NAMPA, Idaho — The City of Nampa has formally renamed the former Hispanic Cultural Center of Idaho to the Idaho Hispanic Community Center, or IH2C.
- On Monday the Nampa City Council voted 5-1 approving the name change.
- The new name had three criteria to adhere to: it couldn't be too long, it had to be easily translatable into Spanish, and it had to encapsulate the original intent of the center.
- The former name belongs to the legal non-profit evicted from the building in 2023.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
"I was going to say, really the only change is from 'cultural' to 'community', so why was that so important in the selection of the name?"
"I think that a lot of it had to do with the inclusivity of the entire community, not just Hispanic and Latino, but the community, in general, to make sure that they feel also welcome in the center because we want to obviously promote the heritage of the center and heritage of the Hispanic people, but in order for that to happen we need engagement," responded Idaho Hispanic Community Center manager José DeLéon.
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Being part of the larger community is all-inclusive. On Monday the Nampa City Council voted 5-1 approving the name change of the former Hispanic Cultural Center of Idaho to the Idaho Hispanic Community Center, or IH2C.
Possible names, 47 in all submitted, were vetted through the city's Community & Cultural Advisory Group.
"The three big criteria were that it couldn't be too long, it had to be easily translatable into Spanish, and to capture the original intent of the center from when it was first established," added in Community & Cultural Advisory Group chair Dan Puga.
When IH2C facilities manager Jose DeLéon was hired in February, one of the priorities was getting the names changed. The change of name to IH2C is not just to increase inclusivity and engagement with Nampa communities, the former name is the legal non-profit of the evicted tenants in 2023.
"One of the things that needed to happen was to prioritize a name. The name on the building is also the name of the non-profit that was here. Because it's an active nonprofit, we cannot use the name so we needed to pivot," said DeLéon.
"It's the first domino in a series of dominoes. You can't have a website, Facebook presence, marketing material, all of that stuff," explained Puga.
