Barbara works at Cilantro, the restaurant next door to La Peña. Barbara commutes from El Cerrito and takes Afro-Peruvian cajon and dance classes on Saturday mornings. Barbara began attending La Peña at 14 after doing online research about Peruvian culture and finding that La Peña held youth classes. She later found that the instructor teaching the Peruvian youth classes, Guaranjito, was an extended family member from Peru. As a US-born Peruvian, she looked to La Peña Cultural Center to learn about her own history, culture and, to construct her identity. Barbara knows a lot about the Chilean-expat-history of La Peña and recognizes that space was previously much smaller. She say's it's wonderful to see how much La Peña is growing and serving the extended Latinx community.

 

 

 

LULU:

I first came to La Peña in 2013 after Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines. 

 

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Demond first came to La Peña after a Peruvian friend invited him to an event and later to a cajon class. Since that first class, he's participated in three presentations including an audition for the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival. The cajon classes are held in Spanish and even though he doesn't speak or understand the language, classmates translate important things for him and he's able to keep up just fine. Demond says he's learned more about the Black Diaspora in Latin American at La Peña than in school because Peña instructors make it a point to discuss the cultural history of the arts they engage in.

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Max: 

My origin is in a meeting across difference. My father is Mexican and my mother is Anglo-American. I am both and neither. As a result of living somewhere between cultures, I have always had trouble accepting either/or approaches to the world. The liberatory promise of multicultural community spaces such as Berkeley’s La Peña is my promise too. The work of the countless people who have participated in fulfilling that promise is my work. Like La Peña, my very existence rejects and refutes dichotomy. We embody multiplicity.

 

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Dianis tells her story of coming to La Peña. Her personal sense of belonging at La Peña echoes how Chilean exiles made the organization a place of belonging in the 70's.  

 

Click the player to hear her story.

 

Abigail:

Talking about my ethnicity and culture is difficult for me. My mother is white and my dad is Mexican but I was not raised with a strong sense of culture. No one listened to Vincente Fernández, watched novelas, took me to Sunday mass, or spoke to me in Spanish so I could learn. Instead, I went to my grandma’s house, watching wheel of fortune, dipping fresh tortillas in albondigas, and hearing Spanish exclusively so my grandparents could curse and hold secret conversations. I have a Chicana experience that often does not make me feel very Chicana. La Peña, as a product of many cultures and liberal politics, is a place where I feel unquestioned belonging.

 

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Helen was born in Santa Clarita, California to Guatemalan parents. She commutes from San Francisco to La Peña for Salsa night every last Monday of the month. She first came to La Peña after a member of the Salsa band invited her. The director, Natalia Retamal, says that participant outreach is key to getting people out to the events. Helen knew nothing about the history of La Peña. After a brief introduction to the history of the space, she commented on the importance of La Peña as an inclusive space for the many cultures in the Bay Area. She also mentioned knowing very little about her Guatemalan roots but was pleased to see a political Guatemalan poster hanging from one of La Peña's rehearsal spaces.