In the summer of 2014, local videographer Alfredo Béjar documented the lives of married couple Galo Cadena and Manuela Vera, who emigrated from Mexico to Newburgh three decades ago to find work and support their family. When not at their jobs (Manuela is a school bus monitor and Galo is currently on hiatus from construction work due to health reasons), says Béjar, “they grow organic vegetables using sustainable farming methods passed down from their Mexican ancestors.”
|
|
Intriguingly, the two — who lease community garden plots from the Stony Kill Foundation in Wappingers Falls — use machetes and shovels instead of lawn movers and power tools. Their sustainable methods produce beautiful plants that do not need to be fertilized in order to grow.
Learn about their extraordinary journey — and struggles — in the video below:
Galo and Manuela’s Garden © Alfredo Béjar on Vimeo; used with permission of Alfredo Béjar
 |
 |
|
Manuela shows off blooming maravilla (left); at right, a Kenyan family visiting from Texas enjoys some of the farm’s corn |
|
