By Emily Frost, Events and Garden Leader Coordinator
How do you heal a community devastated by violence? If you are Ana and James Chavez, you do it by reclaiming wasted land, connecting searching youth with a past to be proud of, and getting your hands dirty. This is a redemption story.
Ana and James lost their teenage son Troy to gang violence. Troy Chavez was one of 108 children in Denver and the surrounding areas who was a victim of violence between 1992 and 1994- the summer of 1993 is actually known locally as the “Summer of Violence.” Ana and James wanted to change the trajectory of hopelessness that they saw in the youth in their neighborhood, to provide them with a different path, as their son Troy had tried to do himself. They started with peace marches in the community, calling for an end to the violence as they carried crosses bearing the names of the 108 children who were victims of violence on their backs throughout the neighborhood. This gained widespread community attention, and neighbors and fellow families of survivors and victims alike soon drew together to create something more permanent. Ultimately, the community decided to construct a memorial, and in so doing create lasting means of engaging community, honoring the memories of the young victims, and providing children an opportunity to choose a different path. A community garden concept was born.
Leprino Foods offered the space on the corner of 38th and Shoshone. They used to have a greenhouse on site, but a fire had ravaged the building and left an unsightly vacant lot that became a popular drug haven. Ana and the community were feeling overwhelmed by the amount of space. It was about that time that Michael and David (then Co-Executive Directors) of Denver Urban Gardens got involved. They had heard about the good community organizing Ana was doing and offered to help. At first, the community members were uncertain about bringing in outsiders to help accomplish their goals, but when DUG made it clear they were committed to helping and supporting the community vision and had no desire to run the project or tell folks how to do it, the project moved forward.
Ana says that community members were very interested and engaged in the project because this community, largely of Mexican ancestry, were people who came from a farm working background, and who have always been connected with the earth. There was a shared belief in the importance of connection to the earth, as well as a growing desire to reconnect children with the earth and with their history. The community decided to call the garden “The Troy Chavez Memorial Peace Garden,” but the garden itself is dedicated to all children who are victims of violence. Ana notes poignantly that “Somehow, if you don’t have a past, all you have is a future, and it makes it a difficult journey. So we decided to go back to the past to reconnect our people to the earth and what is important.”
“When I say ‘our people’ and ‘our ancestors’, I mean the Aztecs, Mayans, and Toltecs. We started teaching that we are not foreigners to this land. We are not immigrants to this country. We are indigenous people. And teaching this sparked a pride in the community, because we’re always told we’re not from here, but we are. So when we started telling people about the garden and the vision of the garden, the youth themselves decided they wanted to build a miniature Aztec ball court. It’s the first thing that you see when you walk into the garden.” It is a testament to the ownership these young people have taken over the garden, as are the tiles that the youth drew of their hopes for their future.
“All these kids, they only see their own city block. They don’t think of growing or becoming a bigger person, because they think it’s all they have, this is all that there is for them.” So Ana takes kids on perspective-expanding, out-of-city adventures. The youth work towards these different trips by volunteering. For example, after volunteering to plant trees to restore vulnerable forest areas, Ana and James took the youth to Rocky Mountain National Park on a camping trip. They go skiing, river rafting, horseback riding, and do a variety of different activities with the kids to introduce them to a broader life than the one that they presently have. They are working toward changing the mindset of these youth, which often doesn’t extend beyond what life might look like if they make it to 21 years of age. Ana shared that one hard reality to swallow came when she asked the youth to design memorial tiles to decorate the garden, to draw what they wanted to be when they grew up. None of the tiles extended past young twenties–a snapshot into the mentality of these youth who expect to die young. But Ana, and the garden, are changing that.
“The garden is really important because it touches so many people. We get kids from La Escuela Tlatelolco, Denver Kids, Servicio de la Raza, local daycares, and juvenile diversion programs. We also work with an organization called Peer One, in which incarcerated men come help in the garden. People are drawn to this garden because when you walk into this space, you feel something there… this community garden is all about fighting violence with peace.”
This summer, you can support the Troy Chavez Peace Memorial Garden by partaking in the youth run markets. Keep an eye out on the DUG website for dates and times. To learn more about how you or your organization can get involved in the programs at Peace Community Garden, please contact us.