Latinx Technology & Community Center provides a home away from home and a chance to thrive
Ana Beatriz immigrated to the United States from Cuba in 2021. Like many immigrants, she chose to leave behind all she has ever known to seek refuge and hope in the United States and work toward creating a life of opportunity.
She was one of the nearly 20 million Latinx immigrants who came to the United States that year. The Pew Research Center estimates that, as of 2023, immigrants accounted for a third of the nation’s total Latinx population.
“Right now, we are seeing explosive growth from Latin Americans coming to Flint,” said Asa Ascencio Zuccaro, executive director of the Latinx Technology & Community Center. Last July, more than 750 people came to LTCC, requiring help from its four staff members, including Zuccaro. In January, historically the center’s slowest month, 500 people visited the center for resources.
Beatriz found her way to LTCC after she became pregnant during her first winter in Michigan. She immediately was concerned about how she would navigate her pregnancy in the United States when she did not understand English. Once Beatriz arrived in Flint, she quickly made connections through new friends who directed her to LTCC.
Speaking in Spanish, Beatriz relayed, “It’s important to have a center like the Latinx Center because, here, we have all the resources grouped in one place. Here, we have the answers and a person who helps us in our own language. It makes day-to-day life easier by solving the problems that generally all people have.”
LTCC, formerly known as the Hispanic Technology and Community Center, was established in 2001 to address the gap in access to internet technology and public information caused by language barriers and the lack of social equity for the neighborhood and Latinx population. Since its opening over 20 years ago, it has become a deeply trusted resource center and a home away from home for many Latinx people in Flint.
“I think the easiest way to talk about our work is three simple words — celebrate, educate and advocate,” Zuccaro said. “We want to embrace community, whether that be a geographic — our eastside community — or a cultural community.”
According to Zuccaro, the biggest challenge facing the Latinx community is being denied the opportunity to thrive.
“Unfortunately, what we see frequently is a denial of access, a denial of the ability to be involved in a program or service due to language barriers, cultural barriers or immigration status barriers,” he said. “The greatest barrier is the inability to thrive, to be prosperous, to be healthy and just to be vibrant in your life, exactly as you are.”
A stark example of that is the maternal mortality rate, which has dramatically increased for Hispanic1 women in the U.S. since the onset of the pandemic. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. saw a 44% increase in maternal mortality rates among Hispanic women in a single year — from 12.6 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2019 to 18.2 in 2020.
Dancers with the Latinx Summer Youth Program perform on stage during the Latinx Summer Celebration on Aug. 6, 2022.
Photo: Jennifer Veloso
Cultures del Sol dancers perform a traditional Mexican folk dance during the Chavez Huerta Luncheon Celebration at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Flint on March 23, 2024.
Photo: Jennifer Veloso
Carrie and Derrick Newman play Jenga with their son Judah, 2, during LTCC’s 2023 Cinco de Mayo celebration, which was held in downtown Flint’s Buckham Alley.
Photo: Jennifer Veloso
(Left to right) Tony and Cruz Asencio took part in LTCC’s Cinco de Mayo celebration in 2023.
Photo: Jennifer Veloso
Juliza Murillo, originally from Jalisco, Mexico, poses for a portrait during LTCC’s Dia de Los Muertos celebration on Nov. 2, 2022, in downtown Flint.
Photo: Jenifer Veloso
Community members honor loved ones who have passed at LTCC’s Dia de los Muertos event at the Flint Institute of Arts on Nov. 1, 2023.
Photo: Jennifer Veloso
Mildred Silva Zuccaro poses for a portrait during the Dia de los Muertos event at the FIA on Nov. 1, 2023.
Photo: Jennifer Veloso
Students receive tutoring services at LTCC on Feb. 27, 2024.
Photo: Jennifer Veloso
Asa Zuccaro, LTCC executive director, greets people during the center’s Halloween Trick-or-Treat Event on Oct. 28, 2023.
Photo: Jennifer Veloso
A community member receives a free blood pressure assessment, while also utilizing interpreter services, during the Latinx Health Fair on May 31, 2023.
Photo: Jennifer Veloso
A family embraces after a Latinx Summer Youth Program performance in 2023.
Photo: Jennifer Veloso
A couple dances in the street during the Latinx Summer Celebration on Aug. 5, 2023.
Photo: Jennifer VelosoCelebrating and Serving the Community
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Eliminating language barriers
Fortunately, Beatriz was able to rely heavily on LTCC’s interpreter services to help ensure her ability to have a safe pregnancy and delivery.
“I don’t speak English, and this place has been a lifeline,” Beatriz said in Spanish. “Here, they have interpretation services for medical appointments, which are super important. It would be impossible to communicate with a person or a doctor who has limited time for you. Without a translator, it would be very, very difficult.”
Maria Kohn is one of the interpreters serving the Latinx community through LTCC.
“I wanted to be an interpreter because I believe that this is a great help for the members who request it,” said Kohn in Spanish. “I have interpreted for medical appointments; interviews at schools; conferences for mothers, fathers and teachers; cultural events; conferences; and speeches.”
LTCC staff understand that the best way for the Latinx community to thrive is to have supportive wraparound services that meet the unique needs of residents. The major resources provided are language services, academic tutoring and summer programs for young people, health care fairs and cultural events.
Expansion and education
The Hispanic2 population continues to grow, both nationwide and locally. In 2022, the Pew Research Center released a brief statistical portrait of the U.S. Hispanic population, which reached 62.1 million in 2020, accounting for 19% of the American population. Hispanic people officially make up the nation’s second largest racial or ethnic group, second to white Americans and ahead of Black Americans.
Recently, LTCC needed to expand its facilities and programs to address the rapid growth and needs of the local Latinx population.
Since 2017, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation has granted more than $1.4 million to LTCC to provide community and cultural programs and services focused on the needs of the Latinx population in the Flint area. This included a $575,000 grant in 2021 to help renovate the building’s second floor.
The expansion facilitated more space for classrooms and training.
“Through our education and literacy programs, we want to make sure that you have the education, the certification that you need to be a scholar or gainfully employed,” said Zuccaro.
More recently, the state of Michigan’s 2024 fiscal year budget allocated $2.6 million for the buildout of a new bilingual childhood education space at LTCC, which is expected to be completed by fall 2025. This will increase access to educational programs and help address the unique needs of bilingual immigrant children. Parents who are still learning to speak English often struggle to help their children study and complete homework assignments. LTCC offers tutoring for those children.
Josin Ramirez, now a dual-enrolled junior at the Genesee Early College and the University of Michigan-Flint, originally was sent to LTCC by his mother when he was working on a written homework assignment on W.E.B. Du Bois while in middle school.
“My mom told me to come here so that I could get help,” said Ramirez. “And then I figured out that Asa was also a fan of W.E.B. Du Bois. He had a couple of his books, which really helped me out.”
“I think one of the greatest things that I was able to do was to think back on how Du Bois and his work really impacted my life,” said Zuccaro. “And I was able to share that with Josin Ramirez, who is a first-generation Mexican American living in the United States.
“Du Bois did a fantastic job of articulating the experience of living in the United States and being treated as different based on race and ethnicity or color. There is this weird duality, right? How can you see yourself through your own lens that is distorted and yet still see yourself through the lens of the other through the dominant culture? We bonded over this.”
The LTCC is important to Ramirez not only for its tutoring services, but also for the ways it has helped his mother.
“It helps my mom when I am not there for her to translate documents that come in — from bills to my papers coming from the state of Michigan. And they help the community I live in,” he said.
While LTCC helps immigrants navigate the many challenges of integrating into American society, Kohn said its greatest support comes in a unique form — it fosters the feeling of home.
“The center has been important to me personally because it provides connections,” said Kohn, speaking in Spanish. “Connection, belonging and community. And when I say ‘connection,’ I mean the importance of two cultures as part of one individual. People who come from outside want to integrate, but we can’t forget who we are — nor do we want to, either.”
[1] Hispanic is the terminology used specifically by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when referring to the Spanish speaking population in the United States.
[2] Hispanic is the terminology used specifically by the Pew Research Center when referring to the Spanish speaking population in the United States.
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