CACH/HEART

Centro Artístico y Cultural de Huachinera

Huachinera Enterprise for Arts & Rural Traditions

 In 1999, Jess Davila, a significant artist in his own right shared his dream with a small group of other artists in the United States about how he hoped to help save the small mountain village of Huachinera from economic and cultural oblivion and preserve the beauty of its traditions. This tiny mountain village in the Sierra Madre region of north eastern Sonora Mexico, which had been home to Jess for the first eight years of his life; was now only a shadow of its former self.

An economic and cultural environment, which had historically been based almost exclusively on cattle ranching, now held little financial hope, let alone opportunities for personal growth for the people living there, especially the children. Consequently as these young people grew up, most of them were leaving. A village population, which once numbered over 1,500 had dwindled to well under a thousand and was still shrinking. He wasn’t sure how he would accomplish it, but Jess Davila was determined to develop an economic engine in Huachinera that would not only create employment opportunities for the people living in this region, but one that would offer the young people living there hope for a future. A future with opportunities, which would allow them not only to sustain themselves financially, but culturally and intellectually as well. Jess reasoned that if he could do this, it would give these young people a reason to want to remain and make a life for themselves and their families in this region, thus preserving its culture and traditions in perpetuity. If successful, he would indeed have given something back!

 After Guadalupe Apodaca, one of Jess’s best friends, signed on to the dream, he and Jess shared their vision with artists Jason Napier and Pablo Antonio Milan, and the game was on. In addition to personally holding art classes in Huachinera, these artists have even built homes there! But most importantly, they collectively have been able to engage men and women from all walks of life in both the United States and Mexico. They have created non-profit entities in both countries (CACH/HEART) to accommodate philanthropy, and have developed significant fund-raising events. For example 2010 will feature the 6^th annual hugely successful art auction in the Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona area bringing notable regional, national and international artists to the event to be held at the prestigious Phoenix Art Museum on March 26^th.

Simultaneously, Jess, along with the assistance of Alejandro Sierra, now President of the CACH Board of Directors, made the Mexican Governments: local, state, and federal, aware of what was taking place in Huachinera. Almost immediately the village of Huachinera donated a beautiful thirteen acre mesa campus site to the project. The state and federal people then were so impressed with what was taking place that, in addition to advertising this project with the Mayors of every town in the state of Sonora, they qualified this project for what they refer to as their 3 X 1 matching program. This simply meant that for every private dollar CACH/HEART contributes to the Arts & Culture Center, the Mexican governments contributed three dollars. The end result to date has been that there are now five and one half beautiful buildings standing on campus, with the sixth building scheduled for completion by the end of June 2010 and having an estimated value of more than $4,500,000. Through this private/public partnership, what was once just a dream is now a reality.

With the reality of this destination Arts & Cultural Center unfolding daily, the Boards of Directors on both sides of the border have been strengthened immensely with the participation of people and corporations who have the ability and the means to take this project across the finish line. (See Board of Directors) CACH/HEART will shortly be selling naming rights to major sponsors and donors.

What this initial tiny group of artists has accomplished in just a few short years is almost beyond belief. Buildings have been built, infrastructure has been dramatically upgraded, and not only have jobs been created, but dozens of cottage businesses have emerged. The economic engine that Jess and his small band of believers have developed has allowed this tiny mountain village to engineer a dramatic financial turnaround, and allowed it to preserve its tradition and its culture. However, at the end of the day, what they really have done is to give its people hope! It was once said, “You must never take away a people’s hope, because that may be all they have”.