Music Workshops
Ritmo y Tradición
Through the music of the San Francisco Mission District and our storytelling program, learn the story and cultural diversity of the Latin American Diaspora. We offer music workshops in Spanish to all children ages.
Community organizing
Native Latin American
Mission Moms Committee
The Latin American Mission Mom’s Committee (LMMC) is an independent and self-managed organization whose main objectives are to contribute to
Solving the educational deficiencies of our children within the framework of institutional education and
Mitigating the negative impact on mental and emotional health due to COVID-19 measures, lockdowns, schools closures, and subsequent social problems and violence.
We do this by promoting the strengthening of Latin American Identity and ancestral culture and knowledge, as well as generating meeting spaces for the Latino community that enable the creation of resources for the direct needs of our families, beyond the educational area.
Our Story:
The Latina Mission Moms committee was formed in the summer of 2020 in response to the educational crisis, and the deterioration of the mental and emotional health of our sons and daughters due to the COVID-19 measures and the closure of public schools in the city of San Francisco.
Our children were participating in the Mission Ritmo y Tradición music program, a free program that was serving the Latino community in the neighborhood and was suspended due to COVID-19.
In a show of initiative and a testament to the value of the music program, the mothers self-organized, creating our committee to restart outdoor music workshops. We also organized an online storytelling program "Tales from the Middle of the World and the Navel of the Moon" to keep us connected and cope with forced isolation. This oral storytelling program became the space for coexistence and exchange of stories that took us back to our roots and ancestral wisdom that refuses to disappear despite all the efforts of assimilation and acculturation by the system.
Our children and youth are the most affected by learning loss and emotional problems. As mothers, we have seen the negative impact that prolonged confinement and exposure to screens have caused:
Severe learning loss.
Deterioration of adolescents' mental health, as well as difficulty acquiring social skills, as is most evident in our English language learner students.
In the face of this reality, the mothers of the committee together with community members and allies are building a community of learning and healing. We are responsible for the care of our families and we want to offer development opportunities to our children and youth. We are convinced that a community of love and respect will contribute to overcoming the social difficulties facing our community. We are currently creating the network of Mushuk Nina gardens which is a space for learning and healing where knowledge is shared and solidarity and mutual support are generated.
During the pandemic, we found creative solutions since the school district was of little help. We tried to get help for months, and our voices have not been heard. So, we offered outdoor enrichment educational activities to our children. All parents have some skills to share:
One of the parents offered a music workshop for the kids at Parque del Sol once a week.
We held cooking and baking classes.
We organized field trips to farms, camping trips, and opportunities for the students to be together as social creatures (one of the defining features of being human).
From our experience, we have seen how music and outdoor activities have helped our children’s mental health and well-being.
We organized a Healing & Learning garden where we can hold workshops on Math, Science, English, and Spanish for our children and youth to make up for lost learning due to the quarantine and its related policies.
Reconnection with purpose
Mushuk Nina Healing & Learning
Garden Network for the Mission District.
IntegrArte SF Coop and the Latina Mission Moms’ Committee, came together to mitigatethe problems caused by the pandemic and preceding school closures. Our families have been struggling and our children/youth are the most affected by the learning loss and emotional problems.
As mothers we have seen the negative impact that prolonged confinement and exposure to screens have caused: serious learning loss, teen mental health deterioration, as well as hampering the acquisition of social skills as is most evident for our English Language Learners.
We are growing some medicinal herbs in a small bed at the Secret Garden, a community garden in the Mission District. Moms have expressed interest in learning about medicinal herbs and planting them. Because we love to learn together with our kids we decided to create a series of classes about the planting/harvest process, gardening, healthy nutrition, medicinal herbs, and art activities. This is becoming a healing space for us to reconnect socially and environmentally.
Through our journey creating our healing & learning garden we soon connected with other gardeners and neighboring communities, thus the Mushuk Nina Community Garden Network (Nuevo Fuego), was born in the Mission District of the City of San Francisco. The Network encourages community work and promotes urban agriculture in small spaces.
Some of these gardens sit on what were previously abandoned lots, parking lots, and even garbage dumps.
We named the Network of community Mushuk Nina which means New Fire in Quichua a native language from the Andes in South America, since the celebration of Pawkar Raymi begins in the Andean Mountains on the spring solstice and is the opportunity to thank the Allpa Mama (Mother Earth) of the Inti Tayta (Father) for the kindness and generosity. Sun of Killa Mama (Mother Moon) and all the beings of nature allow us to live in harmony, reciprocity, balance, and complementarity.
Gardens
To date, five gardens are registered: Secret Garden, Greenway, Tree Garden, Chan Ka Haal Garden, and Tenderloin Garden.
BENEFITS OF COMMUNITY GARDENING
Turns urban wounds into vibrant green spaces, improving the quality of life for everyone in the neighborhood.
Through the exchange of knowledge, seeds, local technologies, planting, and maintenance days, the Mushuk Nina Community Garden Network increases agrobiodiversity, expanding an agri-food base and generating a sense of fraternity among friends and neighbors in an increasingly disconnected from each other.
Therapeutic benefits: Weeding a garden is particularly effective at relieving stress and provides mental health benefits to participants. Learning the ways plants grow and the best conditions to help them thrive can provide the mental and intellectual stimulation to cultivate a new skill.
Changes the culture of a neighborhood by providing an interest in issues that engage participants.
Environmental benefits: Increase in pollinator plants that can improve the conditions of bees, and other endangered pollinators. Plants also reduce the overall temperature compared to paved spaces, making these gardens especially beneficial.
These gardens are the outdoor learning spaces for children and youth from the Latino and low-income communities in the Mission District.
Healing and Learning for children and youth through Community Agroecology.
Outdoor education in direct contact with nature, recognizing parks and open spaces as learning scenarios and spaces to socialize and reconnect.
Teaching methodology through play, providing active environmental education.
Creation of a community where learning in Spanish is a tool for cultural identity.
Combat the excessive use of technology at an early age and the problems caused by stress, anxiety, depression, isolation, or violence in schools.