Maiz

Barbara McCarren

The artists have used this 13-acre urban park to celebrate Chavez’s efforts to create better working conditions for farm workers. Through an interactive landscape, the artists have playfully placed a circular maze next to the park’s swings and slides. The puzzle begins on the floor of the park’s community center, which features recessed brass and steel images of a fish and an ear of corn. Visitors are then drawn into concentric pathways which are inscribed with prose from Pablo Neruda, Theodore Roethke, Joy Harjo, Booker T. Washington and Ernesto Galarza, with corresponding pictograms representing plants, animals and the sun. At the center of the maze is an olive tree, symbolizing an important food source as well as peace. A series of benches form a ring around the maze. A porcelain enamel tile of a colorful Mexican “Loteria” card is on the back of each bench, with images including a melon, a heart and a shrimp.