City farmers fight to feed community

The farmers of South Central Los Angeles are in a battle to keep alive a dream that became reality. One of the few, and the biggest, community farms in the city of Los Angeles is about to—if the will of the courts and the developers prevail—give way to a warehouse. The farm, in one of the most oppressed and neglected areas of California, is an oasis and an example of what the people can do when they are united.

Banner welcomes Venezuelan guests to farm.

The land in dispute is an area of 14 acres just a few miles from the heart of downtown. It was expropriated by the city and given to the South Central community after the 1992 uprising that followed the non-guilty verdict of a wealthy jury that freed four police officers who almost killed Rodney King, as recorded on videotape. The city government, knowing that the reaction of the people was not just because of the verdict but also because of the conditions lived in and the oppression they had been suffering for a long time, gave the land to the people to operate as a community farm while the world still had its spotlight on Los Angeles.

The farmers transformed the vast wasteland located on the corner of Alameda and 41st streets into one of the most beautiful places in the city. They grow tomatoes, corn, sugar cane, cactus and foods from Meso-America which are unavailable elsewhere in Los Angeles.

Now, 13 years later, after the spotlight of the world was turned in other directions, the city government sold back the land to the old owner in a shady deal. The South Central community was not even given a chance to match the price set by the city government. It is important to note that the buyer had donated money to the campaigns of some of the local politicians.

Rufina Juárez, one of the organizers of the South Central farmers, spoke at a recent evening of solidarity here with Bolivarian Venezuela, an event sponsored by the International Action Center and other progressive organizations. She uncovered the lies that were spread by some of the corporate media and urged solidarity with the farmers’ struggle. The people present were touched by her words and gave her a standing ovation. A delegation from Venezuela recently visited the farm and found similarities to their own struggle for self-determination.

In my visits to this wonderful piece of land, I, like everyone else who had the joy to visit it, was amazed by the fact that the city is trying to shut down such a great example of community work.

But, when you stop to think, many reasons come out. The farm is an answer to the racist lie that poor people are poor because they are lazy and not intelligent. It is also a playground where the children of the working-class family can play, free of the pollution and dangers of many public parks. It’s a place where arts, music, games and celebrations happen in a way that brings the working-class people closer to each other, a place where more than 350 families are fed at no cost to the city, and a place where people from all over the Americas can keep their traditions alive and pass them on to their children.

And most of all: a place where the proletariat may realize, like the farmers of South Central did, that the land belongs to them, for they were there before the developers and therefore they will not leave.