Hispanic community performers open practice center with donations from Jason Mraz

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — A generous donation from two California nonprofits, including San Diego’s world renown musician, multi-Grammy-winning, singer songwriter, Jason Mraz and the Good Tidings Foundation, renovated a new performance space for Tierra Caliente Academy of the Arts in Vista.

It has been one month since the groundbreaking in August, and on Sunday, the performers got to see the finished studio.

“These are happy tears,” shouted one of the dancers, in awe of the new space.

Dozens from the 155 total singers, dancers and actors stepped onto their brand-new floors, saw the new raised ceilings and their eyes filled with tears of joy.

“I did not expect it to look like this,” said 14-year-old Luna Jaimes, daughter of the Tierra Caliente Academy of the Arts’s Executive Director, José Jaimes. “I just thought it looked really beautiful.”

Luna and her little sister, 10-year-old Maya Jaimes call Tierra Caliente their second home.

“I started tearing up because I have been here since the beginning,” said Luna.

“To see everything brand new, it is just really cool,” said Maya.

Maya and Luna, along with their group of performers, have gotten to know Jason Mraz over the last year. He worked with them and performed with them at his Kaleidoscope concert in February in Escondido, which also included artists, dancers, singers and theater actors from around the county. They would rehearse in their Tierra Caliente studio together. About a year and half ago, Mraz’s foundation leadership team started a conversation with José Jaimes about renovating their space. Tierra Caliente was built by family, friends and community volunteers 10 years ago. It needed a lot of improvements.

“I am a product of a nonprofit,” said Jaimes. Jaimes said it was his and his wife, Ruby’s, passion to build a nonprofit and give back to their community. He said he used to also be a performer, but one day he saw his passion change directions, and he wanted to direct students and help them achieve their dreams. Jaimes said this donation from Mraz and The Good Tidings Foundation, with its leadership, Larry, Ronnie and Bridgette Harper, have been an enormous blessing and they hope to rerun the favor by producing creative, talented students into the world.

“Two things have come from this donation: One, we are able to allocate more funding for their experiences because we don’t need to worry about the extra need for improvements with the studio. Second, this being a second home for a lot of our students, they take pride in what they have, it is always nice to have something nicer. The sound system that we now have is incredible. It’s definitely going to enhance our performance.”

He understands their generosity and said he would not have been able to build what was gifted to their nonprofit.

“There is that term ‘starving artist,’ so most of your money goes towards your art, so having someone else come and do that for you, it’s very special. Because it allows you to create more. It allows you to expand,” he said, expressing his family’s gratitude for their work that is benefiting all their students of every age group, from children to older adults.

“My biggest satisfaction out of all this is that now all this is for our students and our families… just knowing that this is going to serve families. That it is going to serve artists. Kids are going to be able to become artists. Artists are going to come out of this space. You have the story of Jason Mraz! We are going to have Jason Mraz’s, we are going to have dancers and singers, and hoping they eventually pay it forward!”

“I grew up in arts academies,” said Mraz. “I was one of the little kids, so I know how important it is to have a clubhouse, a safe space, where you and your friends really connect on a deep level, and you create lifelong friendships here. So that is what we are here to do, put a little shine and sparkle on their club house and applaud them.”

The Good Tidings Foundation has built over 220 sports complexes and performance centers across the country. This is its third project with Mraz in San Diego County. Mraz lives in the San Diego area. They plan to do more together. Mraz admits there was some pressure to renovate their space into something that would last forever and everyone would be proud of.

“I was a little nervous because this was their home, and we had to ask them to leave for about five weeks while we did the renovation,” said Mraz. “They trusted us with their fresh space so their reactions, their happiness and their screams, it’s like it shows we did the right thing.”

Not only do they have the new space below their feet but behind them, they have kept the spirit of Tierra Caliente with their original murals.

“It was important that they come in and still feel familiar,” said Mraz, as he pointed to different parts of the room that he kept but enhanced. “The yellow wall, the red curtains, the mural that they had. It needed to still feel like this is their space; they just needed a little more room to spread their wings and expand their dresses. “This mural represents where they are from in Guerrero, Mexico and they painted it over ten years ago. These characters painted here are significant.”

The sound system was completely replaced and now they have surround sound and can even isolate it to certain walls for practice.

“We were able to come up with a system that is an immersive sound experience,” Mraz said. “We had a friend who donated ceiling panels and wall panels for acoustics. Between music and folklore dancing there’s a lot of sound, so we needed to reduce the amount of echo and reverberation, so we could focus on just the pure sound of music.”

Mraz’s team built a new wall and continued the mural from the original wall onto the new wall with photographs from the state of Guerrero that inspired the muralist, Rob Tobin. Mraz and his team helped paint the sunset and the flowers and the bricks together.

“I know how to throw paint around but Rob Tobin, our brilliant muralist, I would just wait for him to tell me what to do. He said, ‘paint this orange line, here is this pink,’ then I learned quickly how I can weave the colors together by bringing the pink into the orange and the orange into the pink and creating these clouds. I did a lot of doodling as a kid in my notebook, after a while you start to get the vision.”

They even included a painting of Mya’s cat in it, and the moon for Luna.

“I guess that is supposed to be my cat,” Maya said. “It’s really funny!”

The sisters will forever be a part of this academy’s future.

“Everyone was on board with the vision and everyone brought some creative magic,” said Mraz.

Tierra Caliente Academy of Arts is a 501c3 nonprofit. Its future relies on community involvement and support. They say it does take a village — “it takes a pueblo” — to build their artistic, educational and entertainment community.

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