Library & Archives Lunch Hour: Celebrating Carmen Pabón – La Madrina de Loisaida

Join CENTRO’s Assistant Archivist, Herbert Durán, as he explores the Carmen Pabón del Amanacer Jardín Collection housed at our Library & Archives. Carmen Pabón, dubbed “La Madrina de Loisaida”, was a community leader who transformed a vacant lot into a community garden, with the intention of creating a leisure space for children and older adults. The garden, named El Bello Amanecer Borinqueño Garden, provided food, clothing, and support for the unhoused of New York City. In the evenings, the garden would become a hub for activism and poetry. Mayor Rudy Guiliani would eventually sell the garden to a private developer in 1999 but that did not stop Pabón’s activism, she continued to advocate for other L.E.S staples such as St. Brigid Church in 2008. In 2016, El Bello Amanecer Boriqueño re-opened under a new moniker, “Carmen Pabón del Amanacer Jardín.” Pabón passed away just a few weeks after the ribbon cutting ceremony.

Photo credit: Carmen Pabón by Marlis Momber for Loisaida Magazine