The women of La Mujer Obrera are traditional modernists. They strive for social, economic and social justice to benefit Mexican immigrant women through social enterprise and technology yet remain loyal to their cultural roots and the revitalization of old-fashioned Mexican Culture in the South Central Barrio.

Some may be familiar with the group that has owned and ran Café Mayapan at 2000 Texas Ave., a restaurant known for its traditional Mexican food and atmosphere, for the past seven years. The restaurant hires displaced women in order to teach them work skills and integrate themselves into the community as part of La Mujer’s Obrea’s El Puente Community Development Organization. The members of La Mujer Obrera have much more in store for the community.

On Aug. 28, La Mujer Obrera will have a fundraiser for the new Centro Mayapan, 2101 Myrtle, which will open to the community for the first time. The official grand opening for Centro Mayapan, which will have a festival marketplace and community center, is in February.

“Centro Mayapan is in part here to help generate jobs for low-income families and workers, many of them older women who have lost jobs and to help revitalize Mexican culture,” said fundraiser committee member Rebecca Munoz. “Dr. Carrasco was good choice because he is an El Paso native and researches a lot about indigenous culture, which we are trying to preserve and promote.”

David Carrasco, Professor for the Study of Latin America at Harvard Divinity School and an El Paso native, will speak twice on Aug. 28. Carrasco, the son of David L. Carrasco, for whom the El Paso Job Corps is named, will give the lecture “Pilgrimage and Sacred Homeland: Recovering a Precious Mexican Codex About Our Ancestors,” from 8-10:30 a.m. at Café Mayapan. A minimum of a $15 donation is required at the door, $10 for students. He also will speak at the dinner, which starts at 6 p.m. Click here for dinner registration information.

The dinner also will feature UTEP Professor Irasema Coronado, who co-authored the book “Politicas: Latina Political Officials in Texas.” Two community members, Cindy Ramos-Davidson from the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Sally Andrade from the city’s Empowerment Zone advisory board, will be recognized for their work throughout the city in general and economic development with La Mujer Obrera in specific.

“La Mujer Obrera works to address the lack of fair wages and jobs available and wants to reconnect women affiliated with the organization to the local economy,” Munoz said. “It began as a response to the rights of factory workers in the early '80s but since then has come to include women’s leadership and community empowerment.”

Munoz said Centro Mayapan is the first step of renewal for South Central El Paso, once the home of multiple manufacturing plants. According to the organization’s web site, the center will include a museum and cultural arts plaza, a media and technology center educating women in journalism and use of computers, a small business and trading marketplace, a farmer’s market and training center and education in bilingual skills and entrepreneurial training for women to support themselves in the workforce.

“When Centro Mayapan opens we have to create at least 100 new jobs and have five to 10 small businesses inside,” Munoz said. “Places like the media center were thought of to bridge the gap of access and knowledge of technology for people who did not have close proximity to it.”

However, Centro Mayapan is only a stepping-stone. La Mujer Obrera has a long-term idea in mind called Plan Mayachen, which Munoz says the group hopes to realize in the next five to 10 years. Centro Mayapan, she says, is a demonstration site for Plan Mayachen to prove the idea feasible. Munoz said the proposed site for Plan Mayachen would span six blocks and 27 acres from E. San Antonio to Magoffin streets.