Chinampas
By: Alec Anthony Dejesus, Daniel Giraldo, Luis Reyes, Michelle Turcios
Our concept is called Chinampas. The Aztec chinampas farms were man-made plots of land built up from the sedimentation from the bottom of the lake.
This is a program that gives people the tools to learn how to be more self-sufficient, especially in areas where fresh food may not always be a priority or accessible. We were directly inspired by El Paseo Community Garden, and after speaking with the founders, we were able to learn the ethos behind the garden. They are a collective that uses multiple methods to connect the community of Pilsen. By promoting self sufficiency and at the same time community, we saw their authentic nature and were inspired by it. By creating a program that not only teaches people the skills to grow their own food, but also brings the community closer together through a collective cookbook, we hoped to create strong bonds through food.
In order to help the community better accept and participate in the program, we first had to address the stigma of community garden elitism. Food deserts affect the south and west sides of the city the most. These are areas with higher levels of minority communities and cultures. We saw a potential to create another community bond through the sharing of recipes through our no frills cookbook. We wanted to cooperate with the locals, so we fielded a survey asking what were common household recipes and staple vegetables. With the data gathered there we manifested this event and recipe book.
We don't hope to just be local but also be able to be easily implemented into neighboring communities. Every element of this project was designed to be able to be replicated easily. We used affordable and accessible materials to create every aspect of the project, giving it an authentic yet cohesive look. An insight from our interviews was that small community gardens and nonprofits often don’t take something on if they can’t cheaply and easily do it themselves, so we saw it as a goal to make our designs accessible. Another of our main goals and concerns was to break down language barriers and make sure we were tailoring to our surrounding community. With that being said we made sure everything was bilingual and accessible to all.
