Activities done this year at EL Centro:

Our First Concert

El Centro was thrilled to host Bay Area Performer Rick Griffe.

Rick’s lively Guitar Concert kicked off our Winter Season in November, 2008.

A wonderful gift from Rick who was visiting Chacala for a few weeks…..

( hrgriffin@yahoo.ca ) 

Christmas Concert

Winter residents Sandy and Rudi, Evergreen Colorado that brought the entire community together in its first Christmas musical happening.

This was generous gift and strong community builder for little Chacala. 

(  sandiewilde@earthlink.net  )

There was a pre-concert Santa who arrived at El Centro packing with gifts and candies for the kids who gathered happily.

El Centro Cultural Comunitario de Chacala       

 Vision from the founder Joy Watson           

 We would like to offer this space and some of the land next to it as a gathering place where classes and meetings, small musical events, art shows, stories told, can be held. Whatever someone would like to teach or discuss, we would like them to use the land and building as a place to meet.

We want to offer this little building that Luis has worked so hard on as a space to stimulate community, and individual creativity and right livelihood. This is not a forever space, but a seed beginning. It is for anyone who has an idea for a craft, a baked good, a hand sewn bag or hand painted scarf or T-shirt or ceramic bowl or wood carving can bring it to the Centro and offer it for sale.  This will not support anyone entirely, but it hopefully will contribute to their incomes and might stimulate in time a sense of personal pride and new business ideas for people to create new ways to add to their incomes.

We will take only the amount needed to run the Centro, returning the majority of the money to the creator. We will contribute 3-5% into a fund that will be returned to the community in outright gifts to up and running organizations and projects, and hopefully over time in the form of micro-loans. 

That means that if someone has an idea for a sewing craft/business, we would help finance a sewing machine and that load would be paid back over time to the fund.  We would model that idea on the models that have been established successfully in Asia by such organizations as Kiva.org

We would like to offer this space as a place where perhaps monthly outdoor markets might be held, as a means for those in the community to have a place to bring some of their no longer wanted or used items to sell to others in the community. A flea market idea. Again as a means to increase creatively livelihood.

Del Centro Cultural Comunitario de Chacala is hopefully to be self growing and self supporting place for the community. Whoever has an idea, please let Luis/Kate know and let us see if we can work to make it happen as a means to increase community feeling, education, art and livelihood and in some small way contribute to the incomes and well beings of us all.

July 19, 2008

These photos are from the Centro’s festive opening event on July 19, 2008.   Present at the event were local artists whose paintings and sculpture pieces were on display. 

“El Centro Cultural Comunitario de Chacala is a self-growing and self-supporting place for the community. Whoever has an idea, please let us know and let us see if we can work to make it happen as a means to increase community feeling, education, art and livelihood and in some small way contribute to the incomes and well being of us all.”  Joy Watson, Founder

Also, a local author presented his book, “Entrevistas y Anécdotas de Diego Rivera” containing interview transcripts between Diego Rivera and the author’s aunt, a psychologist in Mexico City.  There was also a collection of original paintings and engravings on display from the state of Michoacan. 

The Centro is located one block south of the church in Chacala.  It is comprised of a small two-room building and surrounding outdoor space which has been donated for the time being by Joy Watson, an artist, writer and winter resident of Chacala.  Local residents, Luis and Kate Medina of Casa Monarca, are currently co-developing and managing the Centro with Joy. 

English classes began in Aug. 2008 at the Centro and there are ideas for other community events and classes, such as: flea markets, women’s craft cooperative, outdoor movie nights, Spanish classes, etc.  At the top of the Centro’s wish list are: 2 fans, 3 tables, 20 chairs, wood & palm fronds to build a shady area outside, monetary donations for addition of a small bathroom.  We are also seeking teachers for current and future classes.  Please let us know if you have a talent you’d like to share!