Mexican American Cultural Center Opens in the Capital of Texas
By Valerie Menard
    Many said it would never happen but the Latino community in Austin, Texas proved more tenacious than expected. A 30-year-old dream was finally converted into bricks and mortar on September 15, 2007 with the grand opening of the Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC).
“We came to the end of a three-decade long road when the initial building for the MACC was opened this year and as the MACC begins its programming and Latino arts organizations begin to use the space as it was dreamed about so many years ago, I think we are at the beginning of a new journey,” says Austin City Council Member Mike Martinez. “The Latino arts community in Austin has been screaming for a world-class facility worthy of our world-class arts community. Now that we finally have it, I am excited about the possibilities and what we’ll be able to accomplish.”
    Unlike most development projects, cultural centers can present a challenge. Public perception doesn’t always support them, particularly with bigger concerns like health, safety, and infrastructure presenting a city with greater fiscal pressure. At the same time, internal power struggles within the community over the project leadership can create the appearance of division or a lack of conviction, prompting city leaders to shelve the project entirely.
Such was the case with the MACC, and yet, it finally happened.
    The epic journey began in the mid-1970s when Latino community leaders, artists, activists—and their moms—hatched a plan to build a cultural center where families could learn about and celebrate their heritage.
    The group began a sustained lobbing effort at city council and in 1986, the first MACC Task Force was established and granted $75,000 for an initial feasibility study. A subsequent feasibility study produced an architectural conceptual design by local architect Ponciano Morales for what was now called “The MACC.”
    “It was significant that the center reflected the history of Texas and the demographics of Austin’s Latino community which is predominantly Mexican American,” says Cathy Vasquez-Revilla, a former member of the task force and publisher of a local community newspaper, La Prensa.  The Latino community made up less than 20 percent of Austin’s population in the 1970s but according to the 2000 census, Latinos make up 30.5 percent of the population, three-fourths of which is Mexican or Mexican American.
    In the end, several studies were produced, fleshing out the center’s components—a theater, a gallery, a plaza, office and classroom space, and a multipurpose room for the community—and moving the site to its current location, 600 River Street, a city-owned maintenance yard located west of the city’s Latino barrio and on prime real estate along Austin’s Town Lake. Council Member Gus Garcia eventually designated the 6.9-acre lot the future site of the MACC by city ordinance.
    As the years passed, the task force received new appointments but never disbanded. In 1991, Vasquez-Revilla, a newly appointed member of the Austin Planning Commission, reenergized the project when she suggested that the city use 1985 bond monies allocated for another art project, the Laguna Gloria Art Museum, for the MACC. The controversial move reignited discussion about the MACC and led to the project being placed on a 1992 bond election. The proposition failed that year but public outcry continued for the next six years so that in 1998, the city placed a $10.9 million bond package for construction of the MACC on the ballot. Positioned more appealingly in the same proposition as monies for libraries and other park projects, it passed.
    Members of the task force then applied for non-profit status and created the Center for Mexican American Cultural Arts (CMACA), Inc., which the city contracted to raise money for the operation and maintenance of the facility. CMACA’s first charge, however, was to assist in the selection of an architect for the job. In city politics, architectural contracts can be fruitful as well as plum and the MACC, as a legacy project, was no less attractive. The request for proposals for the design of the MACC not only received local interest, but architects from Mexico and California also applied. The winning team combined all three—CasaBella Architects from Austin, Del Campo and Maru from San Jose, California, and Teodoro González de Léon, from Mexico City.
Legend has it that the late Martin Del Campo opened his presentation to the architectural selection committee appointed by the city with a speech about how he envisioned the sun and moon when he began to consider the design of the MACC. De Leon took the vision and drafted a crescent shape, where office and classroom spaces would be housed, joined by three pyramids, modernized versions of Mexico’s Chichén Itzá, to house a multipurpose room, a 300-seat black box theater, and an 800-seat theater. The buildings would all be constructed of white hand-chiseled concrete made in Mexico.
    “We wanted a world-class facility that would be a beacon to Latinos across the state as well as the nation, and that’s what the Del Campo & Maru/CasaBella/de Leon proposal provided,” asserts Roén Salinas, director of the Aztlan Dance Company, former CMACA president, and member of the architectural selection committee. “I remember going to city council meetings as a thirteen-year-old to testify about the need for the MACC. I really never thought I’d live to see it happen.”
    The scope of the project, however, quickly exceeded the bond monies, growing to a total cost of more than $60 million, so it was split into three phases. September 15, 2007 marked the grand opening of the first phase, which includes a gallery, offices, classrooms, and a multipurpose room. The challenge remains building the two remaining pyramids to provide performance space for theater and dance groups, as well as a space for touring acts that can generate much needed revenue.
    The Latino community must also begin to develop as art patrons. The city has not allocated programming dollars and expects the staff to raise the funds through classes and facility rental fees. “We’ve had visitors to the center who were actually brought to tears with the architectural beauty of the site,” says Amparo Garcia-Crow, former education program manager at the MACC. “Our challenge now is for the Latino community to become invested in the MACC, not only as audience members but as paying users.” 
    Considering the project’s history, Garcia-Crow believes that Austin’s Latino community will once again step up with their support. “One of my favorite moments so far was when one of the original task force members came by with her grandchildren to show them the facility. It was clear that she was passing on her legacy to them,” she shares.
The MACC will feature an exhibit of works from the private collection of Gilberto Cardenas with representations of the Virgen de Guadalupe, co-sponsored by the Center for Mexican American Studies at The University of Texas, through December 31. For more information about the MACC, call (512) 478-6222.

Austin's Big MACC Attack
In the late 1980s, the Austin City Council adopted a resolution designating the 600 River Street site for the construction of a Mexican American cultural center or, "The MACC," placing it on the ballot as part of a $46.4 million bond package during the November 1992 bond election. During the next three years, many Austin community leaders and supporters of the MACC invested and advocated heavily to approve bond monies for design and construction. However, the City’s bond package failed by a narrow margin, receiving 47% of the vote. A year later, the City Council directed the City Manager to assess the feasibility of rehabilitating the buildings at the River Street site for reuse as the MACC. The City Manager’s Office concluded that it was feasible.

By 1996 the MACC Task Force began to refer to the content of previous studies, and with the support of Latino artists, presented the City with an expanded version of earlier development concepts that could respond to the cultural facility needs of the artists. The Austin City Council unanimously approved the designation of the River Street property as the formal site for the proposed MACC. In November 1997, the MACC Task Force became CMACA by incorporating as a non-profit corporation in the State of Texas. The Center for Mexican American Cultural Arts (CMACA) was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) in 1998, the same year that the citizens of Austin approved a $10.9 million bond package to build The MACC.

The MACC was scheduled for completion by May 2003 but the project was postponed.  The official groundbreaking took place in 2006 and the grand opening of Phase One is scheduled for September 2007. Due to budget constraints the project has also been broken down into three phases. Phase One (the first pyramid) will build a plaza, office and classroom spaces, and a multipurpose room. Phase Two (the second pyramid) will add a 300- seat theater and an art gallery, and Phase Three (the third pyramid) will complete the project with a 1200-seat theater and a parking garage. The total cost of the project is an estimated $50 million.

CMACA is committed to promoting the completion of all three phases of this project. We believe it can be done and that one day, Austin will be home to an architectural jewel and a Latino cultural Mecca.