Photos by K. Daniel Bryan
On Saturday, March 3rd, the César Andreu Iglesias Community Garden held a garden party fundraiser for the community of Las Cuevas, Loiza. This coastal, riverside community was completely inundated during the storm and many residents lost their homes and all their belongings. Las Cuevas’ resident Kenny Diaz directed a group of seven women to form a brigade to check in on vulnerable neighbors and make sure they had emergency supplies. Kenny and her fellow organizers’ next goal is to establish a computer lab in a building a neighbor has committed to allowing them to use for this purpose. Currently, students must travel 45 minutes to San Juan to use the internet. This computer lab is not only critical to students getting caught up in their studies, but will also serve as a physical space in which this community can maintain unity through workshops, media-making and movie nights.
[Image Description: Two people sitting outside, one is holding a block of wood. They are giving each other a high-five.]
[Image Description: A large sign with a butterfly painted on it reads, “Vegetable garden. César Andreu Iglesias” with a portrait of the poet César Andreu Iglesias.]
[Image Description: Four people stand around a fire. Two are holding pieces of wood to place in the fire. One is toasting a marshmallow.]
[Image Description: White and blue Puerto Rican carnival masks are displayed in the garden.]
In Philly, Voces del Barrio has been active in collecting donated supplies and clothing as well as working with advocating for the recent evacuees of Puerto Rico.
The César Andreu Iglesias community garden was founded in 2012, when Philly Socialists and our friends and neighbors expropriated parcels of vacant, tax-delinquent land and converted it into a community garden and people’s park at 1968 North Lawrence Street. We continue to run youth programs, block parties, and other serve the people programs from the site.
César Andreu Iglesias (July 31, 1915 – April 17, 1976) was a Puerto Rican journalist, novelist, and communist political activist.
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