Blog

One Hood: Police & Youth Play For a Stronger Future

One Hood: Police & Youth Play For a Stronger Future

Music filled the South End neighborhood surrounding the Blackstone Community Center last Friday night. Community members mingled with one another - children and adults alike had their faces painted, everyone enjoyed hot dogs and sweet swirls of cotton candy, people danced, teenagers joked with their coaches, but what was most noticeable were t...

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Finding Beauty Everywhere: An Interview with Ricardo Maldonado

Finding Beauty Everywhere: An Interview with Ricardo Maldonado

On Friday night, July 8th, at Villa Victoria Center for the Arts, Ricardo Maldonado opened his show “De Aquí y de Allá” to the public. He is an artist originally from Spain who has been in Boston for many years. With bold, contrasting colors and images of familiar scenes in nature, Maldonado invited guests to appreciate the natural beauty around them. We had some time to speak with Ricardo, where ...

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Another Betances Reveal: Sunday's Main Act

Another Betances Reveal: Sunday's Main Act

The last day of Festival Betances, Sunday July 17th, we will be presenting a salsa band from New York, made up of 8 musicians, that live up to their name 8 y Más (8 and More), with their music they fill the stage and sound as if a full orchestra were playing. The band’s drummer, Bobby Allende, told us about their origins, music, and trajectory. 8 y Más was formed 10 years ago, but Allende has bee...

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Another Big Reveal! Interview with Festival Betances Main Saturday Act

Another Big Reveal! Interview with Festival Betances Main Saturday Act

Jesus Pagán is a Puerto Rican singer who has always felt close the salsa genre. Throughout his career which started in 1998, he has been part of the chorus or percussionist for some of the greatest of salsa, the likes of Rubén Blades. He decided to branch off on his own eight years ago, and since then his success as singer and composer has only been increasing. He will be performing his unique sty...

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Leaders in Diversity: Vanessa Calderón-Rosado Makes Community Impact

Leaders in Diversity: Vanessa Calderón-Rosado Makes Community Impact

The Boston Business Journal has published an article about our CEO, Dr. Vanessa Calderón-Rosado. Education: Bachelor's degree in education, University of Puerto Rico, 1986; master's degree in speech language pathology, 1989; master's d...

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Community Success: Senior Resource Fair

Community Success: Senior Resource Fair

Last week, our community seniors had the chance to learn about all the assistance and benefits available to them during IBA’s resource fair held in partnership with Caregiver Homes. Caregiver Homes is a MassHealth program which provides support to family caregivers. A multitude of city organizations and priva...

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Celebrating 10 Years of One Hood Unity

Celebrating 10 Years of One Hood Unity

Friendly faces smile widely at the camera, as each teen holds up one finger — a symbol of One Hood unity. They pose for their family members and friends who are taking pictures to immortalize the moment and feeling. Young people from the Villa Park neighborhood joke with others from Cathedral. A Villa Victoria boy walks around and embraces one of his friends. However, this peaceful and joyful reu...

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Playing Tango, as Far as Life Allows it: Pablo Ziegler

Playing Tango, as Far as Life Allows it: Pablo Ziegler

It is with great pleasure that IBA hosted this memorable concert, featuring two of the greatest maestros of tango: Pablo Ziegler accompanied by special guest Claudio Ragazzi. Ziegler comes from a classical background with an affinity for jazz which he learned from the father of Nuevo Tango himself, Astor Piazzolla. He is perceived as a continuation of this modern interpretation of the classic genr...

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Giving Needed Assistance and Benefits to our Residents

Giving Needed Assistance and Benefits to our Residents

During the course of our 50 years, IBA- Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción, has been at the forefront of the fight towards equality. We believe that every individual is deserving of a high quality of life and it is our mission to advocate for those rights. This is why our Resident Services program is devoted exclusively to ensuring that our community enjoys all the assistance and benefits available ...

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Portraits of a Young Artist’s Journey

Portraits of a Young Artist’s Journey

Capturing the human experience on canvas has always been a driving force in the art world. There is something about depicting human emotion that mesmerizes observers and artists alike. Each of Isabella Mellado’s strokes on the canvas are painted with this sole purpose, capturing emotion. Every face painted portrays an intricate level of detail that tells a story. This is a talent that only the mos...

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Inspiring to Create, A Latino Photographer from Villa Victoria

Inspiring to Create, A Latino Photographer from Villa Victoria

Artist Pedro Cruz let’s the familiar city environment guide his pieces. He creates poems, prose, paintings, and what he is most well known for: photography. Cruz describes himself as a “city kid,” born and raised in our own Villa Victoria. “Spanish is my parents’ first language, I'm a first generation American,” he explained. Cruz describes himself as a Latino artist, and underlines the importanc...

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Warming up the Holidays with IBA’s Tree Lighting

Warming up the Holidays with IBA’s Tree Lighting

Every year our community gathers around Plaza Betances for our Tree Lighting and comes together to enjoy traditional Puerto Rican parrandas, a staple of the holidays, light a beautiful big tree, and of course Santa is always invited and comes with presents for the little ones. This time the celebration took place on Wednesday, December 9th but, before the tree lighting even began, the resident ba...

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CEO, Vanessa Calderón-Rosado, Interviewed by Banker & Tradesman

CEO, Vanessa Calderón-Rosado, Interviewed by Banker & Tradesman

Our CEO, Vanessa Calderon-Rosado was recently profiled in Banker and Tradesman, “the financial and real estate services weekly for Massachusetts.” She spoke about our affordable housing plans and shared some of the obstacles we are facing as well as the current state of gentrification in Boston’s South End. You can read all of it below. Vanessa Calderon-Rosado...

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Wilfred Labiosa: Painting Abstracts, Landscapes, and the Old San Juan

Wilfred Labiosa: Painting Abstracts, Landscapes, and the Old San Juan

[caption id="attachment_4162" align="alignleft" width="323"] Photo Credit: Galería W. Labiosa[/caption] Wilfred La...

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IBA Hosts a Night of Big Band Cumbia

IBA Hosts a Night of Big Band Cumbia

This past Saturday October 24, we had the pleasure of hosting Gregorio Uribe Big Band, a New York favorite, for their CD release show, to a sold out audience right here at our Villa Victoria Center for the Arts. The band, made up of 16 musicians and led by Gregorio Uribe played classic Cumbia and other typical Colombian music through powerful arrangements using all of their instruments. Uribe’s p...

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