Central America Resource Center
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Central America Resource Center
The Central American Resource Center (CARECEN) are two community-based organizations that seek to foster the comprehensive development of the Latino community. CARECEN in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region was founded in 1981 to protect the rights of refugees arriving from conflict in Central America and to help ease their transition by providing legal services. CARECEN provides direct services in immigration, housing and citizenship while also promoting empowerment, civil rights advocacy and civic training for Latinos. Another CARECEN is also located in Los Angeles and which was established two years after the D.C. location. History and mission Established in 1981 and incorporated in 1982, the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN), originally named the Central American Refugee Center, was founded to protect the rights of refugees from Central America's wars and provide direct legal services that would ease their transition to their new home. During the 1980s and 1990s, ...
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El Salvador
El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is San Salvador. The country's population in 2022 is estimated to be 6.5 million. Among the Mesoamerican nations that historically controlled the region are the Lenca (after 600 AD), the Mayans, and then the Cuzcatlecs. Archaeological monuments also suggest an early Olmec presence around the first millennium BC. In the beginning of the 16th century, the Spanish Empire conquered the Central American territory, incorporating it into the Viceroyalty of New Spain ruled from Mexico City. However the Viceroyalty of Mexico had little to no influence in the daily affairs of the isthmus, which was colonized in 1524. In 1609, the area was declared the Captaincy General of Guatemala by t ...
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Violence Against Women Act
The Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) is a United States federal law (Title IV of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, ) signed by President Bill Clinton on September 13, 1994. The Act provided $1.6 billion toward investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against women, imposed automatic and mandatory restitution on those convicted, and allowed civil redress when prosecutors chose to not prosecute cases. The Act also established the Office on Violence Against Women within the U.S. Department of Justice. The bill was introduced by Representative Jack Brooks ( D- TX) in 1994 and gained support from a broad coalition of advocacy groups. The Act passed through both houses of the U.S. Congress with bipartisan support in 1994, although the following year House Republicans attempted to cut the Act's funding. In the 2000 U.S. Supreme Court case '' United States v. Morrison'', a sharply divided Court struck down the VAWA provision allowing women the right to ...
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Daniel Ortega
José Daniel Ortega Saavedra (; born 11 November 1945) is a Nicaraguans, Nicaraguan revolutionary and politician serving as President of Nicaragua since 2007. Previously he was leader of Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, first as coordinator of the Junta of National Reconstruction (1979–1985) and then as President of Nicaragua (1985–1990). In the 1984 Nicaraguan general election, Ortega won Nicaragua's presidential election as the FSLN's candidate. A Marxist–Leninist, Ortega pursued a program of nationalization, land reform, wealth redistribution, and the Nicaraguan Literacy Campaign during his first period in office. A leader in the Sandinista National Liberation Front ( es, Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN), he implemented policies to achieve leftist reforms across Nicaragua. In later years, Ortega's left-wing radical politics cooled significantly, leading him to pursue pro-business policies and even rapprochement with the Catholic Church. This was followed i ...
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Contras
The Contras were the various U.S.-backed and funded right-wing rebel groups that were active from 1979 to 1990 in opposition to the Marxist Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction Government in Nicaragua, which came to power in 1979 following the Nicaraguan Revolution. Among the separate contra groups, the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN) emerged as the largest by far. In 1987, virtually all Contra organizations were united, at least nominally, into the Nicaraguan Resistance. During their war against the Nicaraguan government, the Contras committed numerous human rights violations and used terrorist tactics. These actions were frequently carried out systematically as a part of the strategy of the Contras. Supporters of the Contras tried to downplay these violations, particularly the Reagan administration in the U.S., which engaged in a campaign of white propaganda to alter public opinion in favor of the Contras, while covertly encouraging the Contras to attack civilian ...
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Sanctuary Movement
The Sanctuary movement was a religious and political campaign in the United States that began in the early 1980s to provide safe haven for Central American refugees fleeing civil conflict. The movement was a response to federal immigration policies that made obtaining asylum difficult for Central Americans. At its peak, Sanctuary involved over 500 congregations in the United States, which, by declaring themselves official "sanctuaries," committed to providing shelter, protection, material goods and often legal advice to Central American refugees. Various denominations were involved, including Lutherans, United Church of Christ, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Jews, Unitarian Universalists, Quakers, and Mennonites. Movement members acted both in defiance of federal laws ( civil disobedience) and as citizens upholding laws they thought their government was violating (civil initiative). Several prominent Sanctuary figures were arrested and pu ...
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Guatemalan Revolution
The period in the history of Guatemala between the coups against Jorge Ubico in 1944 and Jacobo Árbenz in 1954 is known locally as the Revolution ( es, La Revolución). It has also been called the Ten Years of Spring, highlighting the peak years of representative democracy in Guatemala from 1930 until the end of the civil war in 1996. It saw the implementation of social, political, and especially agrarian reforms that were influential across Latin America. From the late 19th century until 1944, Guatemala was governed by a series of authoritarian rulers who sought to strengthen the economy by supporting the export of coffee. Between 1898 and 1920, Manuel Estrada Cabrera granted significant concessions to the United Fruit Company, an American corporation that traded in tropical fruit, and dispossessed many indigenous people of their communal lands. Under Jorge Ubico, who ruled as a dictator between 1931 and 1944, this process was intensified, with the institution of harsh labor ...
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Salvadoran Civil War
The Salvadoran Civil War ( es, guerra civil de El Salvador) was a twelve year period of civil war in El Salvador that was fought between the government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition or "umbrella organization" of left-wing groups. A coup on 15 October 1979 followed by government killings of anti-coup protesters is widely seen as the start of civil war. The war did not formally end until 16 January 1992 with the signing of the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City. The United Nations (UN) reports that the war killed more than 75,000 people between 1979 and 1992, along with approximately 8,000 disappeared persons. Violations of the most basic human rights – particularly the kidnapping, torture, and murder of suspected FMLN sympathizers by state security forces and paramilitary death squads – were pervasive. The Salvadoran government was considered an ally of the U.S. in the context of the Cold War. During the Car ...
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Nicaraguan Revolution
The Nicaraguan Revolution ( es, Revolución Nicaragüense or Revolución Popular Sandinista, link=no) encompassed the rising opposition to the Somoza dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s, the campaign led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) to oust the dictatorship in 1978–79, the subsequent efforts of the FSLN to govern Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, and the Contra War, which was waged between the FSLN-led government of Nicaragua and the United States–backed Contras from 1981 to 1990. The revolution marked a significant period in the history of Nicaragua and revealed the country as one of the major proxy war battlegrounds of the Cold War, attracting much international attention. The initial overthrow of the Somoza regime in 1978–79 was a dirty affair, and the Contra War of the 1980s took the lives of tens of thousands of Nicaraguans and was the subject of fierce international debate. Because of the political turmoil failing economy, and decreasing government i ...
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Central American Crisis
The Central American crisis began in the late 1970s, when major civil wars and communist revolutions erupted in various countries in Central America, causing it to become the world's most volatile region in terms of socioeconomic change. In particular, the United States feared that victories by communist forces would cause South America to become isolated from the United States if the governments of the Central American countries were overthrown and pro-Soviet communist governments were installed in their place. During these civil wars, the United States pursued its interests by supporting right-wing governments, who were supported by the elite classes, against left-wing guerrillas, who were supported by the peasant and working class. In the aftermath of the Second World War and continuing into the 1960s and 1970s, Latin America's economic landscape drastically changed. The United Kingdom and the United States both held political and economic interests in Latin America, whose econom ...
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Latin American Youth Center
Latin American Youth Center (LAYC) is a non-governmental organization founded in 1968 in the Washington DC metropolitan area. Initially created to empower Latino youth, it later expanded its mission to include youth of all races with the aim of empowering young people and their families to "achieve a successful transition to adulthood through multi-cultural, comprehensive and innovative programs that address youths' social, academic and career needs." Population served LAYC serves more than 4,000 youth (ages 0-26) of all racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. Its primary goal is to provide young people the support they need to successfully transition into adulthood through comprehensive programming. In 2016, DC approved the Ending Youth Homelessness Act and created two drop-in centers; one of them, in Columbia Heights (a few blocks from Columbia Heights station) is managed by LAYC. Youth can go during daytime to take a shower, eat a meal, wash their clothes and study for GED test ...
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Office Of Latino Affairs Of The District Of Columbia
The Office on Latino Affairs of the District of Columbia (OLA) was created by the passage of DC Law 1-86 by the city council on September 29, 1976, and was made part of the Executive office of the Mayor of the District of Columbia. The original bill co-sponsors included city council-members Marion S. Barry, Polly Shackleton, and John A. Wilson The original draft of the law was crafted by Latino community activist Jose Gutierrez, Sonia Gutierrez, founder of the Carlos Rosario Charter School and Bruce C. French, legislative counsel, D.C. City Council. The legislation has been used as a model by many municipalities across the United States. The purpose of OLA is to serve the Latino community in D.C. as an intermediary between governmental agencies and the private sector, to improve the quality of life for the Latino population, living in D.C. Some of its duties include addressing social or economic needs with strategic alliances between public and private sector, increasing Latino c ...
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Hispanics In Washington, D
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties formerly part of the Spanish Empire following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, parts of the Asia-Pacific region and Africa. Outside of Spain, the Spanish language is a predominant or official language in the countries of Hispanic America and Equatorial Guinea. Further, the cultures of these countries were influenced by Spain to different degrees, combined with the local pre-Hispanic culture or other foreign influences. Former Spanish colonies elsewhere, namely the Spanish East Indies (the Philippines, Marianas, etc.) and Spanish Sahara (Western Sahara), were also influenced by Spanish culture, however Spanish is not a predominant language in these regions. Hispanic culture is a set of customs, traditions, beliefs, and art forms (music, ...
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