Lost & Found in South Central

As those who know me are well aware, one of a triumvirate of things I ‘Don’t Do’ is Nature. Give me a glass-walled house with me on the inside, and nature on the outside – thats the way I like it.

But this urban hound stumbled into nature more spectacular for its unexpectedness, more devastatingly sorrowful because of its limited life, more hopeful in its fleeting glimpse of an alternate urban vision, and for this bourgeois gourmet, most delightfully heady in its introduction of a new world of exotic Mexican tastes and flavors

- all from South Central Los Angeles.

The South Central LA farms are an amazing innovation in urban community design with food self-sufficiency – and fine tastes – as part of the package. The facts: 14 acres, 350+ families of mostly poor immigrants from Mexico and Central America (although there are other communities, such as Filiponos in the mix) at 41st and Alameda, South Central Los Angeles, initiated after the ’92 riots, most food grown eaten by those that tend the farms, with individual plots about 900 sq feet.

~> read moreLet me tease you first with the experience of stumbling onto these farms. With so many competing images to convey, this collage (600KB) is my substitute for words. The pieces not captured here include the very lively sense of community, the gatherings, the grandparents, the kids, the icecream carts. The backdrop to the collage is this usgs overview of the location.

In the next post, an unabashedly urban approach to these farms – a taste of Mexico in herbs, vegetables and fruits I have never seen before in this here United States.

If you want to do something to help the South Central Farms not get bulldozed over, get in touch with the press. Here’s the farms web-site with relevant contact information. I don’t see anything more direct for now, although there is this petitition you can sign. All photographs were taken either by myself or Jose Alfredo Vaquero, a 10th grader who with his family enjoys a plot of green and extended community in the south central farms. You’re welcome to redistribute with this creative commons license that requires attribution – only, for which, please name Jose Vaquero and myself, Mini Kahlon.