Centro Comunitario Los Nogales strives to meet needs of community

She had practiced the martial art for about three years in Hermosillo, Sonora, about 180 miles south of Nogales. But when she moved to Santa Cruz County, she said, she found that capoeira was virtually unknown to local residents.

So, she decided to introduce capoeira to the local community by working alongside a new group whose focus is to bring a variety of opportunities to local residents: the Centro Comunitario Los Nogales.

“It’s really rewarding to be able to share my passion for it,” Piña said. “I just want to introduce people to it and create a capoeira community here.”

The twice-a-week capoeira class is now one of several services offered by the Centro Comunitario Los Nogales, which celebrated its first year anniversary last Saturday – a long-awaited marker for the grassroots effort. The group is housed inside the Casas de Anza gymnasium on Western Avenue, and consists of a nine-person committee – all who conceptualized the center after working together at a leadership program led by Chicanos Por La Causa.

The group, vice president María Elena Delgado Fraga said, initially needed to come up with a community project in order to graduate from the CPLC leadership program. 

They decided they wanted to invest in a project that would not only benefit the community, but would have the potential to outlive them.

The goal while forming the Centro Comunitario Los Nogales was to improve the quality of life for people by providing services that individuals expressed a need for, she said. The group began by working to meet the needs of the Casas de Anza residents, but have since expanded to serve the broader community.

A year later, the group now offers a wide variety of programs: U.S. citizenship and English classes, basketball, yoga, tai chi and capoeira.

Those programs have all been facilitated by local volunteers like Piña, the committee’s Media Coordinator Lupita Vega said. But the group is currently in the process of registering the center as a nonprofit organization, so they can explore grant funding that could allow them to expand their services, Vega said.

“We’re working on expanding our network, but it’s been amazing to already have had partnerships with established organizations and groups,” she said, adding they’re currently exploring a project with the University of Arizona to serve the elderly.

Partnerships

The Casas de Anza gymnasium, which includes a couple of meeting rooms, had been sitting empty after the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving the space open for the center to partner with city officials to make use of it.

The name of the center was born out of members’ desires to cater to residents on both sides of the border in Ambos Nogales and its surrounding areas, the committee’s president Susana Rangel said. 

“Both cities operate as one,” Rangel,  who’s worked with the Mexican Consulate for 26 years, said. “The only thing that divides us is a fence.”

And the center, binational by nature, now has partners in Sonora, though most partners and participants are from Nogales, Ariz. and Rio Rico.

Delgado Fraga, with decades of experience working with vulnerable people through the National System for Integral Family Development in Sonora, said she had learned throughout the years that every community center model must to different in order to satisfy the specific needs of each community.

She added that it’s also crucial for any rising organization to tap into existing networks that already work in the community.

“We can’t do this work alone, so if there’s an organization already doing the work, then why not pull from them and create partnerships,” she said.

‘Patient and dedicated’

The center has given community members access to necessary services and an avenue to try out experiences they likely wouldn’t have sought.

For 73-year-old Irma Padilla, it was Tai Chi, which she initially discounted, thinking it was “too slow” for her. But after six months, she said it has completely changed her lifestyle.

“I learned to connect my body and mind and honor my feelings,” she said, adding that it also helped correct her posture and back pain.

During a class last week, Padilla steadily lifted her foot off the floor finding balance and then guiding her arm slowly out and across her chest stopping at her center. The group of women gathered that day moved in sync, testing their patience, balance and cadence. 

Padilla usually drives from Rio Rico several times a week to participate in different classes at the center, and opting to make the trip to Nogales even though similar classes are available near her home.

“I feel more comfortable in this center because of my team and because the folks here are so patient and dedicated,” she said. “There’s nothing like it.”

And within the past year, Delgado Fraga said, it has become clear to her that the foundation for successful community support is built on the balance of logic and heart.

“What I value the most about the people I work with is the sense of empathy they have with community members,” Delgado Fraga said.

She noted that “working with human beings can be difficult sometimes,” considering a lot of work goes into understanding family dynamics and being conscious of how to best serve others.

“But we do this for the love of the community,” Delgado Fraga said.