El Centro de la Raza
El Centro de la Raza in Seattle, Washington, is an educational, cultural, and social service agency, centered in the Latino/Chicano community and headquartered in the former Beacon Hill School on Seattle's Beacon Hill, serving a broad range of clients in Seattle, King County and beyond.
El Centro has received unusually diverse honors and recognition. Their web site points out that they are "probably the only organization in the world to hold the Nicaraguan '10th Anniversary Medal of the Sandinista Revolution' (1989), and the 'Thousand Points of Light' award (1991) from the Bush administration. El Centro founder Roberto Maestas was the 2004 "Seafair king", the first Latino ever to receive this civic honor.
Founding
El Centro began with the October 11, 1972 "occupation" of the then recently closed Beacon Hill School by a group of young Latinos, after the English and Adult Basic Education Program at the Duwamish branch of South Seattle Community College lost its home due to budget cuts. They were inspired, in part, by the 1970 occupation by Native Americans of the decommissioned Fort Lawton in Seattle's Magnolia district, which had resulted in the founding of the Daybreak Star Cultural Center, but more generally by the activist spirit of the time, ranging from opposition to the Vietnam War to the growth of the United Farmworkers of America (a labor union). At that time, there were relatively few Latinos in Greater Seattle.
The three-month occupation was not without incident — there was no heat, and some arrests were made — but it ultimately resulted in a 5-year, dollar-a-year lease on the disused building. The arrangement has continued, with El Centro responsible for maintenance and improvements.
Mission
El Centro's declared mission is "to achieve equality, justice, dignity and freedom for all people without regard to race, color, creed, sex or national origin. Our purpose is to empower — through peaceful means and social change — those affected by poverty, racism, sexism, alienation and despair so that they may become self-reliant." They served over 13,000 clients in 2003 and have an annual budget slightly over $3 million. [1]
External links
Categories: Seattle, Washington