosevelt, graduating in 1988.
Growing up, he spent most of his free time at the Hollenbeck Youth Center, where he participated in numerous sports like basketball, baseball and flag football. He credits the center with playing a pivotal role in his life.
Barragan recalls watching Officer Stanke walk into the center in uniform, changing into his coaching gear and training kids like him to become competitive and successful professional boxers. He was inspired by the LAPD officer’s dedication to his community.
At the age of 18, Barragan became a reserve officer with the LAPD. He wanted to follow the path of law enforcement officers who devoted their time to make real changes in their communities.
In 1990, he became a community service officer with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and in 1991 he graduated from the academy as a deputy sheriff. Since then, he has risen through the ranks and handled many prestigious assignments.
His most notable assignment is the Special Enforcement Bureau, which is composed of five details: Emergency Services, Canine, Hazmat, Arson and Explosives (Bomb Squad), and Special Enforcement (SWAT).
Today, after 34 years of service, Barragan serves as commander of the Special Enforcement Bureau, Aero Bureau, Emergency Operations Bureau, Transit Services Bureau, and Metrolink Bureau.
He is also executive director of the LASD Boxing Team. Since its founding, he has been a core member of the “Fight for Life” boxing event, where officers box for charity. Over the years, he has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for City of Hope. He has also played a key role in expanding the LASD Boxing Team to serve youth.
Barragan’s love of helping the community came from his experience at the Hollenbeck Youth Center due to all the opportunities provided for him. He remembers enjoying amusement parks and sporting events throughout Southern California, funded through the center. He is forever indebted to people like Danny Hernandez and Kenny Earl, who guided him and led by example.
