FLAP BREWS AT PLAZA DE LA RAZA

A dispute between Plaza de la Raza administrators and two employees sparked picketing and a news conference Friday by a Latino group that accused the organization’s leaders of losing touch with the community they are supposed to serve.

More than 50 placard-carrying Latino parents and artists milled in front of the community cultural organization’s Lincoln Park facilities, claiming that this week’s employee dismissals were the last straw in a long-simmering disagreement over the organization’s leadership.

At issue, organizers of the Committee to Save Plaza de la Raza said, is the failure of Plaza de la Raza’s board of directors and its executive director, Alida Amabile, to involve its 200 dues-paying members in its affairs and to consult the Latino community in the development of a five-year plan for restructuring the organization. The committee called for Amabile to be replaced by a Latino.

“We take this stand today because we must make it clear that an organization that does not respond to the needs of a community, that arrogantly disregards the community as the great unwashed, has lost touch and must rethink its future,” said Severo Perez, a film maker who teaches at Plaza.

The Committee to Save Plaza de la Raza also claimed that Plaza’s board of directors has violated its bylaws by canceling general membership meetings for two consecutive years, thereby denying members the opportunity to ratify the board’s recently appointed directors.

Officials at Plaza vigorously denied allegations that the 16-year-old organization has discouraged community or membership participation, claiming that outsiders were attempting to create the appearance of controversy at a moment when the organization was in the midst of sensitive fund-raising activities.

“There is certainly the possibility that individual employees are being used in an attempt to create an alleged atmosphere of discrimination,” said Roland Hernandez, an attorney representing the organization. “And this is totally unwarranted,” he said, describing the dispute as an “insignificant” and “isolated” employee problem.

The protest was touched off by the dismissal Thursday of Raul Anorve, an art gallery assistant, and Joanne Hinojosa, a temporary employee in the school of performing and visual arts.

Hernandez said that Anorve was fired for insubordination after he refused to perform his newly assigned duties. Hinojosa was dismissed because her services were no longer needed, Amabile said.

However, Anorve contended that his new duties were merely a form of harassment designed to force him to resign because he had become an active critic of Amabile and the board’s policies. Hinojosa said that she also was fired because of her opposition to board policies.

Hernandez acknowledged that Plaza’s general membership has not met in two years, but denied that the organization’s directors had violated the bylaws. “The bylaws are very complicated as to the requirement for general membership meetings,” he said. “Suffice it to say, Plaza has complied with the requirements of the bylaws.”

He said that members of the community may have also misinterpreted the organization’s initial steps toward formulating its second five-year plan.

“The five-year plan must be generated by Plaza in order to effectively compete for charitable funds,” he said. “The board of directors is attempting to solicit the broadest input possible from the community, and this certainly would include the general members”--although not necessarily in a formal meeting.

But parents such as Judy Perez, who fears the plan may threaten classes that her children attend, said, “We just felt excluded from all the decision-making here. We asked for information about the plan a month ago, but there has yet to be a response” from the board.

“The perception that Plaza is in the process of cutting back classes in arts and education is patently incorrect,” Hernandez said. “The objective associated with the five-year plan involves growth in all of the classes. If we are successful in raising funds, Plaza will become a bigger and better place.”

The Committee to Save Plaza de la Raza also demanded that the board of directors form a search committee to recruit a Latino executive director to replace Amabile. Perez said that Amabile lacks the cultural and linguistic background to represent the organization adequately.

“This whole situation is very disturbing” and will cause “irreparable damage,” Amabile said in a telephone interview. She acknowledged that she does not speak Spanish, but she said such criticism was beside the point.

Amabile said she was hired at Plaza last year to help put the organization on a sound financial footing after the death of Plaza de la Raza’s founder Margo Albert, had created what she described as “internal chaos” for the organization.

Amabile, formerly national director of Business Volunteers for the Arts in New York, said she has no intention of staying on indefinitely at Plaza and that the board of directors will announce the formation of a search committee to seek a permanent replacement for her position next week.

Hernandez added: “I think it would be wonderful to have a Hispanic executive director. But I think no matter who fills it, the person needs to be exceptionally well qualified, because Plaza is too important an organization to appoint someone for the wrong reasons.”