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Web Exclusive: Click here to listen to an extended version of Sonali’s interview with Tezozomoc

When the 14 acre family-run farm on 41st and Alameda was dramatically bull-dozed 8 years ago, activists vowed to keep fighting to restore the South Central Farm. The unused plot of land in the midst of an industrial wasteland, was farmed by hundreds of immigrant families for years after being seized by the city from it’s original owner, Ralph Horowitz, through eminent domain. Horowitz sued decades later, and settled with the city for the sum of $5 million and the condition that a few acres be set aside for a public park. The 2009 Academy Award nominated documentary The Garden captured the story of the South Central farm in dramatic detail for a national audience. City Council member Jan Perry, who represents the area, has now written to City Commissioners saying that it is no longer viable to build a park on former South Central Farm because of health concerns in the polluted area. Instead, she has proposed Horowitz donate money to improve nearby parks. Activists with the South Central farm protested. They were hoping to buy back the farm, but Horowitz claims he is already in escrow with a buyer. In 2008, he nearly sold the plot to the apparel company Forever 21, for a trucking a warehouse facility but protests by the South Central Farmers helped halt construction. This latest attempt by Horowitz and Perry to undermine the 2003 agreement to set aside public space for a park has once more galvanized the farmers and their supporters.

GUEST: Tezozomoc, representative of the South Central Farmers

Find out more about the farm at www.southcentralfarmers.com.