Services for El Centro Hispano director Isabel Villar

A wake was scheduled to be held July 21 at McMahon Funeral Home in White Plains for Isabel Villar, founding executive director of El Centro Hispano in White Plains, who died at age 74. The funeral was scheduled to take place July 22 at Hitchcock Presbyterian Church in Scarsdale.

In 1974 Villar co-founded El Centro Hispano in White Plains. The community organization offers a variety of programs ranging from help with housing to computer courses for Hispanic residents of Westchester. Villar also had been a bilingual middle school teacher in Norwalk.

Villar was born in Cuba in 1948 and immigrated to the U.S. with her family in 1966. She attended White Plains High School and received a bachelor’s degree from Manhattanville College in political science/Latin American studies.

El Centro Hispano called St. Bernard”™s Roman Catholic Church in White Plains its home until recently when the organization moved into a building it purchased on Central Avenue in White Plains. The new building was opened last month after having undergone extensive renovation. From 1966 to 2020 Villar was director of the Spanish choir at St. Bernard”™s Church.

Villar received 42 awards over the years for her public service work, including being honored by the New York State Senate as a Woman of Distinction and receiving awards from the Westchester County Board of Legislators, Business Council of Westchester and numerous other groups.

When interviewed by the Business Journals in 2019, Villar recalled, “I came from Cuba with just the clothes on my back and quickly found that as an immigrant, unless you have an education in this country, it is very difficult to move forward. That”™s the message that I am constantly telling our community.”

Villar is survived by a brother and sister, several nieces and nephews, aunts, an uncle and cousins.