La Luz Center

September 19th: Noche de Luna 2010!

La Luz Center’s ever popular fundraising fiesta, will take place on Sunday, September 19th this year.  The event is held in the Historic Sonoma Barracks, and starts at 5PM.

Popular Forum Series Continues

Two very popular Forums were held in May, organized by La Luz’s Director of  Vineyard Workers Services and Community Relations, Mario Castillo.  The first was held in San Francisco, with officials of the Mexican Government.  Important information was provided on Mexican Identification Cards, Mexican Passports, dual citizenship, investments in Mexico, education and other programs.

La Luz Center's 5 de Mayo Fiesta for Education

The Cinco de Mayo Fiesta for Education on Sunday, May 2nd, on the Historic Sonoma Plaza is less than two weeks away.  La Luz Center will be celebrating not only Mexican History at the Cinco de Mayo fiesta, but also embracing the many different backgrounds that make up our community, creating a world fiesta of culture and heritage.  The proceeds from this event help provide scholarships to graduating high school students who have overcome a challenge in life that has motivated them to pursue higher education.  In addition, we support the arts by providing prizes and inspiration to the Art Contest Winners and give recognition and honors to the top graduating student of each school who has mastered in English Language Acquisition.

“Viva la Noche” dance party at Little Switzerland—a fun “salsa” evening!

Little Switzerland came alive on March 13th when our beloved Karen Taylor (of Primavera Restaurant in the  San Francisco Ferry Building) donated and served wonderful and innovative Mexican foods to an appreciative crowd of over 100 La Luz supporters.  There was no fundraising, just fun “charlando” and dancing to 2 different bands—Carlos Herrera and then Sapo Guapo….with a salsa lesson at intermission!

New Focus on Education

By Paul Martinez — La Luz has recently formed a new committee to focus on education. One of the first tasks was to review and evaluate last year’s high school scholarships to judge their effectiveness. La Luz had awarded 10 scholarships to Hispanic high school graduates accepted to UC Davis, Dominican University, San Francisco State, and others.

One SVHS student, Marcos Rendon, was awarded a La Luz scholarship that helped him attend Cal State University at Chico this fall. Marcos is the first of his family to go to college. He plans on graduating in Music Technology with a minor in business. As he had no formal music background, starting his classes “was like going to a whole different country where they speak a different language,” says Marcos. He is working harder scholastically than ever before, and is fulfilling a long held dream made possible by support from La Luz.

This is exactly the kind of change we want to influence in our community.  We want our Scholarship program to motivate students to think "outside the box" and envisage whole new life paths.  ❧