Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts (MCCLA) is an arts nonprofit that was founded in 1977, and is located at 2868 Mission Street in the

Mission District The Mission District (Spanish: ''Distrito de la Misión''), commonly known as The Mission (Spanish: ''La Misión''), is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the Mission District's name is ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, California. They provide art studio space, art classes, an art gallery, and a theater. Their graphics department is called Mission Grafica, and features at studio for printmaking and is known for the hand printed posters. The center's building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

on December 29, 2020; and listed as a San Francisco Designated Landmark since June 3, 2022.

About

Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts (MCCLA) provides art studio spaces, art classes, an art gallery, and a theater. MCCLA is active in the local community with supporting a series of annual events in the neighborhood such as the Carnaval parade,

Dia de los Muertos The Day of the Dead ( es, Día de Muertos or ''Día de los Muertos'') is a holiday traditionally celebrated on November 1 and 2, though other days, such as October 31 or November 6, may be included depending on the locality. It is widely obser ...

, and others. Since 2003, MCCLA has been hosting an annual

mole sauce Mole, from Nahuatl mōlli (), meaning "sauce", is a traditional sauce and marinade originally used in Mexican cuisine. In contemporary Mexico the term is used for a number of sauces, some quite dissimilar, including mole amarillo or amarillito ( ...

competition. The MCCLA is very active in the annual Carnaval parade, teaching related dance classes, building floats for the parade, help with designing Carnaval costumes, creating banners and posters, and more. Additionally MCCLA is active in the annual

in the Mission District with erecting alters in

Garfield Square Garfield Square, also known as Garfield Park, is a city park located in the Mission District of San Francisco, California. It is bounded by 25th Street to the north, 26th Street to the south, Treat Avenue to the west, and Harrison Street to the ...

park. They have hosted an annual neighborhood art exhibition in February, ''Corazón del Barrio'', where local artists and craftsmen sell works, prints, jewels, pottery, and weaving. The 40th anniversary of MCCLA was celebrated with an art exhibition attempted to expand the communities understanding of Latino experiences, ''“Here Now: Where We Stand,”'' (2017), curated by Anthony Torres. The exhibition included artists Juan Fuentes, Andrea Gomez, Art Hazelwood, Ester Hernandez,

Yolanda Lopez Yolanda may refer to: * Yolanda (name), a given name derived from the Greek ''Iolanthe'' Places * Yolanda, California * Yolanda Shrine, monument located at Barangay Anibong, Tacloban, Leyte Film * ''Yolanda'' (film), a 1924 film starring ...

, Calixto Robles, Michael Roman, Patricia Rodriguez,

Jos Sances John Joseph "Jos" Sances (born August 18, 1952) is an American artist, activist, writer, and community organizer, known for his printmaking, and tile murals/public art . He is the founder and director of Alliance Graphics. Sances is based in Berk ...

, Rene Yañez, amongst others.

History

The idea of a neighborhood community arts space had been in discussion starting in 1972. In 1976, the ''Mission Arts Alliance'' was formed, led by Alejandro Gato Murguia and their first meeting was with the

San Francisco Arts Commission The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) is the City agency that champions the arts as essential to daily life by investing in a vibrant arts community, enlivening the urban environment and shaping innovative cultural policy in San Francisco, Cali ...

. A building was purchased by the city and prior to becoming the arts center, the building was used as a furniture store named "The Shaft". Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts (MCCLA) was founded by 1977 by artists and community activists to promote the experiences of

Chicano Chicano or Chicana is a chosen identity for many Mexican Americans in the United States. The label ''Chicano'' is sometimes used interchangeably with ''Mexican American'', although the terms have different meanings. While Mexican-American ident ...

Central American Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Cen ...

South American South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

, and Caribbean people. It was formerly named, Centro Cultural de La Mission''.'' Early artists active in the organization included many writers and poets such as

Ernesto Cardenal Ernesto Cardenal Martínez (20 January 1925 – 1 March 2020) was a Nicaraguan Catholic priest, poet, and politician. He was a liberation theologian and the founder of the primitivist art community in the Solentiname Islands, where he lived fo ...

, Nina Serrano, Roberto Vargas, and Raul Salinas. They called themselves the ''Pocho–Che'' group and they printed many political books and flyers including the Chicano zine ''El Pocho-Che''. By 1978, a bulletin arrived from the

Sandinista National Liberation Front The Sandinista National Liberation Front ( es, Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto Cé ...

calling for urgent action and support for the

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 F ...

. As a result, the leaders started to leave the Centro Cultural de La Mission group to participate in the Sandinista guerrilla offensive, and the new leadership for Centro Cultural de La Mission under Alfonso Maciel changed the direction away from political activities. By 1980 the ''Pocho-Che'' group had disbanded. The graphics and printing department, Mission Grafica, was founded in 1982 by Jos Sances and Rene Castro. ''Solo Mujeres'', an annual exhibition since 1987 at Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts. The ''Solo Mujeres 2020'' exhibit includes Latino artists working with a variety of topics but holds a connection to the curatorial theme in relation to Gloria Anzaldua's writings. The curator for the 2020 exhibition, Martina Ayala chose to bridge connections to Gloria Anzaldua's writings pertaining to the Coatlicue State and Nepantlas, Coatlicue derives from the Mexica (mexihcah) culture and Coatlicue was an important goddess in Mexica society. Ayala uses the

Aztec The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl ...

(Mexica) references "Nepantleras" that described a state of in-between.Keating, AnaLouise. 2006. �
From Borderlands and New Mestizas to Nepantlas and Nepantleras: Anzaldúan Theories for Social Change
” Pp. 5-16 in ''Re-Membering Anzaldúa: Human Rights, Borderlands, and the Poetics of Applied Social Theory: Engaging with Gloria Anzaldua in Self and Global Transformations'' (''Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge'': Volume IV, Special Issue, 2006.) Belmont, MA: Okcir Press (an imprint of Ahead Publishing House). Some topics include

femicide Femicide or feminicide is a hate crime which is broadly defined as "the intentional killing of women or girls because they are female," but definitions of it vary depending on cultural context. In 1976, the feminist author Diana E. H. Russ ...

, healing, race, working class women, and disaster recovery.

Notable artists

This is a list of notable artists affiliated with MCCLA.

References

External links

* {{Bay Area Arts Organizations, state=collapsed 1977 establishments in California Arts organizations based in the San Francisco Bay Area Culture of San Francisco Mission District, San Francisco Art in the San Francisco Bay Area National Register of Historic Places in San Francisco Art museums and galleries in San Francisco San Francisco Designated Landmarks

About

History

Notable artists

See also

References

External links