Su Teatro Cultural and Performing Arts Center now owns building after paying off mortgage

This theater's roots run deep in the Denver community.

"This is that place where we can tell our story, we can do poetry, we can do theatre, we can do music," said Tony Garcia, the executive director at Su Teatro Cultural and Performing Arts Center. "Su Teatro comes out of the Chicano movement. We were very much influenced by that and self-determination."

After more than a decade, Su Teatro finally owns the place they've called home, after paying off their $780,000 mortgage.

While the theater has been around since 1972, it's only been at the Santa Fe location since 2010. The production of Colorado Poet Laureate Bobby LeFebre's "Northside" - a play about gentrification in Denver - helped the theater raise $250,000 to pay for what was left on the building.

"Every step of every move that Su Teatro has made has been the support of community, whether it's $5 here, $20 there, a señora coming up, putting a $20 bill in my hand, that has always been at the core," Garcia said.

And without that community support, maintaining real estate for nonprofits in Denver is even more of a struggle.

"If an organization isn't tied in with the community that they're serving, then certainly they're going to be much more at risk for displacement," said Aaron Martinez, the vice president of operations and sustainability at Urban Land Conservancy. "They need advocates, they need people supporting and raising their voice on behalf of those organizations."  

In 2022, the Chicano Humanities and Arts Council, which had been located on Santa Fe Drive for years, closed its Denver location and relocated to Lakewood. CHAC members said it was because they were priced out of the area. And just as people are pushed out by higher costs, so too are the nonprofits that serve those communities, and that's detrimental to everyone.

"Those services and the wide variety of services that are offered by non-profits are harder to come by and they're harder to access when these organizations are pushed out," Martinez said.

For Su Teatro, paying off the mortgage marks a symbol of transition. Garcia said it's a home that they can now pass on for the future community.

"I would like people to understand that our community has power, and has the strength to be self-sufficient, to make things happen, to build things for our future generations because we have commitment and we have passion," said Garcia.

Su Teatro is having a mortgage-burning event on Jan. 27 at 4 p.m. to mark this monumental moment. The community is invited to join. It will be on the southside parking lot on the 7th Ave side. Food and drinks will be available.