Active Cultures

What does it mean to have a “superfood” available year-round at the grocery store, and what does that convenience cost the people and land from which it comes?

Bajo la Huerta (Beneath the Orchard), a newly commissioned performance lecture by artist Eva Aguila, traces the hidden costs of the avocado trade. Moving between a multi-layered regional story and its global consequences, Aguila examines how far removed we’ve become from the origins of our food, holding the tension between extraction and erasure on one hand, and land, memory, and belonging on the other.

The artist’s personal research includes this collection of images, which looks back at the avocado’s longer history, from a Florida postcard depicting the “alligator pear,” to Mesoamerican depictions, to the giant ground sloths said to have spread its seeds.

Saturday, November 7: doors 7 PM, program 7:30 PM
Sunday, November 8: doors 2 PM, program 2:30 PM

at 2220 Arts + Archives, 2220 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles

Tickets at the link in bio! 🥑

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Bajo la Huerta is a commission of Active Cultures. Major support provided by the Angeles Art Fund and Teiger Foundation.
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Slide 6: Figure 4 from “Avocado Cultivation in Michoacan and Archaeological Heritage: Application of LiDAR in Tingambato, Mexico” by Dr. José Luis Punzo Díaz.