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Flores, Dora <br />From: victor@unitedartistsofsantaana.com <br />Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2026 12:59 PM <br />To: eComment <br />Subject: Fwd: eComment - City Council: Santa Ana Cultural District Proposal <br />Attachments: Tomas Bentez Public Comments Santa Ana Cultural District.pdf <br />Attention: This email originated from outside of City of Santa Ana. Use caution when opening attachments or links. <br />-------- Original Message-------- <br />Subject:eComment - City Council: Santa Ana Cultural District Proposal <br />Date:2026-01-20 10:44 <br />From:victor@unitedartistsofsantaana.com <br />To:EComment <eComment@santa-ana.org> <br />TOMAS J. BENITEZ <br />January 20, 2026 <br />My name is Tomas J. Benitez, and I am an arts and cultural planning consultant from <br />Los Angeles California. <br />I had the pleasure and honor to work on the team with Jerry Allen & Associates to create <br />the Arts Master Plan for the City or Santa Ana in 2016-17. It was an opportunity and a <br />revelation to learn about and appreciate the vast wealth of arts and cultural resources <br />that are in the local Santa Ana community. Our mission was not to impose our expertise <br />on what is a healthy arts plan but to inculcate from the community itself what were their <br />priorities and needs, and to forge a plan that benefits the community. Thus, we needed <br />to create bridges with local leadership in all levels, from government officials to artists <br />and students. <br />I had the opportunity to work with a nexus of arts leaders and organizations and was <br />most fortunate to work with Victor Payan and Pocha Pena from United Artist of Santa <br />Ana. They demonstrated true insight into the value of arts and culture in the daily lives <br />of the people of Santa Ana and proved to be critically helpful in their overall contribution <br />of effort, including helping our team create pathways to different segments of the <br />community from the Bowers Museum to small grass roots organizations and individual <br />artists. They lent their effort and love of arts toward every step of our work. They were <br />vital in insuring that the Latinx community voice was a part of the vision and planning, <br />4 <br />