ABOUT US: RESOURCE CENTER OF THE AMERICAS
INTRODUCTION–PROGRAMS–MISSION–HISTORY–FINANCES
PERSONNEL–OUR HOME–2000 HIGHLIGHTS–CONTACT US
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Year After Year, Making a Difference

1983: The Central America Resource Center, as the organization was called in its early years, formed to educate about U.S. intervention in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala and to coordinate activities against the region’s wars. We began with one staff person and a few dozen volunteers. Today the Resource Center thrives with almost 30 staff members (about 20 full-time-equivalent positions).

1984: The Resource Center held its first “open house” in its original home—the basement of the Newman Center, 1701 University Ave. SE. By 1998, the annual Fiesta de las Américas was bringing together more than 2,000 people and occupying most of the Newman Center and two other large church buildings on the block.

1985: A Resource Center began organizing Central America information and speakers for high-school students. Today the Resource Center brings curricula and other resources to thousands of students and teachers each year.

1986: The Resource Center published its first major educational resource, the Directory of Central America Classroom Resources, K–12. Today the Resource Center lends and distributes hundreds of classroom tools, including nine original curricula. Our latest offerings include Child Labor is Not Cheap, a revised edition of Many Faces of Mexico, Buen Viaje: Mutually Beneficial Tourism and Latino Voices: Stories of Immigrants and Their Impact on a Community.

1987: The Resource Center set up a computer database to keep track of our lending-library collection. Today the collection has grown to 8,000 books, 400 documentary videos, 1,600 vertical files and 70 periodicals, and hundreds of tools for elementary and secondary teachers (lesson plans, stories, posters, maps, etc.). A sophisticated system catalogs the resources, allowing visitors to search for materials using one of our computers. In our new building, “action centers” focus on issues such as Third World debt, sweatshops or responsible tourism.

1988: The Resource Center survives a funding and staffing crisis. Today the organization’s base has grown to 1,500 members, a $1 million annual budget and a wealth of community support.

1989: The Resource Center offered its first Spanish class to a group of eight people. Today the organization offers more than 35 classes serving 800 adult students each year, including seven levels of Spanish as well as Creole, Portuguese, Latin and Caribbean dancing, and a range of offerings on history, politics and literature, plus bilingual classes and activities for children and parents.

1990: The Resource Center carried out an effective media campaign in response to disinformation surrounding national elections in Nicaragua. Today mainstream news outlets call the Resource Center frequently for background and analysis.

1991: As a result of a long-range planning process, the organization changed its name from the Central America Resource Center to the Resource Center of the Americas. Today the Resource Center’s expanded scope and programmatic focuses are well established. The organization has become a crucial source of information about all of the Americas, especially Mexico.

1992: The Resource Center’s Labor Project shifted into full gear, providing staffing to the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition. Today the project educates thousands of people in the community about globalization and the need to protect and defend economic and social rights around the world.

1993: The Resource Center bookstore expanded its stock and sales. Today the bookstore is Minnesota’s leading source of bilingual and Spanish language books for children, and it carries a vast array of fair-trade crafts. The bookstore’s entire stock for adults and children is available through AMERICAS.ORG.

1994: The Resource Center produced its first video, Central American Children Speak: Our Lives and Our Dreams. Public television stations aired the video and the National Educational Media Network awarded it the 1995 Bronze Apple. Today the video remains a favorite of teachers across the nation.

1996: The Resource Center began using Many Faces of Mexico as the basis for workshops in rural and urban Minnesota communities where large numbers of Spanish-speaking residents were arriving from Mexico, Central America and south Texas. To date, we have worked with a dozen communities, helping them put the changes into a global-economic context.

1997: The Resource Center embarked on another long-range planning process that resulted in a staff reorganization and new priorities. Foundations recognized the work and awarded us our first multiyear grants, pushing our annual budget to $500,000 and enabling us to add staff positions.

1998: We hired two youths to educate and organize their peers about sweatshops and child labor. They created a youth advisory board and cultivated 125 contacts in more than a dozen area schools. In 1999, their Minnesota Sweatfree Schools Project is receiving the Minnesota Alliance for Progressive Action award for youth organizing. 

1998: We invested the first staff hours into our Web site, AMERICAS.ORG. Today the site is the world’s most comprehensive and dynamic medium focused on Latin American human rights and social justice, attracting tens of thousands of visits (arrivals) per month.

1999: Outgrowing our space near the University of Minnesota, we renovated a 15,000-square-foot building donated to the organization, and carried out a $1.6 million capital campaign. Today the building houses our bookstore, café, public library and four public meeting rooms. It’s a bustling community hub in the heart of south Minneapolis.

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