Today we’d like to introduce you to Yolie Anguiano.
Yolie, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My vision to activate the desolate Pacoima Spreading Grounds (PSG) couldn’t have come to fruition without my supportive family and community members. We all were in agreement about wanting to be part of an effort that revitalized the only walkable LA city sidewalk that intersects the PSG into the East San Fernando Valley Nature Parkway. It is now a California native plant community garden along the PSG’s sidewalk, creating an aromatherapeutic experience for all who roll, run, stroll through it either to get to their destination or to exercise. The plants attract pollinators and mitigate fossil fuel emissions from the thousands of drivers that zoom through Devonshire Street (Nature Parkway’s location) every day.
The Pacoima Spreading Grounds is located in the backyard of my family’s home. If we were lawfully permitted to cross through it, we would be able to travel from Mission Hills, where my parents’ house is located, east towards Pacoima, south towards Arleta, Southwest to North Hills and Panorama City. The Pacoima Spreading Grounds is a confluence of Northeast San Fernando Valley neighborhoods. As a kid with my cousins, we would adventure through the chainlink fence’s holes to explore. It was the nearest open space to us we could get to without an adult. I didn’t know its purpose, but I remember liking the sound of the rushing water running through the Pacoima Wash. It did feel like a secret park to us. It was a vast difference to the accessible, clean, open green spaces I would visit while being a Burbank Catholic school student from K-12. When my sister and I were in undergrad, we would pass the Pacoima Spreading Grounds through Devonshire Street to rent late-night movies at Blockbuster. It was through these short drives that we would compare the dark street without city lights and dead land to Burbank’s neighborhoods that felt safer and recreationally active even at nighttime. We talked about wanting to see it become similar to the Silverlake Reservoir, which is always filled with water, resembling a lake, with a walk and bike path, parents pushing strollers, and folks exercising as they pass sidewalk gardens. What started as mindful conversations stemmed feelings of frustration, so I started learning about the injustice in city planning, racism as seen in redlining neighborhoods, property values, and many other variables influencing economic development.
I’m an optimistic person, and my values come from my parent’s immigrant story that includes building an American Dream. Therefore, I picked myself up from whatever the length of my bootstraps were at the time and started putting together a project plan that would vitalize the blight LA City sidewalk that abuts the Pacoima Spreading Grounds along Devonshire St into a California native plant community garden. The sidewalk had a dirt path separating it from the street that stretched about 12oo feet. Volunteers, like myself, from local neighborhood councils started hearing my pitch as money and city approvals were needed to start planting and installing an irrigation system. We formed the Vitalize SFV coalition and held meetings even when only me and one other person would show up. The dollar signs and questions about who will pay for the project consequently reared its ugly head. Al Piantanida, who passed in 2012, was our greatest champion and kept my hopes high when roadblocks surfaced since we were uncredited city planners and inexperienced landscape designers.
I’m a true believer that is what is meant to happen will happen. Planning for the Nature Parkway started in 2007, and we broke ground in 2011. Throughout those years, we learned about the City of LA Public Works’ Office of Beautification, which granted monetary awards for community projects such as ours. So, we applied and won, and with it came access to the permits we needed. A childhood friend who was a garden landscaper helped us choose the right native plants for our desert-like climate in the Valley, while another with a digital design background illustrated our plan. This opened the door to local leaders at the time supporting our effort, a local landscaping business, Tajo Landscape, donating the labor to install an irrigation system, and monetary donations from different sources to purchase materials and, of course, the native plants from Theodore Payne Foundation in Sun Valley. We knew that once we completed our planting day, we had only gotten started.
Sometimes, you have to do the work yourself instead of waiting for the change you want to be created. For the past thirteen years we have held informative workshops about native plants and held community events to plant and maintain the Nature Parkway. The Nature Parkway is not mine; it’s on the City of LA property, but I do recognize it as my baby. I want to see it flourish, so I often go out there either with the community or by myself to water the plants, pick up the tons of litter, and make sure the plants are growing strong. It’s been part of my life, but I don’t think I will be able to take care of it for the rest of my life. I live locally, and my parents are still at the same house, but I have learned to put myself first. The Covid pandemic taught me how delicate life can be. Putting my own wants and needs first has to take priority.
Currently, we are focusing on advocating to our local LA City Council members, Padilla and Rodriguez, to push forward an already approved motion (22-1177 from November 2022) that will create a plan requiring various city departments to identify what is needed and how much it would cost to vitalize the city spaces around the Pacoima Spreading Grounds, including the Nature Parkway. We are in a pivotal moment where various jurisdictions in government have passed ballot measures to adhere to creating water saving projects and create new open green spaces. The Pacoima Spreading Grounds was created in the 1930s with no incorporation of a community benefit plan because the majority of inhabitants were and continue to be POC. If the Pacoima Spreading Grounds and our street spaces continues to be neglected, then we are still living in those times. A part of me feels like change is coming, but unfortunately, we have to wait our turn until we get a new champion. Possibly our elected officials will turn us all into believers when they show actionable steps towards supporting the quality of life of their communities. Our zip code should not predict the health of our genetic code. For now, the plants that continue to thrive will be a habitat for pollinators, and users of the Nature Parkway will continue visiting what is accessible.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The Nature Parkway is growing because the native plants are drought tolerant, and they are resilient healers for our community. However, since the City of Los Angeles has not taken ownership of this LA City sidewalk, it takes volunteers to maintain it. Volunteers need to be led, and I have taken this role. When I have been able to dedicate the time, I have irrigated the plants and organized events to build community around this beautification project. I formed a non-profit, Valle Vida, to apply to grants that will support the Nature Parkway and also enhance local resident’s awareness about the need for the Nature Parkway to be enhanced and extended throughout the Pacoima Spreading Grounds. We are still on mission because since 2011, the Nature Parkway has become local residents’ destination for recreation. We understand spending time in nature is healing.
One of the struggles we have faced as a volunteer-driven non-profit is having dedicated staff to seek funding and continue programming. Our drip irrigation system was vandalized, and the water cost became too much when lacking a continuous revenue stream. I resulted to watering the plants individually using a water tank with a connected hose. We are grateful for those who join our community clean-up efforts and more to those everyday users who bring their own bag to bend over and pick up the trash they see.
We have advocated for a city-run irrigation system, a buffered bike path, systems that would slow down traffic, city lights along the mile-long Devonshire Street, trash cans with scheduled pick-ups, and bathrooms at the city parks that are located at each end of the Nature Parkway. Some of these recommendations have been approved by the City of LA City Council motion that instructs departments to draft a plan identifying the cost to implement the recommendations. That is as far as we have come. The LA city offices of districts 6 and 7 have not communicated to our group of Nature Parkway advocates about the motion’s status upon request. Change comes slowly, I guess, and we are able to change only those things we do control. We will continue to persist through the struggle until we get the Nature Parkway revitalized around the Pacoima Spreading Grounds.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I like to think of myself as a community advocate who speaks against social injustice. My career has been dedicated to working for non-profits whose mission is to enhance the quality of life of local residents. Currently, I’m a director of anti-hate programming for 211 LA. We manage services that takes calls or online hate reports and offer care coordination to access referrals to direct supportive services to people targeted for hate across the state of California. My love for nature and community beautification fills in the gaps of what I can’t get from my professional careers. Especially the healing nature offers me when I spend time outside with the plants at the Nature Parkway.
So, if you want to see a woman along Devonshire Street, often alone, on her knees gardening and pulling a hose watering plants, maybe dancing along to the jams bursting my ear drums, you will find me there at the Nature Parkway. I have not yet recognized people like me out there in the busy LA City life. Gangster Gardener Ron Finely, one of my inspirations, comes to mind. I’m sure there are more gardening gangstas out there, though.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
Getting started works. Taking one step often points you in the direction of which way to take your second step. It is through mindful action steps that are connected to your vision that illuminates the path. There is something magical in the process. It doesn’t happen right away, so your mission has to be your baby too. I’ve learned the struggle is often because I need to either clarify something or tweak an idea incorporating feedback. You either become a lone wolf and do things your way as the only way, or you build community so that the mission gets completed for the greater good.
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