Historical Context

Around the 1940s, greater numbers of Latino people began moving north to Washington’s Yakima Valley, where many worked grueling agricultural jobs. Workers were paid paltry amounts and had little to no legal protections, especially if they were undocumented. In schools, students were pressured to assimilate. Their frustrations were shared by Latino people across the country.

In the 1960s, California activist Cesar Chavez and other organizers led the creation of the United Farm Workers of America labor union, inspiring Chicanos in the Northwest. In 1966, two young men from the Yakima Valley, Tomas Villanueva and Guadalupe Gamboa, met with Chavez. When they returned to Washington, they founded the United Farm Workers Cooperative and Service Center, which included a medical clinic and a store with guaranteed fair prices—something they’d formerly been denied.

Building Community through Activism

El Centro de la Raza was formed more than fifty years ago when a group of bold, committed activists peacefully occupied an abandoned elementary school and established a community center within its walls. They were led by Roberto Maestras, now one of the most well-known activists in Seattle’s history.

During that period, Maestras worked at South Seattle College as an instructor for a basic education program geared toward students with limited English proficiency. Because the Latino community was largely disadvantaged at the time, the program functioned as a de facto crisis intervention program, with students coming to staff for help with employment, childcare, and more. When the program was abruptly defunded as part of broader defunding for the national War on Poverty, more than 70 students were left adrift.

At the time, there were several abandoned buildings in the area, and the governor encouraged the use of them. In the fall of 1972, Maestas led a group of people invested in the cause to ask Seattle Public Schools if they could tour an empty school for possible rental or purchase. Once inside, they refused to leave, holding their ground for 75 days while gathering support from other minority groups in the area. Eventually, after negotiations with the local government, the city granted them the building to use as a community center.

Meanwhile, Maestas, who served as the Executive Director of El Centro de la Raza for many years, gained a reputation for jumping to the aid of nearly every major worker and minority-led movement, and sanitation workers, actions by Black construction workers asking for fair treatments and efforts led by members of the Chinatown-International District to resist displacement. He had a storied friendship with three other community leaders—Bob Santos, a prominent leader in the Asian community, Larry Gossett, a member of the Black Panthers who would go on to become a King County Councilperson, and Bernie Whitebear, a founder of the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation—who earned the nickname, “The Gang of Four” or “The Four Amigos.”