Program 4: Little Village Environmental Justice Association

At LVEJO's Semillas de Justicia Community Garden, we hosted our end-of-season harvest fest, or "Fiesta de la Cosecha." For this celebration, we gathered more than 30 families from the Little Village community to honor the gardening season, break bread, and enjoy an afternoon paying homage to the seasons. The goal of this gathering was to intentionally celebrate the joy we experience when we work together with the land to feed soil microbes, beneficial insects like pollinators and birds, and ourselves.

By bringing together culturally significant elements, we made sure the gathering honored our collective heritage with music, ceremonies, art, plants, and food. The practice of honoring the seasons and giving a nod to land stewards comes from Indigenous practices where we understand the value in our network of mutuality.

The program included:

Art Station for children
Children in the community built robots and other small structures using cardboard and other found materials. This activity was one of the most popular as it engaged little ones in conversations about waste, recycling, creativity, and the possibilities that exist when we imagine toys together.​

Traditional indigenous Aztec Danza by Xinatchli Xochicalli
We invited Xinatchli to open the event with a ceremony in which we intentionally honored the land, the sun, the directions, the elements, and the people that worked together to grow food this year. This ceremony brought us together to acknowledge all the biotic and abiotic communities that come together to produce fruits and vegetables. Just as our families gather to steward this land and work together as a community, so do soil microbes, sunlight and photosynthesis, water, and wind. Xinatchli created a space for us to recognize that power of collectivity to feed one another.

Live Music by DJ Lucio 
An evening of cumbia, salsa, merengue, duranguense, and other dance genres honored the cultural differences and similarities of our families. DJ Lucio provided familiar sounds that brought life and collective joy to the celebration.

Perennial Flower Bulb Distribution
To encourage the gardening spirit throughout the cold months, we distributed a mix of tulips, daffodils, and alliums to each family to remind them that growing processes continue, even in the cold months, and that this period of dormancy is necessary to ensure a bright, colorful, and abundant spring.

Salsa Competition
To add additional flair to our event, community members provided salsas that all attendees were encouraged to try. Then everyone voted for the spiciest and tastiest. This part of the event brought laughter as well as a direct representation of the garden, as all salsas were made with peppers grown on-site.

We enjoyed a variety of Mexican and Central American dishes during Harvest Fest.

— Viviana Moreno, Little Village Environmental Justice Association