Chicana/o Studies garden blooms with interdisciplinary opportunities

What began with a conversation about planting a garden has grown into a multidisciplinary learning space at the University of New Mexico, connecting students, educators and community members through food, seeds, and the land.

Jardín Ollin, a project within UNM's Chicana and Chicano Studies Department, was first planted in May 2024. Now entering its third planting season, the project has expanded beyond its garden beds to include educational workshops, student research, community engagement and programming that brings together the department's garden, kitchen, theater and library spaces.

The project is co-led by faculty member Joe Gallegos and Diavana Olivas, Ph.D., who describe Jardín Ollin as an ecological education initiative rooted in food justice, cultural knowledge and community-based learning.

The name reflects the project's broader purpose. "Jardín" means garden in Spanish, while "Ollin" means movement and energy in Nahuatl.

"We wanted to activate different spaces in La Casita, like the kitchen, the theater space, and then also our resources in terms of books and seeds," Olivas said.

The project grew from conversations between Olivas and Gallegos about creating a garden and using it as a space for learning. Olivas, who previously attended UNM and later earned her doctorate from the University of Southern California, said her interest in food justice began as a student when she learned about community organizing and projects such as Project Feed the Hood.

Gallegos has decades of experience in agricultural science and community-based work. He previously worked with La Placita Institute in Albuquerque's South Valley, where he led community garden and food justice efforts, and has taught at UNM for more than a decade.

Their first planting included corn grown from seeds connected to a previous student garden at UNM. The seeds included varieties associated with Hopi, Isleta, and Acoma communities. The decision to plant corn was intentional, Olivas said, because of its cultural and cosmological significance across the Americas.

The garden is intentionally designed to be less formal than conventional agricultural production. The project's leaders describe it as a kind of food forest, challenging the idea of food primarily as a commodity and encouraging people to develop relationships with seeds, plants and the land.

That philosophy also shapes the project's educational programming. Through a Food as Medicine grant from UNM's Community Engagement Center, Jardín Ollin has strengthened its relationship with UNM's Initiatives for Student Engaged Ecosystems program, which connects the university with local high school students and teachers.

The project has since hosted workshops for students focused on food and seed sovereignty, including a recent workshop at the Raza Youth Conference. Students have planted seeds, participated in discussions, and spent time learning in the garden.

The project also creates opportunities for UNM students to connect their academic interests with hands-on experiences. One example is the Jardín Ollin Fellowship, which gives one student the opportunity to develop a project connected to the garden and their own academic interests.

Rosario, an undergraduate student interested in becoming an elementary school teacher, was the project's inaugural fellow. Her work included helping plan a community open house, developing educational activities and facilitating a discussion about mental health. She also created an informational resource for teachers and students about using gardens to support social-emotional learning in classrooms. Gallegos said Rosario's experience illustrates the kind of unexpected learning that can emerge from the garden.

For Gallegos, he sees the garden as a "third space" on campus, where students from different disciplines can collaborate and develop new ways of thinking.

The garden can also provide a kind of laboratory for students in fields that traditionally have fewer opportunities for hands-on learning, he said. "Humanities don't have labs," Gallegos said. "A lot of students are hungry for that - how do I apply it? What does that look like in action?"

That interdisciplinary approach is central to the project's future. Students from different areas of study have already visited the garden, including an ecology class. Olivas said the project's openness allows those interactions to shape what Jardín Ollin becomes next.

The project's leaders also see Jardín Ollin as part of a larger network of gardens and sustainability efforts at UNM. The garden participates in the Lobo Gardens network, which connects gardens across campus, and its leaders hope to continue strengthening relationships with food studies and other community and academic initiatives.

Olivas also has proposed a new course focused on Chicano food politics that would incorporate project-based work with Jardín Ollin.

Ultimately, the project is designed to remain flexible and responsive to the people who use it. Like the seeds planted in its soil, the ideas introduced through Jardín Ollin may take time to grow.

"We also don't know when that seed will grow for them," Olivas said of the students who participated in the project. "We don't actually know when maybe they're going to be making, as a result of our conversations, changes or more intentional decisions around their relationship to food and the land."

For Gallegos, uncertainty is part of the point. The garden is a place of fertility, he said, not only for growing food, but for growing ideas, relationships, research, and community.

"It's larger than any of us," Gallegos said. "And I feel like it should be shared."