Ignacio Gomez – Sculptor of Cesar E. Chavez Memorial Statue

We are a passionate, strong, viable, caring organization, concerned about the virtues of education and is committed to serving the young of our community.

The Latino Network began 31 years ago in the summer of 1993. A group of individuals met at “My Brother’s Place,” a restaurant that used to be located by city hall. The original meetings were to discuss the upcoming appointment of a new trustee for the Riverside Community College District and to find ways to lend support to our candidate to fill that seat. With the rapidly increasing Latino population, he had a chance to become the second Latino trustee in the history of the college.

When the appointment effort failed the group decided to continue meeting around a breakfast format and to invite other people in the community to join them on Wednesday mornings to share and comment on issues and events relating to the Latino community in the Riverside area.

The meetings were a popular place for newcomers and old-timers to come and network. After My Brother’s Place closed the meetings were held at various restaurants including La Escondidita (corner of Brockton and University) another restaurant located at the original Squires on University and Zacatecas Café. Since we had to find a new location each time a restaurant closed or we outgrew a restaurant, it was decided that we would begin meeting at the Centro de Niños site.  First we met at the Centro site on the school grounds and religious center of Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine on Pleasant and Victoria.  While we couldn’t order breakfast, the location allowed us to have coffee and pan dulce and most importantly, the childcare center served to remind us why our work was necessary; the children.  We continued to meet at the new Nati Fuentes Child Development Center, Centro de Niños on Martin Luther King Boulevard.  Before the pandemic of 2020 we met in person on the first and third Wednesdays of each month.   During the Pandemic we moved to a zoom format and moved meetings to once a month, the third Wednesday of each month.   After the pandemic era we moved our meeting back to Zacatecas Cafe at their new location on Iowa Avenue.  We continue to meet there in person on the third Wednesday of each month.  John and Vicky Medina have been great hosts for our monthly meetings.  

We continue to provide a place where individuals can come for a cup of coffee and pan dulce to celebrate events impacting the Latino community, where someone can voice a concern, where opinions are expressed, where we can come to hear a community leader address progress or lack of it, where we can lend a word of hope and support.

Annual events include:

• The Cesar Chavez Memorial breakfast, which promotes the legacy of Cesar Chavez
• Annual Nuestra Navidad breakfast, which enables us to raise funds for youth leadership programs.
• Annual student leadership conference
• Annual mixer and installation event in January of each year
• Regular participation and support of many significant community events
  • Riverside Tamale Festival
  • Riverside Arts Academy
  • Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art and Culture
• Support of numerous other community events and causes