For 24 years there’s been a downtown refuge where Indigenous peoples can seek help and learn more about their cultures.
The Tonatierra Center also known as Tonatierra Nahuacalli at 802 N. 7th St. describes itself as a cultural embassy of Indigenous peoples.
The Center, which is owned and operated by Indigenous peoples goal is “to create and sustain a Cultural Embassy of the Indigenous Peoples that will support local-global and holistic Indigenous community development initiatives in education, culture, and economic development in accord with the principles of Community Ecology and Self Determination,” according to the website.
Most of the funds Tonatierra generates comes from community support according to Tonatierra’s coordinator Eve Reyes-Aguirre.
“We are about 80 to 90% funded by private donors or community members,” Reyes-Aguirre said. “We do receive some funding every now and then from foundations but we are pretty much a community-owned, operated and supported organization, and we are really proud of that.”
The work done at Tonatierra started off as cultural community work according to Reyes-Aguirre. This involved cultural education classes, advocacy work, food bank services, and other services to support Indigenous communities in Phoenix.
Reyes-Aguirre said Tonatierra takes pride in working well with the community and enjoys being an organization not dictated by funders or other donors.
“If the community says this is where we need to focus our work and our attention,” Reyes-Aguirre said. “That’s pretty much how we go from there.”
While much of their focus is on local support, Reyes-Aguirre said the issues affecting Indigenous peoples have global importance.
“We do work at the UN every year, around Indigenous peoples rights, climate change, the rights of Mother Earth, those kinds of things,” Reyes-Aguirre said. “Human rights, environmentalist rights, pretty much everything that you can think of that is being advocated for right now around human rights and Indigenous rights.”
Another important project to Tonatierra is the Quetzal Co-Op, which dates back to the 1990s. In 1994 the North American Free Trade Agreement was passed and it highly affected Indigenous communities in Mexico, specifically Chiapas and that is when Quetzal Co-Op began.
Reyes-Aguirre said members and elders from Tonatierra headed to Mexico to find out how they could be of help and found a solution.
“It started off with us purchasing coffee from the impoverished communities in Chiapas to help support them in times of struggle, and help support economic sustainability for them,” Reyes-Aguirre said.
The project is fully volunteer based and has been helpful to provide economic stability by buying and marketing coffee from Indigenous communities in Mexico also expending to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.
“That is one of the projects that I’m particularly proud of, because we’ve been able to sustain the project with volunteers that we have had at our organization,” Reyes-Aguirre said.
Volunteers roast coffee harvested by local communities, package and market the product.
All the profits go back into the project for Tonatierra to be able to continue providing economic sustainability in Indigenous communities.
With help from sister organizations, Tonatierra provided $30,000 in funding to over 200 undocumented families that were unable to receive government aid over the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We do work with sister organizations to provide funding for undocumented migrant migratory worker communities and refugees that have arrived in Phoenix that have not been afforded any type of governmental assistance due to being undocumented,” Reyes-Aguirre said.
Xochitl Venzor-Enrique, the youth project coordinator has grown up around Tonatierra most of her life volunteering, and she now helps provide opportunities for youth to access their culture and connect.
“I can for sure say that my favorite experience has been seeing this next generation take on leadership and become interested in their culture and being involved,” Venzor-Enrique said. “It’s just really powerful because that tells me that it’s not going to stop here.”
Venzor-Enrique and Reyes-Aguirre said Tonatierra is looking forward to continue helping and working together with Indigenous communities for as long as they possibly can.
“We’re very proud of being able to help do the work in the communities still even through COVID-19,” Reyes-Aguirre.
Contact the reporter jqmoya@asu.edu.
