Recent Posts
Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, presents its new Executive Director Dr. Martina Ayala!
Dr. Martina Ayala is a visionary leader, founder and pioneer of innovative programs and schools, consultant, and management executive of 35 years, working for different institutions of higher education, and social service nonprofits serving inter-generational multicultural communities.
An award-winning filmmaker, recognized educator, and community leader. She has curated art exhibits in San Francisco and Los Angeles focusing on the Day of the Dead, gentrification, curanderismo and women. Dr. Ayala has produced numerous concerts and cultural events through Martina La Latina Productions throughout the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Mexico.
She is an academic scholar and activist that holds a Doctorate in International and Multicultural Education from University of San Francisco. Her life’s work has focused on Chicano film, spirituality,…
Celebremos 45 años – El corazón del barrio sigue latiendo …contigo
El 2021 prolongó la pandemia. La depresión, la confusión y las pérdidas fueron para tantos el pan del dia! No obstante, la pandemia del siglo fue la pausa obligada para reflexionar, revisar los inventarios, y efectuar cambios a todo nivel. Distanciarnos y acercarnos será más que nunca un ejercicio constante y más consciente. Por ahora somos sobrevivientes (?), y como tal deseamos pertenecer. Te invitamos a salir, compartir, conocer y contar tantas y tan distintas historias, nuestras historias. ¡Hagamos el espacio!
MCCLA, por su parte, tuvo el reto de mantener sus puertas cerradas durante 10 meses, y de perder algunos miembros de su personal. Aunque físicamente cerrados, continuamos la programación en línea gratis “Desde la Cueva del Jaguar”…
Announcement
Dear MCCLA friends, colleagues, and community,
With sadness and gratitude, we announce that after 24 years of service, MCCLA’s Executive Director Jennie Rodriguez, intends to transition from MCCLA in early 2022. The MCCLA community will miss her leadership.
Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, and did postgraduate work in Languages and Translation and Interpretation at the University of Puerto Rico. Jennie came to SF in 1983 and has since been a proud resident of the Mission District, where she became a small business owner for 13 years while serving on multiple boards, associations and community groups.
As Executive Director at MCCLA, Jennie oversaw…
Yolanda Lopez (1942 – 2021)
Mission Cultural Cultural Center for Latino Arts expresses its condolences to the family and friends of Yolanda Lopez, visual artist, activist, and important figure in our community. Vuela alto en nuestras memorias!
Image description (from Los Angeles Times): For her self-portrait, López painted herself exuberantly running in white sneakers while clutching a rattlesnake in one hand and holding the saint’s star-patterned mantle in the other. In the second piece, her sunburst-enveloped mother sews the blue cloth back together. The final image shows her grandmother sitting on La Virgen de Guadalupe’s mantle, holding a knife and a skinned…
Vaccination Required
As of August 20th, 2021, MCCLA will require visitors to present proof of vaccination to enter the facility.
A partir del 20 de agosto del 2021, MCCLA pedirá a la audiencia un comprobante de vacunación para…
Corazón abierto – Abriendo puertas juntos
We are happy to finally announce that MCCLA is opening its doors after a 15 month closure! As the City reopens on June 15, 2021, so is our favorite Latinx cultural and artistic spot in San Francisco’s Mission District. We surely missed you all, all this time (and suspect you did too). Today, we are looking forward to reconnecting and re-encountering meaningfully in this new beginning.It will take us time to “recover” from the aftermath of such a virus, as well as a good dose of patience to deal with an uncertain environment, and restore our community’s confidence. MCCLA Staff and Board, can assure more than ever its commitment to a diverse, culturally relevant programming, and to an artistically engaging…
Cesar Chavez’ Birthday, March 31 at Mission Food Hub
The late, great farm labor leader Cesar Chavez will be honored on his federally recognized birthday, Wednesday, March 31, with the start of a food drive for farmworkers from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Mission Food Hub located at 701 Alabama St. in San Francisco.
A celebration will begin at 12:00 noon with a opening pray by community organizer Eva Royal and a blessing by Aztec dancers followed by a performance from singer/guitarist Francisco Herrera and Francisco Duran, words by Richard Ibarra with a outdoor lunch. The event is free and open to the public.
“Farmworkers are the hardest working people on Mother Earth, and have suffered loss of life and health due to the Covid-19 pandemic, as…
Saludos, saludos, vengo a saludar!
2020’s COVID-19 virus came terribly unexpected, intense, depressing, and mortal.Today, nearing the end of the year, we are still in full blown pandemic, with glimmer hopes of a quick cure.We all have our share of stories; how lives have been impacted and transformed in a definite and perhaps irreversible way.In our particular case, after our March’s closure, we attempted re-entry in November (8 months later), to close a week later by City ordinance; this time until 2021!
Truth is, a single virus brought us a different consciousness, and a thousand and one ways to appreciate our lives, jobs, and relationships, at every level. Nonetheless, and motivated like many others, MCCLA shifted focus…
Un M.A.S Menos
By Guillermo Yiyo Ornelas
Guillermo "Yiyo" Ornelas is the Arts Education and Outreach Coordinator responsible for programming classes that reflect the cultural experience of all the Latino community, including leading the yearly Multicultural Art Summer Youth Program (MAS), as well as informing the community about the services offered at the MCCLA through outreach.
There was something missing in the Mission district this summer and it was felt by many families across San Francisco. Since 1991, the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts has held their Multicultural Arts Summer Youth program, (M.A.S). However, this year, which would have been number twenty-nine…
Open Letter Regarding Officer Involved Murder of George Floyd & the Injustice That Exists in San Francisco
From: The Coalition of Righteous Roots
To: Mayor London Breed, San Francisco Police Chief William Scott, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and District Attorney Chesa Boudin
Date: Wednesday, June 3, 2020
San Francisco—
The officers-involved murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis has sparked a new era in America: The Revolt of the Roots.
San Francisco, its politicians, and its machine, can embrace and support grassroots’ righteousness or be left behind in bewilderment.
If San Francisco truly represents the spirit of its namesake, Saint Francis, if it actually wants to solve struggles in our most oppressed communities, it must divest resources from the police department and invest wholeheartedly in frontline community empowerment organizations. It must prosecute police officers who have…