Where are your offices and programs located?

Anahuac is a community-centered program housed within Capaces Leadership Institute since 2019 that serves as the base of the Alianza Poder (AP) network from our home in the mid-Valley, Oregon’s agricultural heartland and home to over 130,000 Latinx and Indigenous people, most with a deep family background in agriculture. Anahuac offers education in traditional agriculture, culinary and cultural arts, wellness, and Indigenous languages to different ethnicities in what now is known as Mexico as well as Mexican migrants, and their US-born children in Woodburn, Salem, and the surrounding rural communities. This community, seen by the dominant culture as farmworkers, is not only the essential and exploited foundation of the American food system, but also a diverse community speaking numerous Indigenous languages, peoples whose ancestors invented agriculture in the Americas, and who continue to practice sophisticated and culturally vital forms of sustainable agriculture.

Capace Leadership Institute is located in Woodburn, OR. We are in an exciting time of expanding our Anahuac Program to its own Anahuac Farm & Cultural Center on 60 acres of organic land in Turner, OR.

Which communities do you serve, how many people are there, and where are they located?

Our communities are predominantly Mixtec, Zapotec, Nahua, and Purepecha,. Here is a current breakdown of the community we serve:

• Anahuac has a base of 13 families (representing 30+ children and youth) consistently participating in the program and an additional 30+ youth are engaged in the program through the partnership with MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility located in Woodburn, OR.

• Partnerships with the Farmworkers Housing Development Corporation and MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility to recruit families and youth into the program.

• The 2021 Summer Learning Program of Capace's Programs TURNO and Anahuac in collaboration with Salem-Keizer Coalition for Equality included hosting 8 weekly workshops in July and August 2021 including traditional mole workshops in our Cocina Tradicional, ofrendas (offerings) and reconnection with our ancestral relationship with la Madre Tierra (Mother Earth) at Silver Falls State Park, and painting a collective mural on-site at Capaces with Salem artist Eduardo Diaz-Salazar. Our team consisted of about 20 youth and adults including temporary hires and volunteers. Being able to hire on our community was a very special highlight that made the Summer Programming possible!

• During the Summer Programming we engaged about 35 individuals (adults and their children) per week for eight weeks in our outdoor interactive cultural education programming. Total of 140 individuals (youth and adults) participated in the Summer Programming.

With our expansion to the farm in Turner, OR we are expecting to expand our reach to minimum +150 youth in the surrounding areas including Salem, Sublimity, Albany and Lebanon within the first year of operation (2022-23).

How will the expansion to the farm in Turner, OR build wealth for your community?

Capaces Leadership Institute has expanded its initiatives through Alianza Poder (AP) to include a Latinx Community Wealth Building Network. This initiative is an area of growth in our movement that is currently in the early stages.

Additionally, Capaces Leadership Institute will own the farm land initially ($1.2 M sale price for 60.60 acres in Turner, OR), which is the first time any organization within Oregon’s Farmerworker Immigrant Movement, started in 1977, has owned farmland. This is a huge step for us as a community as the fields have become a battleground for farmworker rights. Establishing the Anahuac Farm & Cultural Center will allow us to return to the land in a different way.

In addition to ownership of land, we are intentional about hiring within our community, including those who have been or are currently farmworkers, and creating an environment where they can share and expand upon their traditional agricultural and culinary knowledge.

• From 2019 to 2020, 2 adult participants in Anahuac were hired on as part-time community leaders and 3 youth participants were hired on as part-time youth leaders. 

• From 2020-2021, 1 community leader was promoted to a full-time Anahuac Support Staff, 6 additional adult participants were hired as community teachers for traditional culinary activities and 4 additional youth participants were hired on as part-time youth leaders.

• In 2021, 2 adult participants in Anahuac who speak their indigenous language were hired as community teachers to teach Indigenous Language classes.

Within our first three years on the farm, we will hire 2 Traditional Food Farmers, 1 Indigenous Languages Coordinator, 1 additional Community Teacher (an individual from one of the FHDC communities that will teach their indigenous language), 1 Arts Education Coordinator, 1 Finance and Operations Manager, and 1 Grant Writer & Marketing Support; for a total of 7 jobs created.

How does the Anahuac program partner and build community with Indigenous communities and tribes in the region?

The Anahauc Team is intentional in learning from and building relationships with existing projects of Indigenous communities and tribes. In September 2021, three members of the team traveled to New Mexico and Arizona to meet and learn from the Navajo, White Mountain Apache, San Carlos Apache and Pueblo communities. Following COVID-19 guidelines and protocols, we visited a total of six partners including:

• Navajo Ethno-Agriculture Education Farm

• Taos County Economic Development Corp

• Indian Pueblo Cultural Center

• Coffee Pot Farm

• Ndee Bikiyaa

• Nalwoodi Denzhone Life Center

In October 2021, the whole Anahuac team and an Anahuac Youth Leader visited 3 organizations and a Mohawk Elder in Upstate New York including:

• Soul Fire Farm

• Rock Steady Farm

• Iroquois White Corn Project, Seneca Art & Cultural Center

• Mohawk Elder Tom Porter (an activist, published author, and one of the founders of the Akwesasne Freedom School, a Mohawk language school.)

These organizations and individuals ranged in identities, operation size, and types of organizations (e.g. non-profit, for profit, cultural centers, Indigenous and Afro-Indigenous education farms, and Community Support Agriculture operations). The purpose of these educational trips was to establish relationships with each community that welcomed us, learn from their experiences when planning for the Anahuac Farm & Cultural Center, see in-person the operations and their capacity, and hear the lessons that they were willing to share.

Our objectives were and are to continue nurturing these relationships with our brothers and sisters of the Southwest and Northeast that have overlapping values as Anahuac. These site visits helped us tremendously in deciding the fine details of the Anahuac Farm & Cultural Center for the first 1-3 years of operations and staffing, narrowing down our focus while leaving a lot room for growth and learning. These relationships and experiences are invaluable for the Anahuac Team, Anahuac Community and the Anahuac Farm & Cultural Center's future. Our intention is to reach out to the Tribes of Oregon once we secure the land in Turner, OR. We want to be able to be in partnership and learn from our Brothers and Sisters of the North as we have overlapped.

An additional resource for viewing traditional lands by geography is: Native-Land.CA

Question about budget &/or update of how many funds have been raised?

To learn more about our operational finances for Anahuac Cultural Center & Farm, please reference Phase I & II Budget.

To learn more about our Capital Campaign and fundraising efforts, please see our Events Page, sign up for our Newsletter (below) or email Capital Campaign Manager, Sofia Baum at sofia@capacesleadership.org.