The Founding of Centro las Américas

"The drive to found Centro Las Americas began in 1976 with the signing of a petition by a group of three-hundred Latino families who 'wanted their own community center to bolster their cultural identity and offer a haven to newcomers' and to '... tackle one of the few topics ALPA did not – cultural education.' Reverend Michael P. Bafaro was presented with the petition after being selected as the champion for the group’s cause [...] The largely Italian community surrounding the school did not want a Latino organization to be run out of their neighborhood though; so once again the Latinos were subjected to discrimination. Wanting to scare off Father Bafaro (an Italian himself) and Centro Las Americas, members of the neighborhood shattered all the windows at the Sacred Heart School. Consequently, the Catholic Diocese of Worcester 'abandoned' its support of the organizations plans. Now it would be up to the community to provide the base for Centro Las Americas, and after raising $5,000 as a community, the group had a down payment for the young organization’s headquarters. Centro Las Americas found such a place at a former Worcester Baptist Church in Main South, where Latinos made up more than 20% of the neighborhood’s population. Finally, after two years of working against resistance to establish their organization, Rev. Bafaro was selected as the first official director of the newcomer organization." (Source: Morse, Samuel. 2011. "La Salsa de la Vida: Latino Civil Rights and Public Education in Worcester, 1970-2005." Honors thesis, Clark University, based on a 2010 oral interview with Luis G. Pérez.)