Cultural organization honors contributions from Puerto Rican residents

BOARDMAN — For years, Elba L. Navarro had dedicated her time, talents and love to a long-standing organization that aims to improve the lives of the area’s Hispanic population and many others.

“If she liked you, she loved you,” said Ida Pacheco, Navarro’s cousin, fighting back tears.

Navarro, who came to the Mahoning Valley from her native Puerto Rico in the late 1940s and went on to become a teacher in the Youngstown City Schools for many years, died Oct. 27. She was 79.

Navarro’s legacy and contributions to the Organizacion Civica y Cultural Hispana Americana organization in Youngstown were fondly remembered by several hundred elected officials, community leaders and others who attended OCCHA’s 52nd anniversary gala and fundraiser Friday evening at the Mr. Anthony’s Banquet Center, 7440 South. Avg.

All proceeds will go toward continued funding of the organization’s programs, said Angelica Diaz, OCCHA executive director.

A 1963 graduate of South High School, Navarro earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Youngstown State University in Spanish and education. From there, she launched a 30-year career teaching at both Chaney High School and Roosevelt Elementary School.

“Her dream was always to become a teacher,” Pacheco said.

Last year, Navarro and her husband, Flor “Shorty” Navarro, were honored for creating more than $1.5 million in scholarships at the YSU Foundation. According to the foundation’s website, more than fifty students received student grants from the philanthropic couple at the time.

In addition, an area in YSU’s Meshel Hall was renamed the Shorty & Elba Navarro Commons.

At an event last year at Kent State University in Salem, the Navarros also received the 2023 Friends of the Campus Award, the highest annual honor the university bestows on non-students.

After her retirement, Navarro served on numerous fundraising committees on behalf of OCCHA.

The nonprofit was founded in March 1972 after a group of Hispanic families saw a need to improve access to resources and other unmet needs in the multicultural community, Diaz noted.

As a result, the organization has spent more than five decades developing a variety of programs and services to address problem areas and untapped needs, primarily in the Hispanic community. OCCHA’s overarching commitment is to provide social, cultural, economic and educational programs to improve the lives of Hispanic people and others in the multicultural community, according to its mission statement.

To that end, OCCHA, in partnership with the Youngstown City Schools, hosted a summer camp this year that attracted more than 70 students. The organization has also expanded its workforce program in recent years; This year’s job fair featured about 25 entities and more than 100 people, Diaz added.

Programs offered include a monthly food and clothing drive, a mental health navigator, senior groups, an intensification exercise offering and Project MKC (formerly Making Kids Count). English as a Second Language classes are also offered, along with OCCHA’s annual Epiphany Day, which is part of the Christmas holidays in many Spanish countries and ends with a celebration on January 6.

Also in honor of Elba Navarro, Pacheco read a short poem titled “Afterglow” by Helen Lowrie Marshall, which she said describes how her beloved aunt would like to be remembered. It says:

I would like the memory of me to be a happy memory. I would like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life is over. I would like to leave an echo whispering softly along the roads, of happy times and laughing times and bright and sunny days. I would that the tears of those who mourn would dry before the sun; Of happy memories that I leave behind when life is over.