Tito Romero grew up in Barrio Centro and went to Julia Keen Elementary. The school closed in 2004 and sat empty for twelve years. When a trucking company came for the property, he and the Flowers & Bullets collective showed up to the town hall with more than 300 people. Today that school is the Midtown Farm: goats, compost, seed saving, a tiendita, and a whole neighborhood of people who made it happen. We talk about Mexican American Studies, where the name Flowers & Bullets came from, why his neighborhood never saw the rainwater rebate, and how all the circles come together.
Members get the full uncut episode, including the conversation that kept going after the questions ended: eltucsonan.com/supporters/sign_in
Introducing Tucson to itself.
Gregorio C., El Tucsonan
CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
0:50 Tito and Flowers & Bullets
3:50 Mexican American Studies
6:35 T-shirts and a backyard garden
9:02 Corn, squash and beans
10:52 Where the name came from
12:59 From t-shirts to food and identity
19:37 Pick your anchor
21:44 Potlucks, gardens and rain tanks
25:36 300 people vs. a truck yard
27:05 Is harvesting rainwater illegal?
30:55 The green movement left us behind
32:45 Selling people on a backyard garden
36:57 What kept them going
39:03 No executive director
44:30 Their elementary school
49:50 Renting two acres at a time
52:25 Building on rented ground
56:01 COVID and a refuge
59:06 You're not growing plants, you're growing soil
1:01:16 Seed saving
1:02:25 Lessons from Oaxaca, and the goats
1:07:37 How the circles come together
1:11:03 A tiendita, a kitchen and an LLC
1:13:18 What excites him, and what's hard
1:18:05 Producer Questions
1:21:41 How to get involved
1:23:36 Three people to interview next
LINKS
Become a supporter: eltucsonan.com/supporters/sign_in
Sponsor the show: eltucsonan.com/pages/sponsor
Instagram: @eltucsonan
TikTok: @el.tucsonan
YouTube: @Eltucsonan
TITO
Instagram: @tucsontito
TikTok: @tucsontito
FLOWERS & BULLETS
flowersandbullets.com
Get involved: flowersandbullets.com/get-involved
Instagram: @flowers_and_bullets
YouTube: @flowersbullets4607
Facebook: FlowersBullets
LAST EPISODE
Zuleyma: https://youtu.be/10Wwp33QTKg
BOOKS & WRITERS
None this episode.
NAMES MENTIONED
Dora and Jacob, who started Flowers & Bullets with Tito.
Tom Horne and Jan Brewer, the Arizona officials behind HB 2281, the law that ended Tucson's Mexican American Studies program.
Corky Poster, the architect who backed their proposal for the school and now sits on their board.
The Agnese Nelms Haury Program at the University of Arizona, which supported both the lease and the purchase of the property.
El Tucsonan is produced by Self Media Productions LLC, Tucson, Arizona.
