Cultivating “The Garden”

After the Los Angeles riots broke out in response to the Rodney King trial, thirteen acres of land in South Central LA were converted into a community garden at 41st and Alameda. The land was tilled and cultivated into a thriving garden and source of food mostly by the Hispanics of the community, which make up 67% of the neighborhood. Twelve years later, Councilwoman Jan Perry and activist Juanita Tate of Concerned Citizens of Los Angeles attempted to convert the land into storage warehouses and a soccer field for the community. They story of these 372 farmers and their fight for their community is told in the Academy Award nominated documentary film The Garden.

The film shows both sides of the issue, with most of the time given to the farmers, the legal battles they pursue, and the infighting that unfortunately comes with the ravages of battle. While Jan Perry and Juanita Tate are given fair time to explain their sides of the story, they are without a doubt painted as the villains of the story, showing little mercy or compassion to the immigrants who have found hope in the simple of pleasure of growing their own food. Perry and Tate had already developed another soccer field at the corner of Slauson and Main, an endeavor which took six years and $4.7 million dollars for a level dirt field and a single port-o-potty.

In her defense, before being developed into the largest community garden in the United States, the land was bought by the city to build a garbage incinerator, a move that was stopped by Juanita Tate. Nevertheless, due to using her activist credentials to raise money, she was seen by some of the farmers as a “poverty pimp.” By the end of the film, Tate and her sons are under investigation for misuse of funds.

Of course, Perry and Tate are minor villains. The true enemy of our seed planting heroes is the developer Ralph Horowitz. “In 1986, the city paid Mr. Horowitz five million dollars for the land. In 2003, the City Council agreed to sell it back to him for the same price.” Mr. Horowitz, in turn, offered the land for the selling price of $16.3 million.

In true Hollywood fashion, the farmers band together to raise the money, gaining the support of celebrities like Joan Baez, Willie Nelson, Martin Sheen, and Darryl Hannah. Nevertheless, even after the farmers raised over $16 million dollars in less than sixty days and offered to buy the land, on June 13, 2006, police blocked the farmers from entry, arresting several while bulldozers plowed the garden back into dirt. Mr. Horowitz, once agreeing to sell it if the farmers raised the money, said he wouldn’t sell it to them for any price.

Though the parting shots of the dormant land two years after the destruction of the Garden do not offer the happy ending we may have hoped for, the experience actually helped the farmers to carve out a better future for themselves. The city eventually offered the farmers another seven acres in South Central LA to cultivate another community garden, and many of the farmers started an eighty acre garden in Bakersfield, the harvests of which they sell at farmers’ markets around the region.

The majority of the film is in Spanish, but the message is clear in any language. The Garden inspires us to always fight for our rights, to never give up, and to realize the value of community.

Steve McAllister

In addition to serving as Managing Editor and contributor to Modern Hippie Mag, Steve McAllister is an actor, musician, accomplished author and filmmaker. His most recent novel, The McAllister Code is available as an e-book at www.themcallistercode.com. Find Steve on Twitter, @InkenSoul. Read his reviews and articles here.