Children's Book Drive at this year's Fiesta!

At this year's Cinco de Mayo fiesta, PGSCA will be hosting a book drive for the students at Albina Head Start. Along with a book collection, we will also be accepting monetary donations to use toward the purchase of age-appropriate books in a variety of languages. Stop by the PGSCA information booth to learn more!

Every year, PGSCA gives 100% of proceeds from our Information booth sales and face painting donations to two charitable organizations. 50% of proceeds go to an organization in Oregon and the other 50% goes to an organization in our sister city, Guadalajara. This year, we selected Albina Head Start as our local organization. We had a chance to meet some of the little ones this past Christmas when PGSCA "adopted" a class and purchased holiday gifts for them. While we were there, we noticed an opportunity to help in yet another way. 

First let us tell you a little about Albina Head Start:

Albina offers Early Head Start and Head Start services to low income families living within their program service area. Families must have a total household income at or below federal income guidelines and meet employment or school requirements. Albina offers full day center-based services to eligible Early Head Start and Head Start age children. All services are provided free of charge. Albina also offers home-based services to eligible Early Head Start and Head Start age children. They have 21 classrooms for ages: 0-2 and 32 classrooms for children ages: 3-5. 

We would love to provide books for the little ones at Albina. What will you get in return? You will get absolute fulfillment from knowing you're helping some of Portland's most vulnerable children. And If there's one thing we know about Portland, it's that we're a city of readers--huge readers. So when you're headed to this year's Fiesta, grab a book or drop off a few dollars and help us make this a successful book drive!

We will accept the following books at this year's PGSCA information booth:

• New and gently used books for children ages: 0-5 years. 
• Children's books in any language: English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese are encouraged. 
• Books can be found at local bookstores including:  

A Children's Place Bookstore
Green Bean Books
Powell's City of Books

Cinco de Mayo is 1 week away!

Cinco de Mayo is only a week away! We've been busy planning this year's event and it's going to be a great one!  We are still very much in need of volunteers for Tuesday May 5th. Be sure to sign up and get this awesome t-shirt brought to you by this year's volunteer sponsor, Univera! Sign up via our volunteer page.

We have awesome entertainment lined up this year, including our beloved Mariachi all the way from Guadalajara, Ballet Folklórico Mexico en La Piel, and the children's group Ballet Papalotl

Musical acts include Banda Pachuco performing on Sunday 5/3 at 8:30 p.m., as well as Banda La Repareña y Los Broncos del Norte on Sunday 5/3 at 9:00 p.m. Other great bands performing this year are Salsa Nova, Grupo Candente and a tribute to Selena by Talia Reasoner and Edna Vazquez.

For more information and a detailed schedule, be sure to visit our dedicated Cinco de Mayo website at cincodemayo.org.

Hasta Pronto!

Cinco de Mayo featured on Resorts and Lodges.com

Resortsandlodges.com has featured an article about Portland's Cinco de Mayo fiesta! You can read it here:

http://www.resortsandlodges.com/travelblog/2014/04/mexican-fiesta-heart-portland/

At this year's Cinco Fiesta, help feed our local hungry families...

At this year's Cinco de Mayo Fiesta, PGSCA is partnering with SnowCap Community Charities, who provide food, clothing, advocacy and other services to the poor. SnowCap has served over 1.4 million local residents. SnowCap volunteers will be located at entrance gates to collect your donated non-perishable food items. 

In addition, PGSCA has committed to donate 50% of proceeds from our booth merchandise sales to SnowCap this year. Purchase a sombrero, maracas, and other fiesta-inspired items and help your local community by doing so! The PGSCA booth and merchandise will be located close to the main Yamhill entrance gate this year. See you there!

For more information about Cinco de Mayo, visit our event website at www.cincodemayo.org

Be a Cinco de Mayo Volunteer!

Hi friends of PGSCA! We are busy gearing up for this year's Cinco de Mayo Fiesta, taking place at Tom McCall Waterfront Park in downtown Portland between Saturday May 3 and Monday May 5th. This is our 30th anniversary and we have planned some very special events.

We need your help in making this the best Cinco de Mayo yet, and you can do so by registering to volunteer on our cincodemayo.org website. Volunteers can participate by helping kids create crafts, face-painting, greeting guests, joining our Tidy Team to keep the park looking good, among other options. You can see a full list of job descriptions on the volunteer registration page.

This year we will feature a spectacular laser light show on all three evenings, in addition to a very special musical guest on Saturday, the king of the accordion and Grammy award winner, Ramon Ayala, direct from Monterrey, Mexico! Check out more of what we have in store on the Cinco website.

It's our 30th anniversary!

Local Girl Scouts and Guadalajara Guías Scouts meet...virtually

This past Saturday, March 1st, PGSCA joined the Girl Scouts of Oregon and SW Washington at their headquarters to celebrate World Thinking Day (WTD). Dozens of girls ranging in age from 6 to 13 celebrated international friendship with Portland's sister city, Guadalajara, by engaging in arts and crafts activities, dancing, cooking, and even chatting with Guadalajara's Guías Scouts via Skype!

For one activity, Forest Grove's Mexico en La Piel Academia's dance troupe came to perform and then the Girl Scouts got their own dance lesson from their choreographer. The girls then moved into the kitchen to learn how to make tortillas and learn about the origins of chocolate (chocolatl in the native language of Nahuatl) while drinking the tasty beverage. Later, girls visited the arts and crafts room, where they learned to make Mexican ojos de diós and tissue paper flowers. Last but not least, girls visited the Skype room, where they participated in a live video conversation with Gudalajara's Guías Scouts to learn about each other's hobbies, interests, and daily lives. The Girl Scouts and Guías Scouts have also become penpals, and are exchanging drawings and letters. All in all, it was a wonderful day!

View our photo gallery below:

Forest Grove's Mexico en La Piel dance troupe

learning to dance

skyping with Guadalajara

Skyping with Guadalajara

Guadalajara's Guias Scouts via Skype

Today is the day! Come join us for food, fun, and music!

Our fun after-work gathering and fundraiser event is here!

We are getting ready...all of the ingredients for a fun-filled evening are coming together: Dr. Joe Jazz Trio will provide excellent musical entertainment, Red Tomato catering will provide the tasty treats as well as your two free drinks from our bar, and the final and most important ingredient is you!

Tuesday, February 25th, 2014
6:00 - 8:00pm
El Zócalo, El Centro Milagro
537 SE Stark St., Portland OR 97214

Tickets $15. All proceeds will go to the PGSCA education fund.

To kick off our 2014 Community Giving and Education initiatives and thanks to the generosity of our sponsors Providence Health & Services, PGSCA is proud to send 20 underrepresented Portland-area young ladies to Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor's sold out speaking engagement on March 11, 2013 at The Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Listening to Justice Sotomayor's inspiring story will be transformational in these young ladies' lives.

Your attendance will help to support this and future education fund endeavors. In appreciation for your coming out tonight, Amusement Production Services will also provide each of you with a complimentary entry ticket to our Cinco de Mayo fiesta, and an entry to win raffle prizes such as original artwork, a bottle of tequila, and one of five entertainment packages which includes an all-day unlimited carnival ride bracelet + 2 additional tickets to Cinco de Mayo to bring your friends along!

The PGSCA board of directors are looking forward to meeting you and sharing more about our Association during this special evening!

Buy tickets today at http://envisioningourfuture.brownpapertickets.com/
All proceeds will go to the PGSCA education fund.

We'd like to give a huge THANK YOU  again to our event sponsors, Providence Health & Services. 

2/6/14 Fundraiser Postponed due to Weather

NOTICE:  PGSCA regrets to inform the community that due to the impending snow showers in Portland and in the interest of everyone's safety, we must postpone tonight's fundraising event at Milagro Theater. We will update everyone in the near future regarding a new date. All those who have already purchased tickets will receive a refund as promptly as we can process them.

Thank you so much for your support and we look forward to seeing you under better weather conditions. As a note, we are STILL sending the young ladies to Justice Sotomayor's speaking engagement and we will be sure to update our blog and website with news and updates.

Teresa Alonso to attend PGSCA Fundraiser

Teresa Alonso, who recently became the state of Oregon GED Administrator and a Woodburn City Council member (3rd Latino/a in the history of the city!), has graciously accepted to take time out of her schedule to say a few words at our fundraiser this Thursday. As I was sitting here thinking to myself what I might say about Teresa, I think I’ll let her speak for herself:

As a child of migrant farm workers, I grew up with limited encouragement for school as work took a higher priority. As the eldest of five children, I developed strong multitasking, negotiation and leadership skills, which I then used to link my parents to the American culture. By successfully advocating for myself and convincing my parents that I needed to go to college, I built the foundation for my life's passion which is to develop and promote education-based programs that help increase graduation rates and reduce dropout rates among communities of color.

Teresa has proudly followed her passion to help youth for the last 16 years. She developed two new programs at Portland State University: the Community Outreach Program and the Faculty Mentoring Program, targeted to faculty of color. Teresa has also served as a program director for Portland Community College, where she developed a national scholarship program for migrant students called the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP). Teresa writes,  “my dream is to expand my sphere of influence by continuing to help many underprivileged and underrepresented communities see their potential and attain their goals.”

Now if this isn’t an example of vision and perseverance, I don’t know what is! You can join Teresa and other great community leaders at our fundraising event, “Envisioning our Future,” this Thursday. Hope to see you there!

contributed by: Shaun Garcia

Oregon Girl Scouts and Guadalajara's Guías Scouts celebrate World Thinking Day

Using World Thinking Day (WTD) as point of origin, PGSCA went about connecting the Girl Scouts of Oregon and SW Washington and the Guías Scouts of Guadalajara.

WTD is an opportunity for our local Girl Scouts to celebrate international friendship, and who better to connect them with than to Tapatías? Wait, you’re probably thinking to yourself what’s a Tapatía? Trust me friends, it’s not just the hot sauce you find in the stores. A Tapatía/o is a colloquialism used to refer to people from the city of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico's second largest city.

PGSCA will be celebrating WTD with the Girl Scouts and Guías Scouts on March 1st. We’ve got some FUN activities in the works for World Thinking Day, so you’ll have to come back and see the pictures and read the stories!

To further our mission to promote cross-cultural understanding and education, we’re also thrilled to give the Girl Scouts of Oregon and SW Washington’s Hispanic Initiative 10 tickets to Sonia Sotomayor’s speaking engagement on March 11 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. You can help support these and other programs by attending our after-work gathering and fundraiser on February 6th.

Toodaloo for now!

contributed by: Shaun Garcia

visit PGSCA at the International Development Showcase

Think global? Here's an event for you! Join us at the World Affairs Council of Oregon’s holiday party & international showcase on Dec. 12 at 6pm. We’re one of the featured local internationally focused non-profits. Mix, mingle and learn more about many of our community's great organizations doing work around the globe. 

Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara

Guadalajara's annual International Book Fair will take place from November 30th through December 8th 2013. It is described as "the most outstanding meeting of the Spanish-language publishing world" where authors, literary agents, librarians, booksellers and more than 1,935 publishing houses from 43 countries visit every year.

To learn more visit the FIL Website

Founded in 1987 by the University of Guadalajara, the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL) is the largest market in the world for Spanish language publications.