The historic Louis’ Market in Downtown Tucson is slated to take on a new role as a resident-led space for community gathering and cultural celebration and exchange. The Southwest Folklife Alliance partnered with Regeneración to transform the marketplace into the Center for Cultural Organizing — scheduled for its grand opening on Sunday, April 19.
“I’m so excited, but more importantly, I hope that for the community, it feels like a true gathering where all neighbors feel welcome, recognized and see themselves reflected in the space,” Regeneración Co-Founder Nelda Ruiz said. “We want people to experience the layered history of the barrio here in the south side, including stories and memories that have often gone unseen for very long — and to feel a sense of pride in what we have been creating.”
The overarching theme for the grand opening of the Center for Cultural Organizing is rasgos asiáticos — highlighting the intersection of Chinese and Mexican Cultural in Tucson. In addition to offering Chinese chorizo and various other Chinese-Mexican fusion foods, the event will feature lion dancers and folklórico performers and artistic installations — one of which was created by A Todo Dar Productions Co-Founder Virginia Grise.
“Rasgos asiáticos literally translates to Asian traces, and it’s a multimodal project that began with an exploration of my own personal narrative and history,” Grise said. “My grandfather was Chinese in Mexico, my grandmother was Mexican and (…) when I began working on the project, it became clear to me that, like all history, my family history was connected to a larger history about the U.S., Mexico and China — and so I began thinking about how place and space affect the way that we tell stories.”
Titled “Talleres for Dreaming,” the Grise described the installation as an experience in which the collective dreams of the community are materialized and manifested. The piece was a collaborative effort between the A Todo Dar Productions co-founder, Ruiz and artists Tanya Orellana, Daniel Gower, David Arevalo and Joan Osato.
Previously, the rasgos asiáticos installation has been featured in various locations outside of Arizona — from Houston, Texas to Los Angeles, California. Collaborating with visual artist and set designer Orellana, Grise helped to create what she described as “a site responsive installation that is contained inside of wooden cargo boxes.” Each box, she explained, holds fragmented histories, stories and dreams and are shipped to various locations to facilitate the performances.
Moving forward from the grand opening, Ruiz said that her vision for the Center for Cultural Organizing is for the space to serve as a hub for skill-sharing, workshops and leadership among other uses. According to the co-founder of Regeneración, one of the buildings will be transformed into a community work space, outfitted with computers, printers and other technology — paired with access to conference spaces. In offering these resources, she said she hopes to help bridge the opportunity gaps common in Southside Tucson and challenge the narrative associated with the area.
“Something that we’re very accustomed to here in the south side is being overlooked,” Ruiz said. “People always see the South Side, in all dominant narratives, as a community that’s deficient, lacking and experiencing poverty — but people who are not from here oftentimes don’t see the richness.
“We recognize that we already have the skills and solutions needed to make changes and improve our lives — it’s a matter of coming together, slowing down and recognizing that we do already have these skills and knowledge.”
The Center for Cultural Organizing, Ruiz said, started roughly 10 years ago with a partnership between Regeneración and La Doce Barrio Foodways Project, which was a community-led research project that documented heritage foodways practices and identified workable models for cultural and economic sustainability. In line with the mission of increasing access, facilitating community and preserving culture, Ruiz said the larger space of Louis’ Market will also continue welcoming local creators, vendors and business owners to showcase and sell traditional and cultural food and art.
Looking ahead five years into the future of the center, the co-founder said the goal is to transfer the property to a community land trust focused on urban agriculture. From there, the next move will be to install green infrastructure, pocket parks and pollinator and community gardens — adding land stewardship to the center’s other guiding principles of economic development, entrepreneurship and cultural organizing.
As the grand opening approaches, Ruiz said that she wants residents of Southside Tucson to see themselves in the center as “agents of power and decision makers.”
“We envision this space as a place where residents gather, share knowledge, learn from one another and build leadership — a place where heritage based entrepreneurship can grow,” Ruiz said. “Working with the community is beautiful and magical, but it also can be messy and complicated — so we move at the speed of trust, and that has led us to where we are today.
“More than anything, we hope that folks leave feeling that this space belongs to them and that they can see themselves as part of what grows here.”
Center for Cultural Organizing Grand Opening
WHEN: 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, April 18
WHERE: 4009 S. 12th Avenue, Tucson, Formerly Louis’ Market
COST: Free Admission
INFO: southwestfolklife.org