From Pandemic Back to Garden Paradise
A Children ’ s Story
Story & Photography by Alejandro López
It is very early in the morning and I am awoken from my harvest and chasing butterflies in
brothers and sisters gathering
slumber by the sweet squealing the open fields , more than half a sounds of children coming from century ago ? Or is it possible that the agricultural fields just below the time is now when I am much the house . Still inhabiting the world older , and El Rancho Grande , with of dreams , I wonder for a brief moment what time it is , not in terms lands , abandoned for many years ,
its once meticulously cultivated
of hours and minutes , but instead has again been brought back to of decades and historical periods . life and its former glory and health
Am I still living the time when through the efforts of a single family ? Thankfully , this beloved family
I was growing up in El Rancho Grande , the old family homestead in Santa Cruz , New Mexico , a renaissance due in part , to the
farm , is currently experiencing
amid the raucous antics of my ten labor and vision of the Alcantar , an extended Mexican farming family that has lived in the United States for many years . This tireless and highly resourceful family consists of three resolute older sisters , one obedient husband , two helpful sons , an obliging daughter-in-law and three active , bright , and adorable grandchildren .
The unmistakable , recurrent and gleeful cries of real children , and the palpable current of cool air pulsating in and out of the bedroom through an open door , tell me that this is no dream and that I had better get up so as not to miss any of the exciting action taking place in the gardens of El Rancho Grande now bursting anew with life as it did when I was a child .
When I cross the old wooden bridge that spans the acequia or irrigation ditch that bisects the four acre property in half , Mía , Dominic and Logan , the three children of José and María González , members of the larger Alcantar clan , run up to me excitedly and tell me about their early morning adventures pulling up carrots from the ground . “ Each time we struggled with all our might to pull up the carrots and free them from the ground , we ended up being hurled through space and landing on our butts
Mía transporting bunches of sunflowers to central location in the garden .
24 plenty I autumn harvest 2020