The Mosaic garden at SAJE

 

Dia de los Muertos

On Sunday, November 1st, 2009  community members, mercado vendors and Esperanza staff gathered at Mercado la Paloma to celebrate Day of the Dead.

Private altars honoring those that have passed populated el Mercado la Paloma decorated by marigolds, sugar skulls, bread (pan de muerto), pictures of loved ones, and fruit. In addition to that the traditional papel picado hung above and  face painting of Calaveras took place. Finally there was a touch of musical entertainment from Los Angeles native 16-year old Leily Sanchez  and community member of Salvadorean descent Moises Matamoros filling the air with melodic singing.

Dia de los Muertos is celebrated in Mexico and by many Latin Americans in the United States. Many other cultures across the world celebrate this custom of honoring the dead and celebrating the living. If you’re interested to read more about Dia de los Muertos link here.

 

The new garden

 

Our Benefit.. or Continuing tales of Esperanza

Our benefit was last night, and a grand success it was…

As Lillian said

“The Papel picado was like a touch of happiness.”

Also, it was a good learning experience. More dancing! Less talk. Pastor Brian played blues on his harmonica and sang a most amusing ode to “South Central,”

Paris may be more belle

But my heart belongs to South Central… not that I would refuse time in Paris… just to MAKE SURE.

Sister Diane is as always a show stopper. She spoke at evenings end (at speeches’ end really, when talk dulls the ear and feet are eager to dance.) Still, when Diane speaks…. You could have heard a napkin drop.

How does she do it?” I asked Yadira (Nancy, Yadira and I are the old ladies of Esperanza now, Yikes!)“She commands respect,” Yadira replied

None of the Sisters of Social Service seem to age, filled with fierce hope and gentle faith, it’s an iron strong, velvet coated combination. I have a fierce respect.

One of the Highlight’s of the evening for me was seeing and hearing a former student of mine, now a state legislative consultant speak…

THE STORY UP TO NOW…

Alfredo was a smart, curious chubby lad when first we met. He was about 12, a tad suspicious and carrying a good sized chip on his shoulder.

I was at that time (about 13 years ago!) creating “Cut out Kids.” life-sized, cutout paintings of children on masonite. I painted each child photographed holding up a blank piece of paper. Into the space, the children would paint their own images.

Alfredo, who was a bit crazed about Marvin the Martian, painted his round green visage into the blank.

Kid’s Space Museum, at that time in a small space in Pasadena, hosted our first exhibition. It was a grand opening, resplendent with punch and cookies (the childhood equivalent of wine and cheese.)

I arrived in a school bus, accompanied by Clean and Green Teens (from the LA Conservation Corps’ youth program) and “my kids.”

When we pulled up outside the museum, Alfredo refused to leave the bus.

“I won’t get out,” he said. “This is a white persons’ place.”

“Yes,” I replied (ignoring the fact, as all my kids seem to that I am in fact white) but these white people are hosting a party for us, a party because they like your artwork.”

“I won’t go.”

“Look,” I said. “I’ll make you a deal. Come in for five minuets. If you don’t want to stay after that, you can return to the bus and wait.”

I would never let a child alone on a bus, but I was pretty sure of the enticements that kid space had to offer.

Alfredo agreed. And within 2 minuets, he  was running around, trying on hats and make-believing, like the child he was. Even the older and therefore more jaded teens were running about clothing their hand in puppets, creating, playing and being children for a least one night.

Alfredo was of course recognized, by his cut-out portrait.

“Is this you?” adults would ask.

“Is this your work?”

Alfredo acknowledged that it was. As the night progressed, Alfredo spent more and more time lurking by his portrait.

At last, filled with cookies and punch, tired, happy and proud we returned to the bus.

Me being me, I could not resist a nudge…

“So, what did you think of the white people?”

Alfredo was quiet for a moment.

“Those were O.K. white people I guess.”

For years to come Alfredo was in my program. Coming to art classes and traipsing all about the city on weekend field trips.

Eventually he disappeared into the horizon of adulthood.

Fast forward about ten years… I am leaving Villa Esperanza, the then site of my arts program. A tall, thin, handsome young man is exiting the building.

“Miss Elizabeth,” he cries. “Do you remember me?”

I had to admit ignorance.

“It’s me, Alfredo.”

And then I did. It was hard to see the chubby boy in the thin handsome young man.

 Some people always look the same, but some kids metamorphosis in a matter of months.

“I’m so glad you are still doing your program,” he said. “You opened my eyes. You changed my life. I’m going to Berkeley now.”

Well that was extremely cool!

Fast forward again…it’s October 15^th, 2009. Alfredo now a legislative consultant for Senator Dean Flores was a speakers at our benefit… Dancing Under the Stars.

“Remember me?” Alfredo asked. And once again, it took me a moment.

We stood together before his speech, “Do you remember Kids Space? And how you didn’t want to go into a white person’s place?”

He laughed ruefully. “When you grow up like this,” he said holding his hands to his head like horse blinders. ”You are afraid to see.”

“I remember moving into Villa Esperanza, he said. “I was so proud to have my own room. Up until that time, I was not allowed to bring friend home. ‘There is no room for the here.’ My parents said. And I’ll never forget Miss Elizabeth. She challenged us. She took us all over the city on public transportation and then buses. She transformed my horizon …”

And then we danced.

 

The Garden Across the Way… or continuing tales from Esperanza

So there it was.

Right across the street.

A dry strip of land just calling to us.

Like our patch of soil, between sidewalk and street, but without weeds, only dirt.

“Should we start a new garden?” I asked.

“YES!” the children cried in chorus.

“Do you think we need to ask?”

“No,” everyone agreed. “We never see anyone over there.”

There is a dog behind the gate. He carries in his mouth a dish. The kids say he is hungry and thirsty and want to give him water and food. We take a plastic bowl from the art class; fill it with water, gingerly pushing it beneath the fence. The dog laps at it a bit, but I suspect he real joy lies in having something new to carry about in his mouth. Casey runs home for a sausage. The dog eats it hungrily, but then any dog would.

We plant our new garden with cuttings from the old. Succulents, which are filled with water, make good cuttings, as do mints. All mints have square stems. “Sedges have edges; rushes are round; grasses are hollow right up from the ground”.

The next day I arrive with seeds, humming bird and butterfly flower mixes as well as pumpkin and watermelons. It’s really too late in the season, but hey, it’s LA. We have no seasons here.  

And then the rains begin…. Not for long but for long enough.

The residents smile as they walk by.

They enjoy the plants and children. “Butterfly seeds,” I say, “We will have many lovely flowers.

   Our Sunflowers grow huge. The Sunflower belongs to the “composite family.” This means that every flower contains two kinds of flowers “Ray flowers” (The petals) and “disk flowers (Inside.)

 Composites have miniaturized and simplified each flower, then packed them these together, so that the many flowers look like one.

 In other words, the sunflower (any composite) is actually a bouquet of hundreds of flowers!

 (I am large, I contain multitudes.)

 

 

A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;
How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he.

I guess … it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
…..
Or I guess the grass is itself a child…

… Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones,
Growing among black folks as among white,
… And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey work of the stars

 

—Walt Whitman

 

Of Aphids and Ants; Continuing tales fron Esperanza

People don’t like aphid, but they have a remarkable life cycle and fascinating history.
So before you look down upon the lowly aphid read on…

The Manna from Heaven that the Israelites ate while strolling through the desert might well have been honeydew from aphids or other insects!
Aphids produce a sweet sticky substance called honey dew, if you don’t believe me, go feel the plants where they have been… sticky.
If you are still skeptical, lick your fingers (euee gross.) In the ancient Oaks and Olives, large quantities of honey dew would freeze in the night. When the sun arose and warmed the frozen dew…, bonk!
Manna, right on your noggin! It’s a wonder that the Jews didn’t come up with the idea of gravity. (Was Newton Jewish?)
Man” is the common Arabic name for aphids, and man es simma (the “manna of heaven”) for honeydew.
In the Mideast, people still collect the sweet excretions (which is a nice word for phoo) of scale insects that feed on tamarisk. They call it “man” and make halva out of it. (Lest we feel superior in our culinary habits, a large portion of bee honey is actually honeydew harvested from the surface of plants.)
Aphids pierce the phloem tubes of plants with their sharp mouthparts and suck out the sugary goodies in transit there. (Phloem is the tube that transports food, mostly sugar to all parts of the plant. Xylem transports water.)
Aphids process this food and excrete drops (honeydew) rich in sugars, free amino acids (the building blocks of proteins), proteins, minerals and vitamins. Move over Whole Foods!

Some aphids shoot this waste away from their bodies, but other species of aphids have learned to excrete a drop on from their rear end when an ant taps them with foreleg or antennae. Then the ant eats it (and you thought humans were kinky!) Later, the ant will regurgitate part of the honeydew for it’s nest mates.
You could try this if you’re not worried about what the neighbors might think.
Sometimes aphids are called “ant cows”.
Ants like honeydew as much as the Israelites did. Through the winter, some ants take aphid eggs down into their colonies to protect them, bringing them up to graze in the springtime. If you look closely, you may see small cowboy hats on the ants… or maybe not.
Each aphid species has its own life cycle, but there are some features uniting nearly all of them.
One feature most species share is that they are incredibly prolific, worse than rabbits!
Wingless adult female aphids can produce 50 to 100 offspring. A newly born aphid becomes a reproducing adult within about a week and then can produce up to 5 offspring per day for up to 30 days!
If all the descendants of a single aphid survived the summer and were arranged four abreast, their line would exceed the circumference of the earth at the equator! Now that’s a lot of honeydew! Dentists LOVE them.
Even more amazing is that most of this reproduction takes place without the interference of males!
This is known as parthenogenesis. (From the Greek parthenos, “virgin”, + genesis, “creation”.)
When mother aphids reproduce parthenogenetically, instead of laying eggs they give birth directly to smaller editions of themselves. An “average” aphid life cycle goes a little something like this: (stop me if you’ve heard this one.)
In spring, an egg hatches, producing a wingless female aphid who almost immediately begins parthenogenetically producing new wingless females. Generation follows generation of wingless females; I think I saw one wearing “an aphid without a male is like a fish without a bicycle” tee shirt. Then hot weather arrives, or maybe the plant they are living on dies, some of the females grow wings and fly off. I wish I could do that!
This new generation of female winged aphid find a plant host of a completely different species from that on which their spring generations have developed.
Typically, when it’s time to move back to the plant species on which aphid winters, (kind of like wintering in the Hamptons) some aphids develop into males.
Sexual reproduction takes place, but apparently, it’s nothing to write home about because when the eggs hatch (in the spring) there are no males in sight.
Try explaining that in Spanish! The kids take this in stride.
But the dads don’t like it. One said, “Thank God I’m not an aphid.”
Usually parthenogenesis is followed by a brief bout of sexual reproduction just to keep the gene pool fresh.

 

Bird Bastions

 The bird house frenzy is on! Alex has built 5 homes… innovative designs, one looks like the starship enterprise. Irene & Metzly are working on a Bird Palace and Casey is building a Bird Hotel. We’ll need more trees to house them. Ed, our fearless photographer came by today to take photos. The kids have a short tolerance for posing… “Can we do art now?!” Class was the usual cacophony of creative chaos. Genesis came by with her adorable bunny. The kids all gathered lemon Balm and spearmint to make tea with… boil water. Steep for 3-5 minuets and add honey. We also harvested a lot of Cilantro.

 

Community Health Promoters “Career – Internship Fair 2009″

In August 2009, Esperanza hosted a “Career – Internship Fair” at Mercado La Paloma for the new graduates of the “Community Health Promoters” training program.  A “Resume Writing Workshop” was presented prior the event, and two worshops at the fair: “How to tell your story using Data”, and “Effective Interviewing Skills”.

The Career Intership Fair brought a good opportunity to introduce recent  “Community Health Promoters” graduates to local non-profit and Social Services agencies and to encourage them to apply for interships with participating agencies.

Thanks to the following participating organizations: IDEPSCA, Success A New Beginning, Children’s Bureau, South Central Family Health Center, St. John’s Well Child & Family Center, Rescatando Salud/Immunization Program, Cal Trans, Healthy Homes, Land Trust, SAJE, EsperanSalud, and Southern California Coalition for Occupational Safety & Health.

 

Community Garden!

Esperanza community members started the gardening project last Saturday.

It was hard work as the easement is covered with crabgrass. While we worked we were joined by Pedro (the maintenance man at Algeria) and his entire family. They brought extra tools. Some residents saw what we were doing and brought us some oregano and basil to plant. On Monday the kids decided to make bird houses which we hung in the magnolia tree. The kids brought some bird food (actually hamster food) to put in the bird house.

They are watering the garden daily!

Some residents watch us, We were warned that the bad guys might destroy our efforts, but so far so good. And now many people pass and smile and say how wonderful it is to have a garden:) ~Evie

 

Vice President Joe Biden Visits Esperanza Community Housing Corporation!

“I have been involved with community organizations my entire life. I am not new to this. You [Esperanza] are among the best organizations I have seen in the entire country. What you’re doing in this community with your Health Promoters Program is a model for other groups all across the country working to improve the lives of the people in the neighborhoods that are so underserved.” — Vice President Joe Biden on Esperanza Community Housing Corporation.

We at Esperanza Community Housing Corporation were honored to host Vice President Joe Biden during his visit to Los Angeles.  Vice President Biden came to Amistad, one of our nine buildings of affordable housing. Vice President Biden was joined by Congressman Xavier Becerra, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and HUD Deputy Secretary Ron Sims.

The Vice President came to Esperanza to honor our Healthy Homes team and the work that they have done over the past 11 years for slum housing remediation. Vice President Biden spoke about the three years of funding Esperanza received to continue its Healthy Homes work, preserving jobs for local community members, improving the health of families, and making homes more habitable.

Vice President Biden said, “”I’ve been involved in community organizations my entire life,” Biden said. “And I am not new to this. You’re among the best organizations I have seen in the entire country. What you’re doing here in this community … is a model for other groups all across the country.”

And we’d like to remind all of you that Esperanza still needs support to continue these essential programs.  Like Vice President Biden, Congressman Becerra, and Mayor Villaraigosa said, Esperanza is one of the best organizations in the nation.  We are making a difference in South LA every single day, and you can be part of this powerful community-led change by  donating now. 

We’ll continue to post about this great visit and expand on some of the issues that the Vice President and Esperanza spoke about. In the meantime, below are some videos taken by Health Director, Lupe Gonzalez.

Click here to make your donation NOW.

“We [President Obama, Vice President Biden and the lawmakers that passed the stimulus] had no doubt that the money made available to you and Esperanza would be spent in the way taxpayers deserve it: transparently and efficiently.”

“I have been involved with community organizations my entire life. I am not new to this. You [Esperanza] are among the best organizations I have seen in the entire country. What you’re doing in this community with your Health Promoters Program is a model for other groups all across the country working to improve the lives of the people in the neighborhoods that are so underserved.”

“[Esperanza's programs are] for the community and it’s truly run by the community … It takes real expertise … You got to be smart you got to know what you’re doing, you got to be well organized you got to be well educated.  You got it all. You got it all going at Esperanza.”

If you want to make change, if you want to help low-income communities in the most effective way possible, and if you want to build hope with community, we invite you to donate to Esperanza.

Here are some articles, and we’ll be adding more as the press comes in.

*** UPDATED***

“Vice President Biden Tours Housing Organization” ABC Local News (VIDEO, Complete footage of Biden’s Speech)

“Everything you [Esperanza Community Housing Corporation] do here is a demonstration of the immense power of community” — VP Joe Biden

“Biden Tours Charitable Housing Group in LA” CBS 2 (VIDEO)

“Biden Touts Stimulus Package in South LA” Fox LA (VIDEO)

“Vice President Biden Tours South LA Housing Project” LA Times

“South LA Welcomes Joe Biden” NBC Los Angeles

“$100 Milion Will Fix Lead Hazard Problems in 50 States” Environment News Service

“HUD Secretary Donovan Announces Nearly $100 million in Recovery Act Funds to Clean UP Dangerous Lead in Housing” Real Estate Rama

“Biden Visits Low Income Housing Development in South LA” KPCC, Southern California Public Radio

“Biden Touts Stimulus Gains in South LA” KFWB News 980 (AUDIO)

“Joe Biden Announces $100 for Lead Paint Removal” Associated Press via Fresno Bee

“Vice President Biden tours Esperanza’s Housing Buildings” Yahoo News (PICTURES)

Pictures of Joe Biden’s visit

“Biden Gives Tyler Galindo, 6, a lift” via Chicago Tribune (PICTURES)