'A major expression of our community': Fate of long-awaited Phoenix Latino center in hands of voters
The status of the Latino Cultural Center, which would cater to the ever-growing and diverse Latino population in Phoenix, is once again up for debate as the fate of the proposed arts and culture center is left in the hands of voters in the November special election.
The project was approved by the Phoenix City Council in December 2019 with an estimated cost of $12 million to be raised through a capital funding campaign. More than three years later, the city has now placed its fate — with an updated $21.6 million price tag — under a $500 million general obligation bond program contingent on voter.
Under the GO Bond, the city would fund 47 improvement projects for parks, roads, fire stations, affordable housing and arts facilities across the city.
Of those $500 million, over 10% would be set aside for arts and culture projects, including the construction of a new permanent home for Valley Youth Theatre, an expansion of the Children’s Museum of Phoenix and accessibility upgrades to the Phoenix Theatre Company. And at the top of that list is the Latino Cultural Center.
With over 42% of Phoenix's population identifying as Hispanic or Latino, the Latino Cultural Center is a space that community members say is needed to house the legacy and impact the second-largest demographic in the city has had on Phoenix and Arizona. But how that project is funded and where that center is located is a conversation that's spanned 20 years.
Pushing for a Latino Cultural Center in the heart of downtown
A 2017 feasibility study conducted by the City of Phoenix found there was a "significant need" for a community center for Latinos. The study states that a center would serve this community in a number of crucial capacities, including as a multidisciplinary arts and education center and an administrative conduit for local Latino artists.
The center was approved in 2019 by the City Council, though it already had a long-standing history.
In 2001, the city had a $60 million cultural bond program to promote knowledge and appreciation of Latino culture in Phoenix as well as funding for organizations like the Phoenix Art Museum and Valley Youth Theater.
According to the Phoenix website, in 2001 $1.4 million in funding was made available through that cultural bond to renovate and expand Museo Chicano, a downtown Phoenix community-based museum that celebrated and educated on the legacy of Mexican Americans in the state. That museum, however, closed in 2008 and the money initially intended to renovate and expand it was held in a reserve for a future project that would benefit the Latino community.
Almost a decade later in 2017, using funds from the reserve, the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture released a capital needs assessment and feasibility study, which included public surveys and community meetings held during 2016 and 2017.
In early 2019, then-Mayor Thelda Williams created the Latino Center Ad Hoc Committee to make recommendations to the City Council about next steps, a possible location, and a strategic plan including operating, programming and fundraising strategies for the center.
The committee recommended the center be located at the North Building adjacent to Margaret T. Hance Park. According to the 2020 report from the committee, the city originally estimated it would cost between $8 million and $12 million to remodel the building.
As for its funding, approximately $900,000 left over from the original bond figure would be put toward the work. The remaining millions needed to execute the project would be raised with a capital funding campaign, according to James Ritter, public communications officer for the Department of Arts and Culture.
In 2022, the city began having that capital funding conversation with the Latino Cultural Center at the top of the list.
Project's future in voters' hands
In early 2022, city departments were tasked with providing potential projects as part of a capital needs study. Subcommittees deliberated and voted on the different projects — the Latino Cultural Center was at the top of the list for the arts and culture subcommittee.
During the subcommittee meetings, it was established that $21,626,050 was needed in order to make the center a reality. Of those funds, to be used over a period of five years starting 2024, over $17 million will go towards the construction and demolition of the North Building in Hance Park, according to the project budget.
The project may have been approved in 2019 by the City Council, but it was still just a “proposed project," like all others on the GO bond list, according to Adam Waltz, public information officer with Phoenix's Budget and Research Department.
“No work has been done on these proposed projects,” Waltz said. “There’s nothing currently being built on these projects and we’re not putting anything on credit. These projects were proposed and that’s where they are right now. They are simply proposed projects for the public.”
In the Nov. 7 special bond election, Phoenix voters will have the opportunity to approve funds for those proposed projects.
The payments on general obligation bonds are backed by secondary property taxes. A bond program of $500 million is not expected to raise property taxes or negatively impact the city’s bond ratings.
The Latino Cultural Center would require over $500,000 in ongoing operating expenses, which would need to be incorporated into annual general fund budgets moving forward.
20 years wanting 'a major expression of our community'
The 2017 feasibility study of the center found that there was "a strong desire for a cultural center that is inclusive and bridges the many diverse streams of the Latino experience in Phoenix."
In addition to that study, over 20 members of the community were involved in the ad hoc committee for the project — City Council members who served as co-chairs, appointed ad hoc committee members and community subcommittee members, including former District 7 Councilmember Michael Nowakowski, as well as Elizabeth Toledo from the Arizona Latino Arts and Culture Center.
Their goal is to get this project in motion after more than two decades of fighting for a space representative of "an important part of our community that really is missing," according to Dr. Donna Reiner, who sat on the committee.
Ted Decker, a professor at the School of Art at Arizona State University, agreed on the importance of the center, given the history of Mexicans and other Latinos in Phoenix, especially as that population continues to grow.
"We're living in a city with visual reminders of the culture that we share of our southern neighbors ... the architecture, language, food," Decker said. "Cultural art and culture create a bridge between people. It knocks down things like hatred, or fear of the other."
While support for the project seems to be overwhelming, many have called into question the city's commitment to the Latino community, especially as the city moves forward with a location that many say is not a place where Latinos feel welcome.
Alfredo Gutierrez, former Arizona legislator and member of the subcommittee of arts and culture, told The Arizona Republic that the original proposed location for the Latino Cultural Center of the North Building by Margaret T. Hance Park "was an embarrassment."
The 2017 feasibility study — conducted by the Site and Operations Subcommittee — recommended the North building as a possible location for the center because it was an existing city-operated building, its location and access to public transportation and size.
The council approved the location in 2019.
Advocates for the center do not believe that the North Building location would be enough for the growing Latino community in Phoenix. Gutierrez said that location was not set in stone and has hopes that another, bigger location with the possibility of expansion, can be used.
“This is the fifth largest city in the United States and (it) has done very little to celebrate the fact that we (Latinos) are here,” Gutierrez said. "We weren’t going to be satisfied with tidbits, those days were over. We wanted a major expression of our community and there was a natural place, and that was the area around Santa Rita Hall."
Gutierrez called for the Latino Cultural Center to be built in Santa Rita Hall — the place where Cesar Chavez began his 24-day fast protesting the working conditions of farmers. Santa Rita Hall would represent the sense of political activism evoked by today's younger generation, Gutierrez said.
He was not alone in his disapproval of the North Building.
Even those who at the time were in office during the original proposal felt the location was not representative of the community. Carlos Garcia, former City Council member for District 8, said it was disrespectful to hold the center in a place that had no “historical or cultural significance.”
“Forty years ago, we couldn’t even buy properties (there),” Garcia said. “To have an arts and cultural center in a place where we couldn’t even have been, where we couldn’t even have lived 40, 50 years ago didn’t make sense to me.”
Others expressed their frustrations with how long the city has taken to make this project a reality.
During the 2022 GO Bond committee hearings, one member expressed her frustrations with how often the project has been pushed back.
“The Latino cultural center has been pushed off for years and years,” said former chairwoman for the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Annette Musa, during the Sept. 30, 2022, arts and culture GO Bond committee meeting. “This $21.7 million is not enough; they’ll probably still need fundraising. This has been pushed off for so long.”
Republic reporter Madeleine Parrish contributed to this article.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix Latino Cultural Center fate in the hands of voters
