El Centro Chicano at the University of Southern California

United University Church 300
817 W. 34th Street

El Centro Chicano is the Latina/o student resource center at the University of Southern California dedicated to fostering “a community of critically thinking, socially conscious Chicana/o and Latina/o leaders: providing personal, social and academic support through graduation and beyond.” El Centro provides meeting space for student organizations, cultural programming, a freshman residential program, and a safe space for a diverse group of students.

El Centro Chicano opened its doors in 1972, under the initial directorship of Raul Vargas, who served as USC’s coordinator for Mexican-American Affairs. The push to establish El Centro Chicano at USC reflected the Chicano movement in the Vietnam War era in Southern California, when Chicano groups imagined new forms of community and empowerment of ethnic Mexicans. USC’s President John Hubbard agreed in an attempt to make the campus more inclusive of Mexican-American students. At the time, El Centro was described as “a meeting place for Mexican American students at USC,” but its foundation represented the growing political and ethnic consciousness of Chicano students at USC. Institutions like El Centro at predominately white institutions have served as “the sole safety line keeping many minorities from falling by the wayside.” Not only have the physical spaces proven important in this regard, but their adornment has as well: murals depicting the struggle of Chicanos and Latinos have characterized El Centro historically and today. 

Though El Centro Chicano has survived for four decades at USC, space has been a continual concern. El Centro was first housed in a two-story building at 3406 Hoover St., Los Angeles (see map). However, in 1979, El Centro was relocated to its current home on the third floor of the United University Church (UUC). “The students are not happy” with the new location, said director Abel Amaya in 1980, “but they accepted it because it was temporary.” For the last thirty-three years, El Centro has been housed in this “temporary” location. 

El Centro Chicano is slated for relocation in July, 2013 to an office in USC’s old student union building, which is fifty percent smaller than its current space. This decision was made by top administrators and passed down the chain of command without warning or genuine discussion with the student community that the center serves. USC’s administration claims that the unanticipated relocation will increase synergy among the cultural centers on campus, but by most accounts there is already successful coordination among the centers. This seems like the beginning of the end of everything fought for by the Chicano movement in the 1970’s: a safe space for Chicanos/Latinos on campus to meet, study, and exercise their ethnic consciousness. A group of students, parents, and alumni have put up a fight, forming a group called El Centro Ambassadors, and advocating for a democratic decision-making process and the preservation of El Centro Chicano’s current home on the 3rd floor of the UUC. As long as the space in which El Centro operates continues to be marginalized, the experience of minority students at USC will also be compromised.

For More Information
Chávez, Ernesto.“Mi Raza Primero!” (My People First): Nationalism, Identity, and Insurgency in the Chicano Movement in Los Angeles, 1966-1978. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2002.

Hurd, Clayton A. “Cinco de Mayo, Normative Whiteness, and the Marginalization of Mexican-Descent Students.” Anthropology and Education Quarterly. v. 39 no. 3. September, 2008. 293-313.