In a yellow room decorated with paintings of various Mexican cities and a colorful rectangular image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Georgina García and four others take classes each week on how to pass the US citizenship test.
Guanajuato Housea cultural center in the heart of Oak Cliff, has been a bridge to the North Texas Mexican community for the past 30 years.
In English: Cultural center in the heart of Oak Cliff celebrates 30 years of service to Mexicans
The center offers a variety of courses and activities ranging from citizenship, GED and English as a second language to Zumba and boxing classes for all ages, and hosts weddings, birthday parties and even funerals.
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In 1994, Tereso Ortiz, 74, originally from Ocampo, a small town in the Mexican state of Guanajuato, founded Casa Guanajuato with the idea of preserving and promoting Mexican culture and traditions and being a place open to all to learn and do. community.
Before Casa Guanajuato, Ortiz and some friends from his town formed a group and began listing the needs of their community and seeing how they could help others adjust to their new life.
These meetings led to the idea of founding Casa Guanajuato.
Victoria Hohn asks questions to students in citizenship classes at Casa Guanajuato in Oak Cliff on Sept. 12, 2024, in Dallas.(Elías Valverde II / Staff Photographer)
“We thought about all the ways our community could benefit from having one place to go to find all the tools to help them progress and understand the system,” Ortiz said.
“But we also wanted to have a little piece of our culture here.”
In citizenship class, students sit in the front row of the room to be closer to the screen that displays the civics questions and answers they must learn to pass the citizenship test.
“What is an amendment? Who is in charge of the executive branch? Name one of the current federal senators from your state,” said Victoria Hohn, 54, originally from El Salvador, who has been teaching the class for three years.
“Ted Cruz,” responded García, who is from San Luis Potosí, Mexico.
García was looking for a place to study for her citizenship exam and a friend told her about Casa Guanajuato.
He had already visited the place for a funeral more than a decade ago.
“I wanted a place where classes were cheap and fit around my work schedule,” said Garcia, 53, who currently lives in DeSoto and plans to apply for the citizenship test in two months.
For her, becoming a U.S. citizen is the final step in her immigration experience and a way to repay the sacrifices she and her family made to come to the United States, she said.
Casa Guanajuato has been offering these types of affordable courses to the community for many years, Ortiz said, as the Mexican population in North Texas grew and immigrants needed more information and resources at their disposal.
A group of people line up to eat tacos during a boxing tournament as part of Casa Guanajuato’s anniversary celebrations in Oak Cliff on Sept. 14, 2024, in Dallas.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
882,615 Mexicans live in Dallas County.
They are followed by Tarrant counties with 515,955, Denton with 134,757 and Collin with 129,059 Mexican residents, according to the 2022 American Survey.
José Zárate, 58, of Reynosa, Mexico, and a long-time resident of Oak Cliff, was one of the students in the citizenship class and has turned to the cultural center when he has needed resources.
For example, he once processed his Mexican passport there and attended a health fair a couple of years ago.
More than a sport
Another important component of the cultural center is its boxing lessons. For 29 years he has offered boxing classes every day to children and teenagers.
Ángel García of the Maple Avenue gym gets out of the ring after participating in a tournament at Casa Guanajuato, during a celebration for its 30th anniversary, on September 14, 2024 in Dallas.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
To celebrate its 30th anniversary, Casa Guanajuato had a week of activities in September, starting with a boxing tournament.
Since days before the tournament, the students offered to clean and prepare the premises.
While the citizenship classes continued in the classroom, the main square of the building became the scene for a boxing tournament, decorated with everything and little Mexican flags.
The ring was put together with a donation from a former boxer 29 years ago, Ortiz said.
“This is a place where kids, instead of making a criminal record on the streets, can make a professional record, learn what discipline is and stay motivated,” said Joe Quiroz, 47, the boxing coach.
Quiroz has seen how children and adolescents have found in Casa Guanajuato a place to build community and maintain positive relationships.
Margarita Martínez, 51, of Oak Cliff, also from Guanajuato, has been taking her 15-year-old son to the gym for more than three years and has seen his behavior change.
He says he is motivated to exercise and is disciplined with his school.
Quiroz says 40 to 60 kids attend his boxing lessons each week, and not just from Oak Cliff, but from all over North Texas.
“It’s about building relationships, with other children but also with their parents; work together as a team and keep the young people busy,” Quiroz said.
Casa Guanajuato is located at 1002 West Brooklyn, Dallas, Texas, 75208.
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