Alliance for Hispanic Advancement recaps 2023 projects

Michaela Harris, Appeal-Democrat, Marysville, Calif.
·5 min read

Mar. 27—The Alliance for Hispanic Advancement (AHA) took strides in 2023 to continue engagement, opportunity and outreach efforts for the local Hispanic community.

AHA held its annual membership meeting on March 12 to review the organization's various committees and projects carried out in 2023 and its goals for this year. Board member and former AHA president Vera Correa said that the group's major projects included the recently integrated Yuba-Sutter Youth Mariachi Orchestra and AHA's annual scholarship awards.

Formed in partnership with Yuba Sutter Arts & Culture, the Youth Mariachi Orchestra is a free after-school program for students at Arboga Elementary School and Yuba Gardens Intermediate School.

In 2023, AHA received a grant from the Upstate California Creative Corps which helped leaders further expand the mariachi program. According to the group's grant submission, the program was formed in part to help break down social justice and cultural barriers and enable underserved students to rise above and take pride in cultural art forms.

Lindhurst High School and Yuba Gardens Intermediate were originally chosen to be the first to host the Youth Mariachi Orchestra due to their close proximity to one another and the number of Latino students that they serve. However, the interest at Lindhurst wasn't quite large enough to support the endeavor, so organizers turned to Arboga Elementary, the Appeal previously reported.

Correa said that expanding the program is possible given its current popularity. Approximately 20 students are involved with the orchestra between Arboga Elementary and Yuba Gardens Intermediate. AHA, Yuba Sutter Arts & Culture, and Marysville Joint Unified School District hope to include more mariachi music teachers in the future.

Each year, AHA awards scholarships to 10 Latino students who demonstrate commitment to their education and communities. In 2023, nine of these students were awarded with $500 scholarships from the organization's scholarship fund and one student was selected for the $1,000 David Gonzales Scholarship award, which was established in honor of the owner of El Zarape Restaurant who died in 2021.

Outside of these primary projects, Correa said that AHA is working toward establishing a comprehensive Hispanic exhibit with the Sutter County Museum. The museum's current Mexican American exhibit was also formed in partnership with AHA, and focuses on the impacts of the 1942 Bracero Program on local agriculture and immigration. AHA hopes to add more context and "bring more color" to the display, Correa said.

The Library of Congress describes the Bracero Program as such:

"An executive order called the Mexican Farm Labor Program established the Bracero Program in 1942. This series of diplomatic accords between Mexico and the United States permitted millions of Mexican men to work legally in the United States on short-term labor contracts. These agreements addressed a national agricultural labor shortage during WWII and implicitly, they redressed previous depression-era deportations and repatriations that unjustly targeted Mexican Americans who were U.S. citizens. Upon its termination in 1964, the Bracero Program had brought more than four million Braceros (arms) to work in U.S. agriculture and on railroads."

AHA has been working to update the exhibit for nearly a year and half, and is also working closely with Assistant Curator Drisel Perez.

"We just want to give more information on who did what things in our community in both Yuba and Sutter counties," she said. "(Perez) being a Latina really makes a big difference because she really understands what we're trying to do, and she has wonderful input."

As of late, AHA is gathering information on influential Hispanic and Latino people, organizations and events in hopes of bringing more communities together.

"A lot of that, if you can believe it, was actually in Yuba County. They had radio stations there. They had a Mexican rodeo there that was very influential, and also you had the Mexican theaters there," Correa said. "We want to highlight more of the people that we recognize and their families. It's nice to say that we have all this stuff and talk about the generic form of the Bracero Program, but also bring to life the people we knew and what people contributed over the years."

Correa believes that one of AHA's greatest accomplishments over the last year was connecting with Latino voters and encouraging members of the community to become more involved with the democratic process. Leading up to the March 5 presidential primary election, the organization helped members of the community register to vote and connected them with information on obtaining citizenship.

"That's one of the things we have to be more active in: letting people know that their votes count and they count. As Latinos, we can't be stereotyping ourselves. We've got to put ourselves out there and be visible," she said.

AHA's primary goals are to listen to the needs of the Hispanic and Latino community and improve their quality of life. Through 2024, the organization aims to uplift local Hispanic voices in adherence to its mission statement, Correa said. Particularly, AHA hopes to connect with younger members of the Hispanic community to further its outreach efforts.

"That's the main reason the founders started this: get the community to be involved and to help those who wanted to start their own businesses or those that need help," she said. "Like every organization, we need more of the younger generation to step up and be part of this. The ones who are doing this have been doing this a long time. We want the next generation to step up and make any organization better."