PHOENIX (AZFamily) — In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, we’re revisiting a place in Phoenix you may have driven by, but might not know much about: the historic Sacred Heart Church .

It was built in the 1950’s near 16th Street and Buckeye Road . “It could be just a building, if a contractor built it,” said Abe Arvizu. “But it wasn’t built by a contractor.”

Arvizu is the chairman of the Braun Sacred Heart Center. It’s a non-profit established in the 1980’s to protect the building. The first mass was held there in 1954, and people in the then-Golden Gate barrio helped build it.

“1602 East Maricopa was my address,” he said. “I lived there my whole life until we got booted out.” Arvizu remembers the time well. He grew up in the barrio before he and others were bought out under eminent

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