Abya Yala: La Huerta Roots & Rays Shade Structure

La Huerta Roots & Rays is raising funds for a permanent shade structure in the community garden.

La Huerta Roots & Rays is a community garden run by volunteer land stewards and artists in Pilsen. During peak months, La Huerta Roots & Rays provides programming, arts/culture workshops, and produce to approximately 200 members of the community. The space has also become an informal and active site of respite, reflection, and play for neighbors ranging from young children to seniors. The garden is stewarded by Neighborspace, a land trust that protects community gardens in Chicago, Illinois.

The aim of this project has been to create a collectively-designed, climate-resilient structure called Abya Yala, which is to be hosted at the garden. The design has conceptualized through a series of community design workshops where neighbors were invited to share their visions and aspirations for the structure and its location on the site. This project goes beyond the structure itself and will continue to strengthen the ties of local residents, cultural institutions, and public spaces by creating a permanent structure for arts workshops. This will support the promotion of cultural solidarity and ensure long-term sustainability, shade, and water management.

We are deeply inspired by the term Abya Yala, a name given to the American continent by the Guna people, meaning “land in its full maturity” or “land of vital blood.” Embracing this name allows us to honor Indigenous worldviews and affirm a pre-colonial identity for the Americas—one grounded in deep relationships with land, community, and ancestral knowledge.

Abya Yala at La Huerta Roots & Rays is more than just a structure—it is a statement. In a neighborhood shaped by histories of migration, resistance, and cultural richness, this project will create a safe, nurturing space that reflects the full complexity of our community.

We recognize the need for spaces that affirm the presence and contributions of the African diaspora, whose resilience and ancestral knowledge have long shaped this land. At the same time, welcome new migrants seeking refuge and belonging—a place where stories, cultures, and traditions are shared and celebrated.

Designed with and for the community, this climate-resilient space will foster healing, creativity, and intergenerational connection—a living expression of solidarity rooted in justice and care.

Pilsen is located in an industrial corridor and has been impacted by some of the worst air and water pollution in the city. It is also one of Chicago’s southwest-side neighborhoods that has significantly less tree cover and green space than those on the north side. In response to these environmental stressors, each element, like the shade canopy and water collection system, will be designed to strengthen the

resiliency and self-sufficiency of the garden in the face of an increasingly unpredictable climate.

The design was developed through a series of three collaborative design workshops at local business and community spaces throughout Pilsen, beginning in Fall 2024. Future workshops will incorporate a collaboration with local artists in Pilsen to paint a paver mural on the ground under the structure as well as signage to display upcoming programming.

Your support will help us bring this structure to life and shade our garden members, neighbors, and community!

This project is led by Yaritza Guillen **, Sophia Guadalupe , Danyel Thraken, Akima Brackeen, and Ella Edelstein.

**This is part of Gardens, Robots, and Third Spaces for Collective Resilience, a project by Chicago urbanist and storyteller Yaritza Guillen . The project reclaims and reimagines urban environments by cultivating third spaces—both physical and digital—rooted in cultural resonance, sustainability, healing, and collective imagination.

Together, we weave ancestral knowledge, land memory, and technology as tools of empowerment to envision these spaces as decolonial healing portals. Merging urban design, ecology, and creative play, the project activates world-building in response to the urgent crises of climate change and social injustice, inviting participants to engage deeply in the practice of possibility.