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DEFEND THE

MEXICAN AMERICAN CULTURAL CENTER

 

Please send one email to the entire City Council (see below) to help the numerous member groups of the Austin Latino Coalition save the Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) from plans to turn their parking lot into a street.

 

Also, at the bottom is the Austin American Statesman three part series called Inheriting Inequality.  The third part is titled “How Austin isolated Latinos with a unique form of segregation.”  We must face our history and present reality.

HABLA ALERT!

 

The City of Austin is now facilitating community conversations about the potential to extend Red River Street directly through the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center to accommodate the growing traffic congestion downtown off E. Cesar Chavez and in Rainey Street.

 

This potential recommendation would violate the integrity of the MACC, the "gran entrada" and future phases of the MACC. Not to mention the safety of the community and school children who attend Academia Cuauhtli. 

 

Our Mexican-American community advocated for decades to make the MACC a reality and to fight to protect the integrity. 

 

During the 1990s the Austin City Council adopted several resolutions and ordinances deeming 600 River Street in perpetuity for the MACC. In the late 1990s, voters approved the construction of Phase 1 of the MACC, and in 2018 once again voters approved Phase 2 of the MACC. 

 

Most recently, the 70 Rainey Street Condo developer tried to acquire 64 Rainey Street property located directly adjacent to the entrance of our MACC and our community defeated that proposal. Through that process we learned that the 600 River Street had not been officially transferred to PARD and deemed dedicated parkland. 

 

Despite numerous efforts by the City and private developers to acquire, encroach and violate the integrity of our MACC, our community has always endured and defeated such efforts. 

 

While the MACC now sits on dedicated parkland, the parking lot is considered public-right-of-way and they now want to extend Red River Street as the main entrance into Rainey Street. 

 

It appears we are once again being forced to defend and protect the MACC. 

 

For now, please email the Austin City Council Members and let them know that you do NOT support extending Red River Street through the MACC property. 

 

Click here to send an email to all Austin City Council Members.

 

Stay vigilant! #LaCulturaNoSeVende

"INHERITING INEQUALITY"

 

The third part of this Statesman series on discrimination in Austin covers “How Austin isolated Latinos with a unique form of segregation.” The first two parts focus on the impacts of forced segregation on the African American community here in Austin.