Coast Latino Coalition turns six years old

The Latino Coalition of the Mendocino Coast, also known as LatCo, was formed in the spring of 2015 to concentrate on issues of interest and concern to the Latinx community.

Monthly meetings began at Safe Passage Family Resource Center’s large meeting room. We started off slowly, but in January of 2017, our LatCo meeting had standing room only — the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump had occurred the day before. At the time, there was a great deal of uneasiness among Latinos throughout the country, fearful of Trump’s promise to get tough on undocumented people and start deporting them.

The guest speaker that night was a local immigration attorney, Grady Gauthier, who spoke about the rights of the undocumented. Then-Police Chief Fabian Lizarraga was also there to offer assurances that his officers were not interested in whether or not a person was documented, and that he had no intention of assisting the feds should any ICE raids occur here.

From that time onward, immigration issues and social justice have been areas of interest for our Latino Coalition. Our mission is “to empower our community through education, social justice, and cultural appreciation.”

In 2017, we organized our first Fiesta, held in Bainbridge Park on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in September, to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. Several Latin American countries celebrate their independence days between mid- September and mid-October. These Fiestas are free events that welcome families, have music and games for the kids and food for sale from local Latinx vendors. LatCo has organized three of these September fiestas, but the pandemic prevented a 2020 Fiesta. If it’s possible, we’ll bring back this tradition in 2021.

Helping Latinx youth is of great importance to the Latino community, so LatCo volunteers began offering free tutoring for Spanish- speaking school- age students one night a week at the Fort Bragg Library. Once COVID restrictions are lifted, we