Campesinos of the South Central Farm
Following the LA riots of 1992, the city of Los Angeles offered farmers in a highly industrialized neighborhood a plot of land in an attempt
a peaceful community and soothe the anger felt by many rioters. The farm became fully operational in 1992 and served as a major source of food for low-income farmers.
In the following image, each family was allowed one plot of land for use. They were able to grow many different crops and flowers with the conditions that they do not sell anything for profit. The garden plot was often grew a variety of crops with the knowledge of other crops grown in other plots in order to supplement each campesinos’ lack of a crop instead of growing for surplus. The farm helped foster a sense of community where farmers supported and cared for each other.
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In the next image, farmers can be seen sharing seeds to grow shortly after an injunction was granted. With heavy minds surrounding the future uncertainty, the farmers still wanted to grow crops on the land. The land served as a food source for the farmers and by continuing to farm it shows their high dependence on the land for livelihood. They had to continue growing food in order to maintain a constant source of food.
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Six months after, an appeals court reversed the lower’s court injunction, protesters were forced to defend the farm. On the day of the demolition, the farmers and community members came out in large numbers in order to block traffic to the farm. In an attempt to bock tractors and bulldozers from entering. The protesters were seen as disruptive and were apprehende dby police. By not helping the protesters, the police were seen as being on the side of rich land owners and not of the people.
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In the end, the land was left as a barren plot of land with plans to build warehouse. The warehouses were not built until a decade later.
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Overall the South Central Farmers adopted many strategies used by the Chicano Farm worker movement such as peaceful protest, direct appeal and testimonies to politicians, and the garnering the support of thousand of everyday people. The inherent racism from the owner intial agreement to sell the land and subsequent walk back of his words. The feelings of the community were completely ignored and left to scramble for another source of food.
Citations:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/South_Central_Farm