Inside Enclave Rabia Caracol — An Anarchist Community Center and Cafe in Tijuana, Mexico - UNICORN RIOT

On a given day, the five story building (including basement and roof top rooms) houses a variety of projects and dozens of people pass through its open doors.“We have a café, we have a community kitchen where we prepare the free meals. We have a community bike shop in the basement and we have space for events, shows…theater,” explained Nat, a longtime organizer and collective member of Enclave. “We try to make the space available for the community to use as they please.”

But Enclave isn’t just a resource center for migrants and others in need—it is also a space for creativity, experimentation, and exchange of radical political ideas. It hosts drag shows, reading groups, lectures, film screenings, and workshops on topics outside the political mainstream. At such events, those who come to the space primarily for resources often stay to engage with those who come for the politics or to enjoy the safe space.

“The people that come to the shows and that organize events are, I would say, mostly punks and feminists and people from the LGBT community that have found also a safe space here where they know that here they will be respected no matter what,” said Nat.

I've had the opportunity to work with several community-owned-and-run spaces in the Bay Area, and they are wonderful microcosms of our communities, as well as being communities unto themselves. If you have not had the chance to interact with one of theses, I highly recommend you to look them up in your local areas; they can always use more members, no matter your role.

It's easy as members of a relatively small group (e.g. AnSocs) to feel and become isolated, and working with or even just inhabiting spaces like this help others, and ourselves!