FHDC’s Nuevo Amanecer community in Woodburn, Oregon is a thriving place for residents to create pathways to build prosperity. One of the means is through intergenerational learning and understanding of Latin American Indigenous ancestry, culture, history, heritage, and practices. Nuevo Amanecer is the birthplace of the Anahuac Community garden projects; the site helping to launch the capital campaign to build a grassroots farm and learning center in Turner, Oregon. Through the shared learning of Latin American Indigenous practices, language classes, cultivation of culinary and medicinal herbs and foods, wild foraging, caring for the land, cultivating a community garden, and making/sharing family recipes, hundreds of residents have engaged with the Anahuac project and the intuitive ways of living.
The partnership with Anahuc (an Initiative of a sister organization, Capaces Leadership Institute) and FHDC dates back to 2019 when the community garden and farmers market first launched. The platform and educational workshops have been well received and important for residents who do not have cultural representation of indigenous Latin American practices or languages in other community formats. According to surveys and conversations with residents, approximately 12%, and possibly many more of our families are Indigenous. As the Anahuac Project expands to a larger community farm and learning center in Turner, Oregon, we plan to continue to cultivate the community garden, language classes, and other activities to engage intergenerational families living at FHDC.
Currently, youth and families are taking Zapotec and Mixteco language classes two times a week. The Indigenous language and cultural enrichment activities will continue through the school year and into summer, combined with care and weekly harvests at the community garden. We are grateful for the partnership and the education offered through this vital cultivation.
The FHDC Real Estate Development Team is currently working with the Anahuac’s team to support funding to build their community education building in their new location in Turner and both FHDC and Evolve have financially supported Anahuac on their capital campaign.
