More than 300 artists, activists, elders and community members packed San Francisco’s Mission Cultural Center for the Latino Arts (MCCLA), gathering just days after the nearly 50-year-old institution shuttered amid a financial collapse.

The meeting, organized by Calle 24 Executive Director Susana Rojas, marked the community’s first large-scale, organized response to the closure. Over the course of the evening, participants broke into facilitated groups to share fears, identify priorities and chart a path forward centered on community control, financial stability and the protection of the center’s vast cultural archives.

“This building is ours, right?” said MCCLA board president Bob Sánchez, opening the meeting. He outlined three immediate priorities: rebuilding governance by forming a new board, safeguarding the archives and preparing for a temporary relocation ahead of a city-planned seismic retrofit.

More than 300 community members gather at the Mission Cultural Center for the Latino Arts to discuss efforts to prevent its indefinite closure in San Francisco, Calif., on Feb. 2. Photo: Alexa “LexMex” Treviño

For many attendees, the most urgent concern was the fate of MCCLA’s archives, a collection that includes thousands of silkscreen posters produced by La Raza Graphics and Mission Graphics documenting decades of social movements, festivals, performances and political organizing in the Mission District.

“Between this archive and the archive of El Tecolote, they tell the history of our community,” said Eva Martínez, a volunteer archivist for both MCCLA and El Tecolote. She said the archive includes at least 5,000 unique posters and likely more than 10,000 total works. “No one else documents it on the ground level like these two archives do: El Tecolote with journalism and words, and the Mission Cultural Center with art.”

Portrait artist Alexa Treviño photographed community members in attendance. Below are some of the voices captured during the gathering.

Community facilitators present notes from small-group discussions onstage during a packed gathering at the Mission Cultural Center for the Latino Arts in San Francisco, Calif., on Feb. 2. Participants shared concerns, fears and proposed actions aimed at preserving community control of the center following its sudden closure. Photo: Alexa “LexMex” Treviño
“I’ve seen this center help raise families and children,” said Rosa Machuca, who was among the hundreds who attended a community gathering to save the Mission Cultural Center for the Latino Arts (MCCLA) in San Francisco, Calif., on Feb. 2. “To not have places like this for families would be such a loss.” Photo: Alexa “LexMex” Treviño
Bob Sánchez, board president of the Mission Cultural Center for the Latino Arts, attends a community gathering focused on the future of MCCLA in San Francisco, Calif., on Feb. 2. Photo: Alexa “LexMex” Treviño
Community members stand together inside the Mission Cultural Center for the Latino Arts during a gathering to organize against the center’s indefinite closure in San Francisco, Calif., on Feb. 2. More than 300 people attended the meeting to discuss protecting the center’s future, archives and programming. Photo: Alexa “LexMex” Treviño
“Art saves lives. My life was saved by the artwork created here,” said Olga Talamante, reflecting on the Mission Cultural Center for the Latino Arts during a community gathering in San Francisco, Calif., on Feb. 2. Photo: Alexa “LexMex” Treviño
Community members pose together inside the Mission Cultural Center for the Latino Arts during a gathering to organize against the center’s indefinite closure in San Francisco, Calif., on Feb. 2. More than 300 people attended the meeting to discuss protecting the center’s future, archives and cultural programming. Photo: Alexa “LexMex” Treviño
“It became a home, un refugio, for artists and the community,” said Félix Kury, reflecting on the founding of the Mission Cultural Center for the Latino Arts during a community gathering in San Francisco, Calif., on Feb. 2. Photo: Alexa “LexMex” Treviño