Latino arts and cultural center proposed for Sonoma County

Latinos may make up a significant portion of Sonoma County’s population. But when it comes to its “mainstream” art scene, they’re not very visible, according to county officials.

They want to change that through a new policy aimed at boosting education, business and tourism centered around the arts. One of the suggestions in the plan, approved by county supervisors earlier this summer, was to create a Latino arts and cultural center.

If the county does move forward with a center, it still needs to figure out the cost, who would pay for it and where it would go.

The center was one of numerous ideas presented in the plan, which also called for the formation of the Creative Sonoma agency to spearhead the county’s art initiatives, aimed at bringing “excitement about the arts,” said Ben Stone, executive director of the Sonoma County Economic Development Board. But nothing has been set in concrete, he explained.

While the idea is in its infancy, it has already received backing. The Latino leadership group Los Cien held a luncheon at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts late last month to talk about efforts to boost arts in the Latino community. It was there where Herman Hernandez, the group’s president, first tried to build momentum on the arts and cultural center, which he hoped could open in a year.

“I feel so energized at this lunch it’s unbelievable. It’s boiling and I’m starting to sweat,” he said to the dozens of members who took breaks from their enchilada meal to burst into applause.

“Los Cien would be prepared to create the partnerships needed to make this vision move forward,” he said.

“Yes, it’s a big one, in making this vision a success. But with all of us coming together, there is no doubt that this will be something that we will all enjoy and be proud of,” added Hernandez, who shared a similar message earlier this month at the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors meeting.

There is a thirst for arts in the Latino community, Hernandez said, pointing to the One City Arts project started this summer by Maria de los Angeles, a master of fine arts student at Yale University.

He said members had donated more than $5,000 for the program, which more than 50 kids participated in.

De los Angeles created the free arts program after she came home to Santa Rosa for the summer and noticed many children in southwest Santa Rosa were struggling to cope with the death of 13-year-old Andy Lopez, who was fatally shot Oct. 22 by a sheriff’s deputy who reportedly mistook a BB gun he was carrying for an assault rifle. She hoped art would help them with the healing process.

“There’s an interest and desire in the community,” Albert Lerma, program manager with the Economic Development Board, said about Latino arts.

He pointed to the Santa Rosa Symphony’s concert earlier this summer with the Mariachi Sol de Mexico de Jose Hernandez, regarded as the premier mariachi band in the world. Thousands attended the concert at the Green Music Center.

The Wells Fargo Center for the Arts has been reaching out to the Latino segment of the population for years. It developed a Latino advisory council and brought in more bilingual performances, said Anita Wiglesworth, the center’s programming director.

It has also hosted celebrations such as the Posada Navideña and the Fiesta de Independencia in September, which this year drew about 2,500 people, the center’s executive director Rick Nowlin said. And the center now houses Sonoma Latin Arts, an organization run by Irene Silva that puts on the Santa Rosa Salsa Festival each February.

“We see a great response from the Latino community,” Nowlin said, adding that a new center would provide them with another venue to offer performances and workshops for the community. “It’s not competitive but quite complimentary.”

Santa Rosa artist Mario Uribe, who was part of the advisory group for the Creative Sonoma plan, has worked for years with Latino residents in southwest Santa Rosa. He said many kids in the area have never taken an art class. He said in Mexico even small villages have cultural centers that host community plays and offer art classes.

“That’s what Roseland needs,” he said.

“People need a place where they can be proud of and learn about their culture,” he added. “There’s a lot of ideas. But if there’s money, who knows.”

Uribe recently installed a mural of Andy Lopez in the area. The mural, which was dedicated Friday, was mounted onto a vacant gas station on the corner of Sebastopol Road and West Avenue.

The building will later be demolished to make way for the proposed Roseland Village neighborhood center.

He and Francisco Vázquez, a Sonoma State University history professor who sits on the Community and Local Law Enforcement Task Force that county supervisors created after the Lopez shooting, now are proposing to roll out a mural program in Roseland that would promote the neighborhood’s people and history. Vázquez said the plan would be recommended to the task force after it received approval by the community-engagement and healing subcommittee, which he sits on.

David Rabbitt, chair of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, said the Roseland Village was one of the locations discussed for a possible Latino arts center.

It also was suggested in the Creative Sonoma plan to use one of the seven veterans buildings in the county.

Although it’s unclear how much a center could cost, Rabbitt said one thing is certain: the county can’t do it alone.

“It has to be community born and community bred,” he said. “We all have a role to play in that.”

You can reach Staff Writer Eloísa Ruano González at 521-5458 or ?eloisa.gonzalez@pressdemocrat.?com.