lo Squaderno (Jun 2011)
Cultivating Immigrant Communities and Plants in Los Angeles Urban Gardens
Abstract
The gardens of Los Angeles are vast and diverse, and for several years now, I have been immersed in them. These include public parks, private residential gardens, an elite botanical garden and urban community gardens. I’m trying to discern what it means to go into these gardens, to labor in them, and to be associated with them in both imagination and practice. As a sociologist, my point of departure is that gardens are not isolated oases, but serve as windows that reveal the changing social and cultural landscape of Los Angeles.