Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana

History

The Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana was founded in 1989 by Maribel Alvarez, Mary Jane Solis, Rick Sajor and Eva Terrazas. They envisioned arts programming as a vehicle for civic dialogue and social equity as San José’s urban core underwent redevelopment. Alvarez, former executive director for MACLA (1996–2003), begins her historic essay of early MACLA in terms of revival of a Latino cultural center plus public debates about the identity and future of San José and Latino arts advocacy in the 1980s. For decades there was a disagreement with MACLA and the city of San Jose, the city wanted the museum to be based in the Mexican Heritage Plaza but MACLA wanted to be part of the contemporary art dialog happening in the city in the downtown area.

Between 2009 until 2013, MACLA started the process of securing grants and funds to buy their building. The building closed escrow in May 2013, which secured a future of Latinx engagement and physical space in the downtown San Jose community during gentrification. Anjee Helstrup-Alvarez has served as the executive director of MACLA since 2011 until present. A 2016 mural by artist Aaron De La Cruz is on the outside of the museum building