Huertos Familiares Sprouts

In our garden, the Spring is an invitation for reflection, regeneration, and experimentation. We reflect on the seeds that gift us abundance; we regenerate the soils that feed us; we experiment with new ways to support life. The lessons we learn, we weave into our intentions, our relationships, our art, our work. This March, we flow into a new season with two new projects with the intention of extending our study of regenerative artistic practices.

The Huertos Familiares project saw first light with the garden preparation at Galeria E.V.A, and the distribution of our Garden Salutations cards and Field Notes journals. With our good friends from a todo dar productions, the Urban Bird Project, and a team of volunteers.

On March 7, we came together to build a garden at Galeria E.V.A. Having a food-producing garden has been a dream of artist Veronica Castillo for many years in her gallery space. Veronica has opened her kitchen and patio for community members to cook meals for the homeless every weekend for many years, so the idea for this garden was conceived as a way to support that work, not only by providing fresh, local, organic produce for these meals but also as part of a future community kitchen where Veronica and members of the community can come together to share cooking demonstrations with homegrown vegetables and herbs.

The Huertos Familiares concept is decentralized at its core, and for it to truly flourish, community participation is essential. We are all students, and teachers in this cosmic journey. This week marks not only the beginning of growth in this garden at Galeria E.V.A. but also the launch of the Huertos Familiares initiative by Terra Advocati.

Funded in part by the City of San Antonio’s Office of Sustainability Community Action Fund Grant, Urban Bird Project, and the Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation, this project is a testament to collective effort. We are incredibly grateful to the Office of Sustainability for their support of this vision, and we were delighted that Kate Jaceldo and Carina Trevino could join us for this beautiful event!

We were also thrilled to welcome two other unexpected guests to the space. Amanda Lewis, who is the Director of Research at the Huasteca Regenerative Agriculture Center, A Terra Advocati co-founded environmental research and community center in Mexico, and Miranda Gonzales, the Artistic Director for the Urban Theater Company in Chicago, Il.

Our partners from the University of Texas San Antonio’s Urban Bird Project, including Dr. Kenneth Walker, Dr. Amelia King-Kostelac, Dr. Jen Smith, and Professor Carolina Hinojosa, arrived with a team of students looking to gain hands-on experience in urban food systems and community action. This initiative provides students with a tangible way to see how their academic studies apply to real-world community transformation. Terra Advocati deeply values bridging the gap between academia and community needs in ways that support biodiversity, wildlife, and food sovereignty, an essential step in regenerating society. We believe this transformation starts within the heart and radiates outward to one’s home, neighborhood, and beyond, creating large-scale impact.

Early in the morning, under cloudy skies that hinted at the heat to come, Jess and Maricella Infante laid out shovels and wheelbarrows and got straight to work with the students. One team mixed compost and soil to fill five raised beds built from recycled corrugated steel and wood. Another team broke up a section of the parking lot, transforming it into a food-producing Milpa garden (three sisters: corn, beans, and squash). We worked to break up the hardpan clay, asphalt, and road base in the parkway area between the street and sidewalk to plant a diverse selection of drought-resistant native pollinator plants.

The students’ efforts were inspiring. One of the most satisfying transformations was seeing a parking lot turn into a garden using a simple tool, the broad fork. This four-tine hand tool digs deep, breaking years of soil compaction and, as Dr. Walker noted, allowing the soil to "breathe" a deep breath of life and relief. Thanks to the Office of Sustainability, we were able to purchase two Meadow Creature broad forks for future neighborhood projects. These tools will be a cornerstone of a community tool library, empowering residents to start gardens and microfarms and share food with their neighbors. Once we loosened the soil and added compost, land that had been suffocated under pavement for years immediately began absorbing water, a simple, yet incredible sight.

Led by Alexas Ramirez, Maya Soto, and Art Lopez from the Traditional Center for Indigenous Knowledge and Healing, students learned about the traditional uses of Milpa in Native American and Mesoamerican cultures. In this symbiotic planting system, corn grows tall but is vulnerable to wind and rain, so beans climb the stalks, adding stability while also fixing nitrogen into the soil. Meanwhile, squash grows low to the ground, suppressing weeds, retaining moisture, and enriching the soil, all while producing abundant food. Seeing this ancient, efficient system revive a former parking lot was truly beautiful.

After our hard work, we gathered inside around a long table to share stories. Veronica, alongside artist Rosie Torres, spoke about her childhood in Puebla, Mexico, where food sovereignty was not just a practice but a way of life ingrained in indigenous cultures across Mesoamerica. She shared plant names, culinary traditions, and heartfelt gratitude for the team that helped bring her vision to life.

With full bellies and full hearts, we opened our seed bank, offering regionally appropriate vegetable seeds to anyone ready to start growing at home. Usually, people are hesitant, but this time, the hands-on experience and storytelling had sparked inspiration. Around a dozen attendees, mostly students, took seeds home, eager to begin their own gardens.

We look forward to seeing this garden flourish into a vibrant centerpiece on San Antonio’s Southside, inspiring others to reconnect with the land.

For years, we’ve spoken about functional landscapes and their importance in society, not just those that serve humans but those that nurture wildlife and biodiversity. When we create abundance in our surroundings, life responds. The sight of butterflies and hummingbirds fluttering through a thriving space can spark conversations, forge unexpected connections, and even change lives. A single conversation with a stranger, inspired by the beauty of a shared space, can lead to unforeseen journeys, personal transformations, and even broader societal shifts.

We are deeply grateful to our partners and friends who came together to launch this project. We look forward to a future where, no matter the scale of our efforts, abundance thrives. In our hearts, our souls, our communities, and, of course, in our huertos.