Friday, January 31, 2025

To start the new year, join us for an up to the minute report from the Canadian delegates who recently attended the World Congress of Anti-Fascist Youth and Students in Caracas, Venezuela. The speakers will discuss Venezuelan communes, human rights, peace, Indigenous resistance and plans for building an international youth movement. 
Everyone is welcome!

Refreshments including Fair Trade Nicaraguan coffee. Donations gratefully accepted. 

Sponsored by Central America Support Committee (CASC).

Paul Phillips Hall at Fernwood Community and Arts  Association
1923 Fernwood Road 
Doors open at 7:00 PM: 7:30 PM presentation.

 www.victoriacasc.org

https://www.facebook.com/vcasc/

Friday, November 29, 2024

Paul Phillips Hall at Fernwood Community Association and Arts
1923 Fernwood Road 
Doors open at 7:00 PM: 7:30 PM presentation

The recent death of Gustavo Gutierrez, known as the Father of Liberation Theology, inspired this month’s Cafe. The Liberation Theology movement aimed to restore dignity and hope to the poor and the excluded by freeing them from intolerable living conditions. Join us as speakers explore the revolutionary impact of Liberation Theology in Latin America.

Everyone is welcome. Refreshments including Fair Trade Nicaraguan coffee. Donations gratefully accepted. 

Sponsored by Central America Support Committee (CASC)

www.victoriacasc.orghttps://www.facebook.com/vcasc/

Friday, October 25, 2024

Paul Phillips Hall at Fernwood Community Association 

1923 Fernwood Road 

Doors open at 7:00 PM: 7:30 PM presentation.

Communities of the Pacific West Coast (Mexico/Canada) for Climate Justice: Creating a shared agenda for planetary health and climate action.

Matilde Cervantes is an interdisciplinary researcher and artist who has been curating and producing cultural and artistic events internationally through the Global Pax Collective initiatives for two decades. Join us as Matty shares information about her current project and her thoughts on art for social change and collaborative justice. 

 Everyone is welcome! Refreshments including Fair Trade Nicaraguan coffee. Donations gratefully accepted. 

Sponsored by Central America Support Committee (CASC)

www.victoriacasc.orghttps://www.facebook.com/vcasc/

Friday, September 27, 2024

Paul Phillips Hall at Fernwood Community Association 

1923 Fernwood Road

Doors open at 7:00 PM: 7:30 PM presentation. 

Please join us for the first Cafe of the fall season. 

Rotarian Bill Feyrer provides insight into Rotary projects in Honduras and political activist Tyson Strandlund brings recent news from Argentina and Venezuela. There will be time for discussion and questions. 

 Everyone is welcome! Refreshments including Fair Trade Nicaraguan coffee. Donations gratefully accepted. 

Sponsored by Central America Support Committee (CASC)

www.victoriacasc.orghttps://www.facebook.com/vcasc/

Friday, May 31st, 2024Paul Phillips Hall at Fernwood Community Association1923 Fernwood RoadDoors open at 7:00 PM: 7:30 PM presentation. Join us for a slideshow and first hand report from a member of the 30th annual Ernesto Che Guevara Brigade to Cuba. Kay Gimbel will present his photos and talk about his recent experience as a Brigade member in Cuba. Several other Brigade members will also be in attendance and will join in the discussion during the Q&A.

Everyone is welcome! Refreshments including Fair Trade Nicaraguan coffee.  Donations are gratefully received. Sponsored by Central America Support Committee (CASC) www.victoriacasc.org    https://www.facebook.com/vcasc/

Friday, April 26 – doors 7 pm, 7:30 pm presentation

A talk by anthropologist and author Peter Gose

In the last 30 years, Indigenous anti-mining struggles in the Andes have been widespread and highly visible. Previously, however, mining was integrated into the Indigenous agrarian world and its ritual relations to the land. This talk sheds light on that radical reversal to better understand contemporary anti-extractivist struggles in Peru and Bolivia.

Everyone is welcome! Refreshments include Fair Trade Nicaraguan coffee. Donations gratefully accepted.

Paul Phillips Hall at Fernwood Community Association
1923 Fernwood Road

Friday, March 29 2024

Presentation by Francisco Canjura, a Salvadoran who was a 2014 election observer and has returned to El Salvador on several occasions.

Bring your comments and questions to this discussion about recent events in Central America’s smallest and most densely populated country. Also, we remember Archbishop Oscar Romero, now known as Saint Oscar Romero, who was assassinated in San Salvador, on March 24, 1980.

Doors open and music at 7 pm: presentation at 7:30 pm.

Everyone is welcome! Refreshments include fair trade Nicaraguan coffee. Donations are appreciated.

Paul Phillips Hall at Fernwood Community Association

1923 Fernwood Road

February 23rd

Join us in February at Cafe Simpatico for a film screening of La Tumba Mambi. 

The docu-fiction La Tumba Mambi is the result of a long collaboration between University of Victoria anthropologist Alexandrine Boudreault-Fournier, Cuban DJ Jigüe, and the members of the Tumba Francesa La Caridad de Oriente, a traditional cultural group located in Santiago de Cuba. Shot entirely in Eastern Cuba and edited in Havana over a period of more than 6 years, this short-length film of 27 minutes speaks to how friendship can make things happen in spite of daily life challenges.   

Filmmaker and professor,  Alexandrine Boudreault -Fournier will be present to discuss the film and answer questions.    

Everyone is welcome! Refreshments including Fair Trade Nicaraguan coffee.  Donations are welcome. 

Sponsored by Central America Support Committee (CASC)

Friday, February 23, 2024

Paul Phillips Hall at Fernwood Community Association 

1923 Fernwood Road 

Doors open at 7:00 PM: music at 7:30 PM; presentation at 8:00 PM.

You are invited to Cafe Simpatico for the Victoria premiere of an exciting and thougthful new documentary film: After Arrival.

Launched as part of the World Refugee Day events in Canada, in 2021 this film showcases the incredible journey of three LGBTQIA+ refugee claimants who have become leaders in our community. It gives a glimlpse into the experience of Dennis Juarez, Kristi Pinderi (he/him), and Norma Lize.

These remarkable individuals all arrived in Canada as refugee claimants and they each made significant community impact through their leadership.

Thanks to the Coalition for Survivors of Torture for the film see: https://www.vcst.ca. The film will be followed by a discussion adn Q&A session with local activists.

Friday October 28th
Doors: 7pm
Film: 7:30pm
Paul Phillips Hall, Fernwood Community Association, 1923 Fernwood Road.

Refreshments and Nicaraguan Organic Fair Trade coffee available.

All welcome. Admission by donation.

Come see old friends and familiar facts.

Presented by the Victoria Central America Support Committee (CASC)

If you live in Victoria or nearby Saanich, Oak Bay, or Esquimalt and need a ride to Cafe please call Robbie at 250-383-0674.