Multicultural center closes doors
Due to a lack of funding, the Cache Valley Multi-Cultural Center, which has been providing services to the Hispanic community for 11 years, will be closing in March.
“There is a need for the center here in the Hispanic community,” said Leo Bravo, executive director of the center. “I am still fighting to keep it open.”
Bravo said he has been meeting with people in the community to see what can be done in order to raise money and has made some positive contacts about possible sources of funding.
Bravo, who immigrated to the United States from Venezuela, said, “I am even writing a letter to the president of Venezuela to see if he will help.” Bravo joked that President George W. Bush may not be very happy about the letter, since Bush and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez are not the best of friends.
“I have to do what I have to do,” Bravo said.
The center, which is located in the historical Whittier School, got its start 11 years ago because people were looking to him to interpret for them in court, with the police and with various other problems, Bravo said.
“I became so involved with all these other things that I had to start the center,” Bravo said.
Today the center provides after school tutors to help children in grades K-12 with their homework.
They also offer a drivers education program, nutritional education, classes on basic English conversational skills and seminars on gang prevention, parenting and American government.
“The center is a very valuable resource,” said Joaquin Romero owner of Servitaxes of Logan, an agency that provides income tax filing and other services to the Hispanic community.
“If the center closes, it will affect the trust of the Hispanic community with the local government,” Romero said. “They will feel like they are not important.”
Romero said he has helped Bravo in the past and that he tries to work with and support the center. If the center closes, he said he will try to fill in and help out where he can.
“But I can’t do as good a job as the center does,” Romero said. “I hope that whoever the decision relies upon to close the center will reflect or think about the consequences that will come from the closure.”
Daniel Carillo, who moved to Logan 10 years ago when he was only 9, said the center helped some members of his family who do not speak English to get their driver’s licenses.
“The laws are different now and many people don’t understand what they need to do to get their license,” he said.
Without the center, it will be more difficult for Hispanics who do not speak English to obtain driver’s licenses, he said.
Luis Cuellar, who came to Cache Valley 11 years ago, said he doesn’t think closing the center will hurt the Hispanic community much.
“The Hispanic community is growing and becoming more united. There are more people for us to turn to for help,” Cuellar said. “There are a lot of people out there that help for free just for the sake of helping.”
Cuellar added that he and his wife have gone to court to help interpret for Hispanics who do not speak English.
-jason.givens@usu.edu