La Casa de la Raza Comes Back from a Red Tag Shutdown
John Palminteri
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The building that serves as a hub for resources in the Santa Barbara Hispanic community has come back from a shut down.
La Casa de la Raza was “red tagged” by the city for various violations. That meant no use and no occupancy by anyone including the staff.
Many were safety and fire concerns, including faulty wiring and unsafe exit plans.
Those violations have been fixed and the red tag was pealed off the wall Thursday as seen in images on Instagram.
“Most of the folks that came to provide support,literally with tools in their hands, putting up equipment,” said Lead Volunteer Jacqueline Inda. “We identified all of the things that might be a danger to the building in the future. We figured those out as a red tag issue. And so then we worked with the city to be able to knock those out of the way and get the space back open.”
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La Casa representatives have said loudly in the last couple of weeks, that they needed to get the building open and asked the city to facilitate the inspections to allow that to happen. It is expected to be a gathering space for meetings and information relating to the recent ICE raids along with overall immigration action plans.
Getting the work done required construction in the La Casa side of the goals, and the city inspectors on board as well. Plus some of the parts were not always arriving on time.
“Some things were delayed, and sometimes you would hope that they were going to get here and we were going to have to schedule the inspection, which you would have to delay just because the hardware didn’t come in or it wasn’t the right one,” she said.
The theatre will be closed off until there is a second door to create safe exit choices.
The kitchen will not be able to cook hot food until gas lines are fixed. Inda says, “those will continue to not be in use until we finish up the second phase.” For now cold food can be served. Eventually the kitchen will have multiple uses day and night. It may also be used to help start up businesses.
Community members are bringing in non perishables to help to feed those who are afraid to go out due to immigration raid concerns. A former food catering truck is, “being converted into a mobile food pantry to bring some necessities from the La Casa de la Rasa building directly to people who need them. That will allow people to just basically come out of their houses, get what they need.”
Inda says, government help from Mexico could be helping to create a safe space at La Casa and being present more. “We know that with the consulate it means that wherever they’re at they are protected by international law. So people know the safety of it. “
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