LOS ANGELES 14 June 2007--Two hundred people came to the South Central Farm tonight to watch the corn grow. The familiar train whistle, the one that warned us each night of the encampment of the devastation to come, echoed in the night air. Fresh tractor treads scored the fallow land where Ralph Horowitz, developer, had plowed under the shoots of the ancient heirloom maiz seeds that determinedly sprout in this land, as they have sprouted for millennia, a developer's response to the people's vigil. But there was still no warehouse, not even the touted soccer field. A year after dozens of people risked arrest to preserve a way of life, the Farm is in limbo, neither converted into another concrete-block monolith for human labor nor allowed to offer up food to the three hundred and fifty people who relied on it for fourteen years. The economics of declining property values and the determination of the people have kept the Farm alive, but just barely. The California black walnuts are dying and still living, their roots cut to fit in wooden boxes, guy wires holding them aloft as they fight for life.
The two hundred people neither mourned nor celebrated: they got to work. The energy that has been gathering for the past year broke out at last Sunday's tianguis, when people hopped, skipped, and danced around a ceremonial drum to a reggae rendition of "La polic ía, la migra, la misma poquer ía" on the southern boundary of the Farm, amid tables awash in the harvest of the new farm. Tonight more joined on the north side in music and speeches and two vigil walks, an old Farm ritual. The banners joined the Farmers' battle cry "¡Aqui estamos y no nos vamos!" with their new call to the community: "Desplazados pero no derrotados" Displaced, but not defeated.
Reports from the newswire: The South Central Farmers: No derrotados! by Leslie Radford | | The South Central Farm: The Struggle Continues by RP | | South Central Farm: Encampment Reunion 2007 | | Photos from South Central Farm re-union
VIDEO: Video from South Central Farm Reunion Party by A
AUDIO: MP3 Audio: John Quigley & the Farm 1 year later | | MP3 Audio: Dele Aileman speaks at the Farm Reunion | | En Espanol: AUDIO: Campesina de South Central Farm
Desplazados Pero No Derrotados. South Central Farmers Displaced, but not Defeated.