{"article":{"id":139769,"heading":"Concert to Support the South Central Farmers","author":"Support the South Central Farmers","created":"2005-11-22 21:56:39","modified":"2013-11-11 00:36:47","last_modified":"Mon, 11 Nov 2013 07:36:47","article":"

For release Oct. 27, 2005

Media contact Fernando Flores

(909) 605-3136 cellular

Zach de la Rocha, Members of Ozomatli, Quetzal and others join 350

Families in South L.A. to Defend Community Farm

Concert to save the community farm @ 41st & Alameda.

Nov. 22nd event will mobilize the community in Support of the South

Central Farmers

Who: South Central Farmers

What: Concert at the Farm

When: Tuesday, Nov. 22nd , 8:30 p.m.

Where: 41st St. and Long Beach Ave.

For 13 years, 350 families have tended a 14-acre community farm in the

middle of South L.A.‚s gritty industrial belt. Growing their own

cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes and other staples has helped make good nutrition

affordable. Traditional crops like chipillin, alachi, quelite and pipicha

have helped keep traditional cuisine and folk-medicine alive.

The City of L.A. acquired the land in the late 1980s, but abandoned

plans to build a trash incinerator after community protests. In 1994, officials

transferred title to the Harbor Department, which contracted with the

L.A. Regional Food Bank to operate a community farm on the property. In

2003, the City Council agreed to sell the 14 acres back to the original

owner, private developer Ralph Horowitz, who wants to demolish the garden and

build a warehouse.

The 350 families ˆ organized as South Central Farmers ˆ have camped out

in the field for weeks to prevent Horowitz from grabbing the land. A

sneak attack can come at any time, though, and the group will hold a

candlelight ceremony on Sunday to call public attention to their plight, as well as

celebrate the traditional holiday, Day of the Dead.

Ozomatli began their career in the Los Angeles and San Diego\/Mexico

border-area club scene.

Zach De La Rocha: is the former lead singer of Rage Against the

Machine, a politically-inspired band founded in who were highly regarded as one of

the most influential rock bands in recent history, having helped pave the

way for many of today's hard rock bands that fuse rap and rock

SON DE MADERA: Founded in 1992 and endowed with an enormous talent for

musical arrangements and tradition research, Son de Madera represents

the leading success in the current Son Jarocho movement.

LOS COJOLITES: Six years ago, the Center for Documentation and Research

of the Son Jarocho, began their efforts to recover their history and

culture in the refinery town of Cosoleacaque. A lot of workshops and classes were

going on, and Los Cojolites project was one of them. It was made up of a

group of kids that were getting together to learn how to dance and play the \"son

jarocho.\"

QUETZAL: In 1993 Flores formed „Quetzal-A new experience in Chicano

Music.‰ His idea was to push the boundaries of Chicano Music as we knew it. 

The centerpiece would be female vocals and the use of the violin as the

lead instrument. Proclaimed by no less an authority than Los Lobos as ready

to carry the torch for Los Angeles's Chicano community, Quetzal embody the

soul and the struggle at the heart of the Mexican-American legacy. Their mix

of Mexican and Cuban rhythms, jazz, and rock is supercharged by the

dynamic vocals of siblings Martha and Gabriel Gonzalez, who could send

brown-eyed soul trifles straight to the top of the charts if they wanted to. Their

music is informed by radical authors and grassroots tenacity.

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