What's your story?
The Isac Amaya Foundation started as a radio show called El Break! A group of friends got together to do a youth radio show in 2006 because there was no Spanish talk radio for young people (There still isn't) so we did that for about 4 years. While we were on air, we started to see different issues that were affecting our community, so as a group we got involved in different things. The main one was education, specifically higher education for DREAMers. We threw our first fundraiser in 2006 and raised 1,000. We held a hunger strike to call attention to the DREAM Act after prop. 300 passed in Arizona; we traveled to Washington DC to lobby for the legislation and we started hosting community forums to inform the community about different things related to higher education: financial aid, the college enrollment process, scholarships for undocumented students, student rights, etc. We were all kids back then! The youngest was like 17 years old.
One of the people in the radio show was Isac. He used to do the clubs and parties segment for El Break! That guy was a partier and he was super sweet and super smart. Laura and I (also in the show) met him at Phoenix College where he took all the math courses he could before they ran out of math classes for him to take and it was time for him to transfer to ASU. But he couldn't. It was too expensive and he was undocumented. In August of 2006, the company Isac worked for sent him to Tennessee to train a group of people but when he was driving there, he was in a car accident and passed away. That was one of the hardest things we've ever had to face. He was one of our best friends.
He was 25.
When we stopped doing the radio show, we decided that we didn't want to stop doing the community work we had started so our focus became raising funds to give scholarships to undocumented students. To do that, we had to be a more formal organization because we didn't know how many donors would give money to "El Break!" hahaha. So when we were looking for a name, we thought "What better way to honor Isac, a hard working guy who was doing everything he could to get ahead and wanted to go back to school as soon as he could, than to name our organization after him." So the Isac Amaya Foundation was born in 2009 and 5 years later, here we are! We're all grown up now but we are just as passionate about the work we do than when we were high school and college students.
What's the future hold for PHX?
One of the things that was the most fun for us while doing the radio show was getting to know everything that was going on in the city and helping to promote it. In 2007 we actually started doing Stylos Awards (Stylos as it is known now because the first one was done in 2005) and that was a way for us to showcase and recognize local talent because we felt like there was a gap in platforms that artists, musicians and others could use! We started developing relationships with all sorts of people and we loved the fact that we could be part of the growth of this city.
A lot has happened since then and for some time there was a plateau in growth and vibrance. It was around 2010 when all the SB1070 shenanigans were going on. There was a vibe in the city that was unwelcoming to the Latino Community and actually many people left.
In the last couple of years though, that has started to change again and it feels awesome! Phoenix has an identity and we Phoenicians take a lot of pride in being from here. We choose to stay because we're building things...movements and we don't want to miss out. I think Phoenix is going to be a magnet city pretty soon. As long we continue to work in it and for it with the passion that we have been.
For more info about The Isac Amaya Foundation and to donate too please check out www.isacamayafoundation.org
Photographer: Hector Primero
Location: Phoenix Center of the Arts