I am the vision for a NEW Centro Cultural de La Raza in San Diego. 36 years ago, I was founded by community members who marched out of Chicano Park and demanded a Chicano cultural center from the Balboa Park administration. They occupied a building in for days and nights until I was given over to them. They cleaned me up and painted my walls with colorful murals and converted me into a world-class art center!
I was so proud to be the creative matrix of so many amazing artists, activists and art movements. The Border Arts Workshop, Judy Baca, Lalo Guerrero and many others participated in my programming. It was great to be an art center which was dynamic, utilized by the larger grassroots community AND respected by the legitimate art world. For 30 years, I defined myself in relation to my community. My staff and administrators worked diligently towards furthering the understanding and evolution of Chican@/Indigen@ kulture all over the Globe. I was a CATALAYAST for Art and Activism!
Then 6 years ago, I was taken over by a new group of people...those who abused and villified my Gente. They chased my community away and created barriers to communication. They locked my doors and during their care a large part of my permanent collection dissapeared. They slandered my gente and and I was sad because my doors were closed most of the year. These were very fearfull people.
Now their unfounded fears are beginning to dissolve. They have come to the table with a loving community who had been fighting to liberate me. The current administration is beginning to talk with my people!
My community wants answers regarding funding the Centro administrators received over the last 6 years and also about what happened to 30+ years of artwork left in their care. Most of all, my community wants healing and is working with my Board to collectively find solutions to build a NEW Centro we can all be proud of.
** Help rebuild the CENTRO today! **
Send in resumes/nominations for Board seats and Staff Positions to:
[email protected]
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* The BOYCOTT IS OVER!!! *

End of Boycott covered in SD CITYBEAT
Boycott's over
It was only a few years ago that Victor Payan was standing outside Balboa Park's Centro Cultural de la Raza, encouraging folks to stay away from what had once been the heart of San Diego's Chicano arts community. He handed out flyers with "Enron Cultural de la Raza" across the top that explained that in 2000, a new board of directors took over leadership of the cultural center, "ceased visual arts programming and shut off attempts at dialogue.
"Since then," the flyer read, "the doors of the Centro have been closed to the Chicano/Chicana cultural community."
Payan sent CityBeat an e-mail Friday: The 7-year-long boycott is over. With the help of the National Conflict Resolution Center, the Save Our Centro Coalition (SOCC), of which Payan is the unofficial spokesperson, reached an agreement with the Centro's current leadership. "It was about six months of mediation sessions," he said. "But the process did work."
SOCC comprises some of San Diego's most respected artists and community leaders, like Victor Ochoa, Mario Torero, Perry Vasquez, Tommie Camarillo and Sal Barajas; many SOCC members were around when the Centro, an old water tank covered in murals, first opened in the late '60s after the San Diego City Council kicked Chicano artists out of what's now the San Diego Aerospace Museum. Over the boycott's seven years, those artists and activists have had to find other venues at which to hold their events.
"There's a lot of artists, performers, academics and community groups who are just waiting for the opportunity to collaborate and have programming at the Centro," Payan said, "to demonstrate just the tremendous potential that exists—the creative renaissance that the Chicano art community is experiencing and to address the serious issues that we're facing."
—Kelly Davis
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* APPLY FOR BOARD, ARTS ADVISORY COMMITTEE AND STAFF POSITIONS *If you have any questions or would like to be considered as a candidate for the NEW Centro's Board or Staff, please email your resume to [email protected] or to any of the SOCC mediation representatives listed below.
Patricio Chavez - [email protected]
Carlos C. de Baca - [email protected]
Sandra Peña-Sarmiento - [email protected]
Victor Payan - [email protected]
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** MEDIATION UPDATES and SOCC EVENTS **
For detailed information on the mediation process, you may join the Save Our Centro myspace page or log into www.saveourcentro.org as a concerned member of the community.
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Help Re-build the Centro!
For more info about the Centro Cultural de La Raza in Balboa Park, visit:/h3)
http://www.saveourcentro.org/