Portland Obaerve»r, November 2, 1983 Page 3
METROPOLITAN
I
¿unáfrtíne
Centro Cultural serves Chicano community
by Catherine Setgner
Centro C ultural In Cornelius,
Oregon, hat won a $3,000 gran
from the United Church of C h ris fi
Office for Church in Society to es
tablish an Hispanic and Anglo
women's arts and crafts cooperative
through Ccntro’a "V erinas Unidas”
project (Neighbor Women United),
The project was one o f nine funded
Of a total o f SO proposals and the
only West Coast project funded.
: Natasha Beck, 32, a community
organizer and women's studies in
structor, is coordinator o f the pro
ject, which is headquartered at the
distinctive Centro building along
with the Petra Perez Senior Center,
the Virginia Garcia Health Clinic
across the street, and a branch o f
Oregon Hum an Development C o r
poration (a jo b training program for
Spanish-speaking peoples).
The Centro is a non-profit organi
zation formed about 10 years ago to
serve the growing Spanish-speaking
population o f rural Washington
County by providing social, medical
and economic assistance. Along
with the Verinas Unidas project, it
provides a place for low-income
people to have a free lunch, to ob
tain health checkups and medical
help, and perhaps most im portant, a
gathering place to enjoy the com
pany o f other Spanish-speaking
people.
The O ffice for Church in Socie
t y ’s goal o f helping form coalitions
of church women, low-income
women,
m inority
women
and
women’s movement groups fits in*
well with the purpose o f Verinas
Unidas, said Ms. Beck. Its name
was originally chosen in formation
meetings o f the group’s board mem
bers to reflect the "d ifferent types
of women working together— low-in
come, Anglo and Latina, Church
and com m unity,’ ’ she said.
The original grant proposal seek
ing funding for the project was w rit
ten by Robin A a b e rj o f Hillsboro,
who had worked earlier at Centro
on a bilingual newsletter, £ / G ritp
D el Barrio (" T o w n C rier” ).
W hen the Church’s grant came
through, it was only h alf o f the orig
inal $10,000 proposal, said Ms.
Beck, so she was hired half-tim e
starting last July. Her first efforts
were to put together a mailing list
and telephone contact list o f those
Spanish-speaking
women
who
might be interested in forming the
arts and crafts cooperative. She
works approximately 20 hours per
week, with some assistance from a
Pacific University student intern.
A local woman and law student,
Enedclia Hernandez, helped with
the contacts, but the project was
waylaid by the big celebration Sep
tember 17 o f Mexican Independence
Day. The women's project pro
duced a leaflet and had a booth at
the festival, however, and interests
slowly started increasing.
M any o f the potential co-op
members were busy working as m i
grants in the summer. " T h a t’s tradi
tionally a hard time to start new
projects,” Ms. Beck explained.
O n October 8, Verinas Unidas
put together a gathering for women
to contribute their ideas for the co
operative. " W e plan to set up a co
op for each person to have a vote
and a share, decide what to produce
and to share the pro fits,” Ms. Beck
said. " M o a t interest was in sewing
and embroidery w o rk .”
Ms. Beck acknowledges income
from the project "probably w on’t
be enough to support people,” but
looks for progress to be made in the
women working together on a com-
A Large SunShine Canadian Bacon
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Centro Cultural's distinctive building In Cornal-
lus, Oragon, opanad In February. 1883 arid w ai^
mada possible by MOO.000 In Community Develop*
mant Block Qrant funds. It hous •a tha Vecinas
mon goal.
Financial concerns are consider
able among most Spanish-speaking
people in Washington County, Beck
rioted. M any are migrant or cannery
workers who may earn a good sal-.
ary, but usually for only a lim ited*
time, leaving them without a steady
income the rest o f thé, year. Their
average fam ily in c o m e s well below
the poverty level and the number in
the fam ily to »apport is often large
Unidaa project; a Food Bank; the Petra Paraz
Senior Cantar, and a branch of Oragon Human Da
felopment Corporation.
(Photo: Michal Thqpipaon)
their work.
,
Now , however, the group (Artis-
tas Indigena, a Pan American
Women's A rt Association fow So
cial Change) has an ethnic art show
currently on display in Portland un
til November 18 at Six Directions
Gallery. 828 N .W . 23rd. It is titled
*'Grandm other M oon: W om en’ s
Vision Through W om en’s Hands,”
and runs through November 18th.
W om en’s .Heritage Calendar^ as a
“ unique, multi-cultural g ift” de
scribing the contributions women
have made to our collective history.
♦ i Ms. Beck has learned women's
cooperative arts projects take time.
She visited a Native American arts
association in W arm Springs, Ore
gon, in September, and found that
group had to go door-to-door to
gain support and encouragement for
(average fam ily size is 4.74 persons).
M any families are headed by a sin
gle parent and average education
level is the sixth grade. .
There are also cultural biases in-r
volved in getting a women's cooper-,
ative o ff the ground, Beck said, al
though this is mitigated somewhatt
L H I1 C I1 .
by the fact that many o f the W
women,
»
ime andj
already work outside the home
■y trad i-L
that arts and crafts are very
(ional aspects o f so-called “ worn-.
en's w o rk .”
Ms.
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Beck is seeking additional
funding for the time when the
Church’s "seed money” runs o u t -
sometime in January, 1984. The f i
nancial problem is one the Centro
has had for some time, she said, and
although some money comes from
United W ay and other sources, solid
funding for individual projects is
difficult to obtain and often, worth
while projects are competing for the
same sources o f money.
Even with the scarce resources,
Ms. Beck finds her jo b rewarding
and challenging because o f the peo
ple she meets. "T h e people have
been so warm and accepting. It
helps to make up for the frustra
tions," she said. " I have felt a lot o f
respect from people.”
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For the future, she is thinking
about resources available to the co
op such as the kiln and sewing m a
chines sitting at Centro unused.
" W e could do pottery, for example;
it’s there to use. W e just need to get
people going on it. Starting sewing
classes is another possibility.”
M arketing is a challenge for tradi
tional Hispanic arts because likely
sales markets are in Portland, and
“ most people want to stay in the
area and not go to P o rtlan d ," Beck
explained.
In the meantime, between organ
izing the local women and seeking
additional funding, M s. Beck is
planning a Christmas show, plan
ning ongoing board meetings for the
co-op and getting the women to sell
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From 1970 through 1972 Judge
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Judge Deiz has received numer
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PORTLAND PHONE 238-2311
M E R C E D E S D E IZ
Courts and serves as Chairm an o f
its Comm ittee on Research, Educa
tion and Central Services.
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