Dancers with Ballet Folklorico Maricruz perform during the grand reopening of the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center on Saturday, June 6, 2026 in Austin.
Feathered headdresses, swirling folklórico skirts, bottomless agua frescas and live music filled the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center on Saturday as Austinites celebrated the facility's grand reopening after more than three years of construction.
If one word defined the day, it was “home.”
John Estrada, advisory board member at MACC, looks at artwork and posters from the Gilberto Cardenas and Dolores Carillo Garcia collection in the Coronado gallery during the grand reopening of the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center on Saturday, June 6, 2026 in Austin.
The Mexican American Cultural Center, known as the MACC, unveiled the results of its Phase 2 expansion project, a three-and-a-half-year effort that added two new wings and renovated the cultural center at 600 River St. in downtown Austin's Rainey Street Historic District.
The expansion includes upgraded classrooms, art studios and galleries, music and theater rehearsal rooms, conference space, a teaching kitchen and outdoor improvements designed to broaden the center's cultural programming.
“Cultural arts is not just dancing, music, theater and painting,” MACC marketing representative Olivia Tamzarian said. “It includes skills like gardening, yoga, holistic wellness and culinary arts.”
The MACC’s 20-year journey
A sign is installed near the Ann and Roy Butler hike and bike trail outside the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center on Saturday, June 6, 2026 in Austin.
The reopening also marked a new chapter in a decades-long community effort.
Latino artists, cultural leaders and University of Texas students began advocating for a dedicated Mexican American cultural center in Austin in the late 1970s. Funding eventually came through a mix of voter-approved bonds, private donations and federal grants, according to the Texas State Historical Association. Construction began in 2006, and the center officially opened Sept. 15, 2007.
That history is highlighted in a new bilingual exhibit, “Imagination Knows No Borders,” now on display in the first-floor community gallery.
“This place is sacred. The land is sacred,” Tamzarian said. “It was always a place where families thrived.”
The center was renamed in 2011 to honor Emma S. Barrientos, a cultural arts advocate and political activist who championed Latino communities across Central Texas. Barrientos helped found the Tejano Democrats, Ballet Folklórico de Tejas and Austin's Mexic-Arte Museum before her death in 2009.
“The community deserves this. They advocated for the MACC and it took almost 40 years to get it built,” Tamzarian said. “We owe it to the founding members, who are now elders, to see their vision to fruition and make sure the next generation has a place to come together and appreciate that history.”
The crown jewel of the MACC is the Perez-Ramos Plaza, which sits on the shore of Lady Bird Lake. It's modeled after a zócalo, a traditional public square or central plaza found in towns across Mexico and other parts of Latin America.
“It gives a sense of belonging,” MACC Administrative Specialist Tina Davila said. “A lot of the time when we have our board meetings, people want to feel welcome and want to feel that sense of home. That’s what the MACC brings.”
Sculptres are installed near the Ann and Roy Butler hike and bike trail outside the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center on Saturday, June 6, 2026 in Austin.
The plaza is also home to "Tejano Music Legends," a sculpture by Connie Arismendi honoring the contributions of the Perez and Ramos families to Tejano music. The sculpture depicts brothers Ruben and Ernest Perez playing the saxophone and Alfonso and Ruben Ramos — also known as El Gato Negro — singing a song.
“It’s a center that promotes and showcases Latino excellence and can be an incubator, but you don’t need to identify as a certain race in order to use and love the center,” Tamzarian said.
Saturday's grand opening included perfor