Centro Cultural’s New Director Has Design for Future

There comes a time in the life of every arts organization when popular, successful leaders depart and new leadership is faced with continuing the momentum.

The Centro Cultural de la Raza is at precisely that juncture.

When Veronica Enrique and her husband, respected visual artist David Avalos, resigned from their respective posts as executive director and curator of exhibitions a little over a year ago, the Centro entered a crucial transition period. Although Enrique wasn’t the Centro’s first director, she did have a proprietary interest. She had literally grown up with the Centro, witnessing the cultural center’s difficult beginning in the early ‘70s and overseeing its development into a respected, professional arts organization in the ‘80s.

The Centro’s board of directors conducted a nationwide search for someone to lead the organization. After a year, the board finally found a director. . .among its own ranks.

Ernesto Guerrero joined the Centro’s board in April of 1988. When he was laid off from his job as a facilities designer at Hughes Aircraft, he began thinking about the Centro post as he and his fellow board members struggled to find a director who could accept the massive responsibility and minuscule salary.

“I hadn’t been happy with my job at Hughes, but I learned how to get things built,” said Guerrero, who is trained, but not yet licensed, as an architect. “Those are skills that are usable in any area--how to get the job done.”

Guerrero faces the job of maintaining, and building upon, the Centro’s image as one of the country’s leading multi-disciplinary, Chicano arts organizations, a group that includes the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio, Plaza de la Raza in Los Angeles and Galeria de la Raza in San Francisco.

In an effort to strengthen its administrative footing, the Centro applied for, and received, a two-year, $80,000 multicultural advancement grant from the California Arts Council.

“One of the main areas of review in the process is to determine whether the organization has the ability to sustain growth,” said Teresa Romo, program manager for organizational support programs at the state arts agency.

“We look at the board structure and if everything is happening at the right time. The goal is not to grow big but to institutionalize, so no matter who comes and goes, the organization is still there to serve who they’re supposed to be serving.”

Guerrero will be aided by the Centro’s new curator, Patricio Chavez, a photographer who formerly worked for the New Mexico Arts Commission. Chavez’ job is to manage the Centro’s visual arts program, which he says has “historically been the strongest program the Centro has provided.”

“It’s an exciting time for Latinos in the visual arts because of all the attention and acclaim for Latino and native American artists,” Chavez said. “And it’s an exciting time for the Centro because of the transition.”

While Chavez works on the visual arts, Guerrero hopes to draw on his design skills to improve the Centro as a performing arts venue. The center’s home, a former water tank in Balboa Park’s Pepper Grove, is not a natural setting for music, dance or theater. But the facility has some more pressing physical needs, according to Guerrero, who along with artist and board member Mario Lara, set up a basic plan of improvement.

“There’s no identifiable entrance--the building is uninviting,” says Guerrero, providing evidence of his sensitivity to design matters. “Improving signage is another issue. And most important, there are no bathrooms in the building.”

For the almost 20 years of its existence, Centro staff and visitors have been forced to use public bathrooms in an adjacent, separate building, sharing them with the park’s many transients. These immediate needs will be addressed by the city’s parks and recreation department as basic improvements within the scope of the park’s master plan.

Just two years ago, the park’s master plan called for the Centro’s relocation to Spanish Village. The water tank, and the murals that serve as the Centro’s principal identity, would have been destroyed--a proposal that refueled the spirit behind the Centro’s founding.

“It really pulled our community together,” says Victor Ochoa, a Centro founder who is a mainstay of the organization, now acting as a sort of ambassador to the community. “People started writing letters to City Council. It was a slap in the face. (The murals) magically protected our building.”

Ochoa’s presence should help the Centro’s transition. He has been the one constant over the years.

“My role is primarily to maintain the spirit of the initial founding of the Centro, to serve as a watchdog,” says Ochoa, who is known for his biting, incisive art. “Different kinds of transitions have gone on here. and people have had different concepts of what arts and culture should be like for the community and the region. There’s things that work and things that don’t. Instead of making the same mistakes, I feel responsible for making sure we don’t repeat them and, instead, work on our strengths.

“We shouldn’t just go toward tourist-type, commercial stuff. We must see social issues as one of the vehicles of expression. Things haven’t gotten much better in this town. We have to remember that art isn’t just aesthetic, it’s also a voice of our community.”

While Ochoa protects the philosophical end, Guerrero addresses the pragmatic.

“We’ve written an NEA grant to do a master plan,” says the new director. “We need to clearly articulate our needs strictly in terms of performances and building an archive for visual art. I also want to go outside our immediate confines and strengthen the relationship of the building to the land with gardens and sculpture.”

The pragmatic side also includes a modest annual budget of about $180,000. One of the Centro’s difficulties in finding a director was the relatively low salary being offered. Guerrero will supplement his salary by doing free-lance design work. But, as a former board member, Guerrero knew exactly what he was getting into. Despite budget constraints and the sometimes slow wheels of progress, he exudes confidence and excitement about the Centro’s future.

“We want to go beyond just preserving culture,” Guerrero said. “We want to create new Latino and Chicano art.”