El Centro Cultural de México - Mission

Welcome! Bienvenidx!

Por un mundo donde quepan muchos mundos!

El Centro Cultural de Mexico is an alternative space in Santa Ana where the community can find cultural, educational, and artistic activities that strengthen their identities, develop their talents and develop a sense of leadership in their community. By engaging Orange County residents and communities through community outreach efforts, it supports inter and intra-cultural interaction and dialogue among Orange County’s residents by creating a variety of programs which enable all people to explore their own heritage and culture. Through educational programming, which includes workshops in dance, music, art, and literacy, it promotes understanding and appreciation of the contributions of the many cultures in our region by sharing knowledge of Mexico’s rich cultural, and educational, and social legacy. It seeks to be at the forefront of creating a strong ideological and cultural bridge to support bringing together a variety of cultural projects from Mexico and other parts of Mexico, Central and South America.

El Centro brings together our diverse community of workers, families, and students, in order to support community-based organizing and initiatives that collectively move towards making Orange County a more just place for everyone. Today, we have trained generations of community-based organizers working in health, housing justice, youth organizing, immigrant rights, and worker organizations. Our building, located in the heart of downtown Santa Ana continues to be a central social justice organizing hub for Orange County.

Since it’s inception, el Centro has worked to grow the immigrant worker rights movement bringing together labor, community organizing, and immigrant and housing justice.

El Centro helped found Nuestras Manos, the first domestic worker led organization that has managed to bring together about 200 domestic workers throughout Orange County and counts on about 15 workers to run the organization. With the support of NDWA, Nuestras Manos is pushing local, state, and national policy to increase worker protections. With the support of the National Day Labor Organizing Network (NDLON), we have partnered with Colectivo Tonantzin since it’s inception organizing with day laborers. For almost two decades, Colectivo Tonantzin has been at the forefront of successfully fighting against racist ordinances that prohibit day laborers from seeking employment. El Centro also launched its project of Lxs Esenciales made up of about 1000 immigrant workers and families left out of traditional unionizing efforts as day laborers, domestic workers, and informal labor employment. We are working to build this base of workers in cities throughout Orange County.

Most recently, UCI Law, UCI Community Sustainability, and most recently, UCI Public Health currently have an established partnership with el Centro and have offices in our building. Other organizations housed at the space including the Orange County Justice Fund, Orange County Environmental Justice, and THRIVE community land trust, are also working closely with UCI faculty and students. These partnerships have helped create a space that is accessible to both university and workers.

For more information, we encourage you to browse our website or contact us here. To get involved please visit us at one of our weekly volunteer meetings, which takes place Tuesdays at 7pm.