With a twist of humor and a touch of poignancy, Amelia Nieto (third from left) tells her story in song after inviting those in attendance at her 60th birthday celebration to join in. The Centro Shalom director's special day coincided with the 60th anniversary of the center
Centro Shalom provides support services for new immigrants, serving as a multicultural, multi-ethnic community that also gives assistance to homeless and impoverished people. The center opened its doors in 1977 and traces its genesis to a chance encounter between Nieto’s mother, Olivia Herrera, a Hispanic woman trained as a social worker who was an activist in Cesar Chavez’s farm-worker organizing movement, and Samuel Araya, a Methodist minister who was a refugee from Salvador Allende’s Chile. Araya was a Christian Socialist who had fled Chile in 1972 following the CIA-backed overthrow of the Allende regime.
Araya, who was the pastor for the Latin-American United Methodist Church of Long Beach in the mid-1970s, met Herrera at a Methodist function and challenged her to put her talents to work in Long Beach, which he saw as a city with many people in need.
He provided the place, she provided the expertise, and Centro Shalom was born.
According to information provided in the program for the center’s celebration, “Over its 30 years of service, under the capable and dependable leadership of its founder Olivia and then her daughter Amelia, the current director, and with the help of literally scores of volunteers, Centro Shalom has grown, moved, struggled and groaned with the times, always wondering where its next dollar would come from.”
At last Saturday’s celebration, former 7th District Long Beach Councilmember Tonia Reyes-Uranga served as mistress and ceremonies. Marc Coleman, who is Centro Shalom’s program board chair, provided the introduction for the event. Thereafter, Dale Whitney, a pastor for a local Presbyterian church who also manages the Uptown Farmers Market, gave the invocation.
For the event’s program, Whitney wrote “Amelia’s Story,” in which he mentioned that Nieto was born in 1952, which made her just a little too young to be involved in the social revolution of the 1960s. “But even in her childhood, she had many experiences which contributed to her eventual involvement in the struggle for social and economic justice,” Whitney wrote. “There was a time, before Amelia can even remember, when such an esteemed foreign visitor as Che Guevara would visit their household, at her grandfather’s invitation.”
In the biography, Whitney described Nieto as compassionate, knowledgeable, approachable and dependable. “Her commitment to the Centro and its clients is absolutely tangible, and we are all more than pleased that she is still our executive director after these 19 years. We love you, Amelia!”
During the event, Nieto also shared her story with those in attendance, but she did so through music. Included in the printed program for the celebration were the lyrics to three songs: “De Colores,” “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “This Land is Your Land,” and Nieto led the group in a sing-along of those selections, cajoling each individual in attendance to participate.
