With the current political climate in disarray a cultural center in Balboa Park is working to restore Chicano, Latino, Mexican and Indigenous art and culture.
Centro Cultural De La Raza at 2004 Park Blvd. in San Diego was formed out of the Civil Rights and Chicano Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, officially opening its doors in 1970.
More than four decades after the center’s opening, the center’s president Tommy Valentino said the cultural center is educating its visitors more today than in years’ past.
Valentino said fears created by President Donald Trump has encouraged the center to fully create, promote and educate visitors about Chicano, Latino and Indigenous art and culture.
“I feel (the center) just provides a huge need for the region, if not the world,” said Valentino, a Chula Vista resident.
“Where we are not afraid to address issues that affect our people – Chicanas, Chicanos or indigenous people.”
Valentino said the community rose to the challenge during the Chicano movement to get the center open. Activists had asked the city for an art space in Balboa Park for Chicano artists. The city had initially denied their request. They did not like the city’s denial and continued fighting for a space. The city eventually agreed to let organizers take over an old, round water tower where the center has been remodeled and painted with several murals outside its walls.
Today, the center serves as an educational tool displaying artistic pieces that other cultural centers deem too political.
“We’ve had a lot of artists come through and thank us for the opportunity (for displaying their art),” he said. “Artists being from dancers to painters to authors who have been turned away from a lot of centers from showing their art because other people have told them it’s a little bit too political or too controversial for their center
“Artists have told us how thankful they are that we exist so that they can still show their art to the people and communicate their stories through art to the people.”
Centro Cultural De La Raza has a mixed choice of art exhibits. It displays permanent exhibits, murals and art galleries. There’s also a professional dance floor for Tango, Afro-Cuban and Aztec dances. The center has served as a place for Native American drumming and a cultural men’s circle.
The weekend of Trump’s inauguration Valentino said visitors and volunteers of the center came together to combat proposed policy changes to minorities.
Valentino said since Trump has taken office he has noticed an increase in people wanting to use the space to express and organize their political beliefs through art.
“We have seen a spark in more groups with people trying to utilize the center,” he said.
