In this interview Daryl tells of a conversation between Julia Butterfly Hill via cell phone atop the tree she is encamped in and the developer Ralph Horowitz who wants to bulldoze that tree and the farm that surrounds it.

Daryl is also part of the tree sit and encampment and plans to stay until the farm is saved.

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The commitment of these three individuals along with Joan Baez is immeasurable. Without their help, the eviction probably would have happened days ago. Each day that goes by helps to increase the awareness of more people and media coverage. Please help support their efforts by coming down to the farm by volunteering, donating money, holding a sign, doing a Security watch and just creating a human barricade to protect this special place. Call the mayor, write the mayor - si se puede!

An open letter to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on the South Central Farm Devon G. Peña, Ph.D. Professor of Anthropology University of Washington Seattle, WA 98155 June 7, 2006 Like you I am a native son of LA and a child of the sixties. When you were elected the first Mexican-origin mayor of LA in more than one hundred years, my mind was filled with hope that you would find a way to provide leadership and move LA toward a sustainable and just future based on ecological and cultural democracy. Our people of color communities have long called for grassroots participation in shaping the future of urban policy in southern California. They want a more just and sustainable urban policy that benefits all communities and not just the wealthy developers and corporate interests. Urban development is a “human rights” issue. So I have been wondering if you understand that it is your moral obligation to accept responsibility for challenging the dominant track of urban policy in Los Angeles, with its legacy of environmental racism that connects the injustice perpetrated at Chavez Ravine in the 1940s with the unfolding tragedy at South Central Farm. I first met the Farmers in June 2004. They graciously took me into their world, which as you know is a very rare and beautiful cultural-ecological landscape that is hard to “relocate.” I have been privileged since then to collaborate with the farmers in documenting their knowledge of the plants grown at South Central. We have studied the natural farming practices, the cultural and spiritual beliefs tied to the use of the plants, and the traditional forms of self-government and mutual aid that sustain this landscape and a strong sense of community. This farm is singular in its complex history as a too rare example of an urban commons and deserves to be protected for a diverse ecology and the value it has as the site where more than three hundred families developed an institution: The social and cultural capital which they have used to conquer gangs and drugs while building a sustainable basis for their own food sovereignty and a strong sense of place. South Central Farm is as much a social and cultural asset as it is a unique environmental treasure. It is a self-help grassroots model to urban planning based on place-based knowledge that addresses decades of inequality in the allocation and management of open and public space across the LA basin. The Farmers are asking basic questions about democracy in the city. Who gets open space? How is that space used? Who gets to manage the space? How can we assist communities play a more direct and active role in the management of all our natural assets including open space and park lands? These are deep questions not just about the future of the city but about the nature of equality and just government in shaping an urban policy that promotes social justice and environmental sustainability. South Central Farm is an amazing mosaic of plant life and is literally filled with five thousand year-old native food crops kept by Mesoamerican indigenous people through their family heirloom seed-saving traditions. I wonder if you realize how important this is and that when anthropologists call the Farm an extension of the Mesoamerican “Vavilov Center” we do mean exactly that this is a world-class site for continued experimentation in the use of native heirloom crops and their wild relatives. But I wonder if any of that matters to you or if it inspires you to know that this is also the space where grandmothers, the keepers of the seeds, transmit their knowledge of plants, their nutritional properties, medicinal uses, and spiritual significance, on to the next generation. I wonder if it matters that the youth are eager to become the next in line to preserve the sources of our natural heritage and a sense of place and wholeness with the earth. How can one put a price on that I wonder? How can one not value this contribution to a more wholesome city? In matters of urban planning and policy-making one can readily recognize how the City and County of Los Angeles has a history of promoting inequality and discrimination. Elected officials have tended to split the region into “Penthouse LA” and “Basement LA.” Penthouse LA gets $800 million to remodel the Coliseum and bring the NFL back to town; Penthouse LA gets $1.8 billion for a New Urbanist Civic Center, whose sidewalks will be as devoid of life as a Hollywood post-nuclear apocalyptic vision of Future City. Over the past decade, Penthouse LA received $300 million for open space and parks so the Malibu coastal elite can remain comfortably sequestered in their hills and canyons overlooking the Pacific. Beverly Hills and the rest of the West side received more than $45 million for open space and parks. What has Basement LA received? East LA and South Central LA received $6 million for open space and parks over the same period. I believe you must participate in the Farmers’ movement to create a sustainable and just LA to address the type of environmental racism and persistent inequality indicated by these facts since environmental “goods” like parks and open space are not equally distributed across the LA basin. I have met with your colleague and closest advisor, Deputy Mayor Frank, and like you he is a very smart and kind-hearted person; accessible and knowledgeable. Which is why I am surprised by a statement he recently made to the effect that “we’re going be able to relocate all the farmers.” Larry should ask someone like Araceli Tlatoa to name the Nahua phrase for “to relocate.” She would tell him that there is no such word: “to relocate” is “to disappear.” In this sense, the complex cultural ecological mosaic that is South Central Farm cannot be relocated. Tezozomoc and I met with Mr. Frank and other Mayoral staff in August 2005. At that meeting, we were encouraged to initiate a campaign to raise money to purchase the land in a partnership with the City. The Farmers took the challenge seriously and initiated a campaign that eventually brought the Trust for Public Land in as a partner and facilitator. The TPL signed a 30-day option on the land and raised more than $6 million toward the purchase price of $16.35 million. When the time ran out and you did not deliver on the promised funding to assist the Farmers’ own diligent efforts, the Farmers and their supporters occupied the land to resist the most unjust eviction in LA history. On May 22, Julia “Butterfly” Hill, Daryl Hanna, John Quigley, Joan Baez, Danny Glover, Zack de la Rocha, and many other supporters initiated a campaign to resist the eviction and raise additional funds. They have helped the Farmers raise more money. In the past week alone, more than $350,000 has poured in thanks to the efforts by Julia, Daryl, and others and new pledges to the Farmers. Julia and Daryl remain in the trees on platforms where they are fasting until the Farmers’ good cause is victorious. The Farmers and their supporters have done what was asked and raised more than $6 million toward the purchase of the Farm. The Farmers are bringing a lot to the table; they are not approaching the City as beggars with hat in hand. They offer a strong and resilient base and significant resources to resolve this issue in a manner that is fair to the landowner and the community. Surely your good office can fill the remaining gap? The landscape created by the community at South Central Farm is an ecosystem that took more than a decade to produce through significant investment of the peoples’ cultural, social, financial, and ecological capital. There is no other landscape like it anywhere else in the urban centers of our country; it is that singular an accomplishment. There is also a serious lack of quality open space and park lands in South Central and East Los Angeles. Promising plots to the 350 families by relocating them to other urban gardens will destroy this unique landscape and the social organization of the community the site made possible. The natural capital created at South Central Farm cannot be easily reproduced elsewhere. The social capital created by the people requires that they stay together as a community; it too cannot be simply transplanted to multiple and disjointed sites. The Farmers are an inspiring example to millions around the world who year for grassroots democratic self-government. Relocation of the families will destroy or at least greatly diminish this capacity for participatory democracy. Relocation will greatly weaken the social ties the families created at one site over the past decade. A lot is at stake here, and not just the future of a one admittedly quite singular cultural landscape. The future of urbanism is at stake. Will this future be just and sustainable or more of the same, the never-ending privatization of the few public and common spaces available to our communities? Please serve all of LA and not just Penthouse LA. Mr. Mayor, please find a way to serve the legitimate cultural, social, economic, and environmental needs of the urban poor and people of color. Do not fail to value the social capital of the barrio. Respect and support the peoples’ own mobilization of resources to create community and protect the environment. Support these efforts because they are also a self-reliant and community-based approach to control drug-use and gang membership among the youth without the violence unleashed by the police. Support the Farmers because they represent the future, a more self-reliant, just and sustainable future for all of Los Angeles. Sincerely, Devon G. Peña, Ph.D 1840 NE 177th St Shoreline, WA 98155 Website: www.acequiainstitute.org Email: dpena@acequiainstitute.org