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Pushing the boundaries of indigeneity and agricultural knowledge: Oaxacan immigrant gardening in California

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  • Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern

Abstract

This article explores a community garden in the Northern Central Coast of California, founded and cultivated by Triqui and Mixteco peoples native to Oaxaca, Mexico. The practices depicted in this case study contrast with common agroecological discourses, which assume native people’s agricultural techniques are consistently static and place-based. Rather than choose cultivation techniques based on an abstract notion of indigenous tradition, participants utilize the most appropriate practices for their new environment. Garden participants combine agricultural practices developed in Oaxaca with those learned while working on California farms. Through the process of community gardening, immigrants find a new interpretation of their own shifting indigenous identity, based on culinary and agrarian practices in a new place. Additionally, they form solidarities between historic ethnic divides of Triqui and Mixteco, based on newfound commonalities in the garden. This case study provides an important example of the current articulation, construction, and deployment of indigeneity in the context of migration and agriculture, and its implications for immigrant opportunities and futures. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012

Suggested Citation

  • Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, 2012. "Pushing the boundaries of indigeneity and agricultural knowledge: Oaxacan immigrant gardening in California," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 29(3), pages 381-392, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:29:y:2012:i:3:p:381-392
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-011-9348-4
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Seth M Holmes, 2006. "An Ethnographic Study of the Social Context of Migrant Health in the United States," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 3(10), pages 1-18, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. Sofya Aptekar & Justin S. Myers, 2020. "The tale of two community gardens: green aesthetics versus food justice in the big apple," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(3), pages 779-792, September.
    2. Natascha Klocker & Olivia Dun & Lesley Head & Ananth Gopal, 2020. "Exploring migrants’ knowledge and skill in seasonal farm work: more than labouring bodies," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(2), pages 463-478, June.
    3. Lissy Goralnik & Lucero Radonic & Vanessa Garcia Polanco & Angel Hammon, 2022. "Growing Community: Factors of Inclusion for Refugee and Immigrant Urban Gardeners," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-20, December.
    4. Teresa Mares & Naomi Wolcott-MacCausland & Julia Doucet & Andy Kolovos & Marek Bennett, 2020. "Using chiles and comics to address the physical and emotional wellbeing of farmworkers in Vermont’s borderlands," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(1), pages 197-208, March.

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