Hector Tobar: Historic South-Central is flowering

Practical dreamers are creating a diverse community -- nurturing gardens, opening a business, extending goodwill and respect, writes columnist Hector Tobar.

Jose Luna doesn't see the blight around him in his neighborhood in Historic South-Central. That old apartment building with the shuttered windows? Not a problem. The graffiti on the sidewalk? He's too busy building the home of his dreams to notice.

He's not one to brag, so I'll do it for him. Luna, a garment worker, has created a gorgeous front garden, by far the best-looking one on his block of Woodlawn Avenue.

The gnarled columns of an old cactus are the centerpiece. Rose bushes and begonias provide a flash of color. And in one corner there's a bird of paradise that has a sentimental little story attached to it.

For Luna, a 42-year-old native of Mexico, owning a home is the proudest accomplishment of three decades in the United States. I look at his home and garden and see something more.

Read on here.

 

Image: Garment worker Jose Luna has been in the U.S. for 30 years. He has transformed the home and property he bought in South-Central not long after the 1992 riots. Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times.

Comments

[Lynda Lewis]

I happen to read the article by Jose Luna and to my surprise the older women mentioned that gave him a piece of her plant in his article is my grandmother Kathleen Fields, she has been a resident in this neighborhood since 1946, she has recently passed away. She has always been a proud women and it showed with her garden and the up keep of her home. The family was touched to know that she touched someone else in her neighborhood. It made us very proud. She has left her family a legacy and we will pass it on with the same respect and pride of ownership she had.