Santa Barbara’s La Casa de la Raza has been considered one of the country’s Chicano holy places — formed during El Movimiento in the ’70s and existing as a community center for decades — but in recent years, financial uncertainty and warring factions have led to hard times.
In the latest chapter of La Casa’s fight to rebuild into a strong resource center once again, an open-format “talking session” was held on Saturday, December 11, at La Casa. Tomas Castelo — whose newly formed nonprofit corporation, La Casa Founders Holding Company, owns the physical building — along with Mark Alvarado, an organizer of One Community Bridge Project, invited people from the community to participate in a brainstorming session seeking ways to rejuvenate the building’s operations and reputation.
About 25 community members spoke at the event, describing memories at La Casa — concerts, dances, family reunions, karate classes, and computer courses. Many were afraid that losing the center would cut off a new generation from their cultural identities. All spoke in favor of keeping La Casa alive.