During our 35th anniversary, we honor our roots by sharing how PCA came to be, guided by the vision of those who built it. The story begins and is forever imbued with the spirit of our founder, a proud Chicano, a relentless advocate, and a formative mentor named Dr. Moisés Venegas.
The Albuquerque Partnership, which would become the Partnership for Community Action, was founded in 1990 by Dr. Venegas.
He was driven by a profound commitment to change educational, health, and economic outcomes for communities in Albuquerque’s south valley, west side and southeast heights through prevention and advocacy. He believed fiercely in the power of education and in the potential of people to thrive when supported by a strong network and real resources.
Dr. Venegas was a man of deep conviction and immeasurable compassion.
As Javier, who Dr. Venegas mentored from an internship to leadership, remembers him:
“Moisés was a deeply, deeply caring man. He would take the shirt off his back for anybody. He was somebody who came up at a time when the signs ‘No Mexicans or Dogs allowed.’ were prominent. He grew up in that time, it shaped his convictions.”
Dr. Venegas was a kid from Carlsbad who grew up in extreme poverty, in a landscape of hardship and discrimination. He was one of the few in his family to “get out,” but he never left his community behind. He knew he wanted to make changes and believed deeply in the idea that changes could be made. He earned his PhD, a monumental achievement for Chicano, not as a title to flaunt, but as a tool for his people.
“To us, he was Moisés,” Javier recalls. “Except when people mistreated us.”
Javier was in many meetings where the older Chicano man with the trace of an accent might be talked down to by officials in suits. “And maybe they would say ‘Moisés,’ and he’d be like, ‘It’s Dr. Venegas for you.’”
This personal history fueled his public mission. In the year 2000, he took this conviction to the Congress of the United States, testifying before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. There, he issued a challenge that cut to the heart of systemic failure:
“I think the first thing that I would recommend that’s probably difficult for us in this country to believe is the acceptance and belief that all children can learn. Even poor ones can learn. Believe it. It’s kind of revolutionary to think that they can, but they can.”
This wasn’t just rhetoric; it was the bedrock of PCA’s philosophy.
Dr. Venegas understood where New Mexico was and dreamed of where it could go. He believed change started block by block, in Albuquerque neighborhoods, by building power with people, not for them.
His greatest legacy, however, may not be a single program or policy win, but the “juggernaut” of leadership he built. As Javier describes, “He took a project, turned it into an organization that became a juggernaut of force” More importantly, he built a culture of empowerment from within.
He instilled in those around him a mandate to excel.
He was a community member, a husband, a father, and a leader who saw potential in a first-generation college student needing a summer job and set in motion a chain of leadership, from Adrian to Javier to Nichelle to Teresa, that continues to this day. He left behind a lineage of builders, dreamers, and champions.
Dr. Moisés Venegas planted a seed in 1990 with a revolutionary belief: that everyone, especially the poor and marginalized, could learn, thrive, and lead.
The towering Social Enterprise Center, the powerful advocates at the legislature, and the generations of leaders who call PCA home are all testaments to that belief. His fire for justice, for education, for community power, still lights our way.