ESB-MACC Pocket Park Benches Project

Installment by: Jayla Williams (Class of 2025)

Purpose

A monumental collaboration between the Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) and the Parks and Recreation Department to develop a meaningful park space at 64 Rainey Street which is filled with historical importance from the black and brown community.

Emma S Barrientos mural by the Caminos team.

What we've done

Our journey starts even smaller than anticipated. Rather a strict executive meeting for the intentions of this park, we were a group of teens given the task of completing one of the most profound challenges in Caminos history. A bunch of talented artist leaning onto each other for support and impactful ideas.

Austin Public Library (Where our foundations started)

Fresh new start for rising Caminantes

1st Base

With the leadership of Mr. Miguel, who's an incredible artist and painter, we began not only picturing what we would be able to create, but getting an understanding of the importance that this project would come out to be.

As a first time Caminante, I felt power in being a part of something filled with inclusion and seeing my peer's creativity. Placed around teens who I vaguely knew, I knew that the potential of this project would be massive.

The pocket park endeavor would have a deadline so we got active as soon as we could by smaller tactics. First we researched ideas that we thought would best represent not only the culture implemented on that street, but would best represent the Latino way of life, something I wanted to know more about.

Incorporating songs like "Volver, Volver" into my works and learning Latino icons felt incredible. It was pondering and working at those tables where we set down the building blocks for the pocket park which turned out absolutely incredible.

With this great team, we juggled through various topics and held on to our values & prepared for the details that would follow after putting pen to paper. Rather juggling between school and work life, my Saturdays started becoming something to look forward to.

2nd Base

The real complications came after setting our sights on the actual pocket park. We were hit from numerous challenges.

There were days where the pouring rain would drown out our work time. I remember camped in the back of the van as we worried over how harsh the weather was being that day. We even had to fight against the wind that would trash our umbrellas and flip away our plates of paint. Just mini annoyances piling up. My paint would dry out, I had to fill my water cup with rocks so it wouldn't fall, and the sun was baking us so harshly.

This experience changed us as a team where we had to focus on our individual advantages to best make this project come to full fruition. Despite days where it was chilly or days we would react to the dry humidity of Texas, we were able to get through the project way more drastically than expected.

Challenges didn't stay on our minds that long. Rather a strict work environment, we went on to foster a family like dynamic that made our time so eventful.

We walked to fun food trucks and enjoyed hot meals, or enjoyed all the free snacks that Caminos provided.

There were so many things my peers had to share and even in the silence, someone's playlist encouraged us to put our all in our task. Kudos to Nil and Adrienne for their music taste. With a group as fun as ours, we got a lot of attention. The compliments rained down heavy as locals threw a joke to me about getting a portrait done, to an even more extreme opportunity.

A downtown local paid for pizza down the street after getting informed of all the hard work we had invested so far. Imagine that! All led by Levi sparing the time to share our talents. We got pizza and popularity as we impacted the one and only Rainey Street.

3rd Base to a Home Run

Faster and Faster, we knew that time was running out. A project most of us never could have thought we'd be able to work on had so much to show. And show it we did.

Past the workload of painting left, we also started planning for the most important showcase possible. We set task for the setup, had much help from our MACC crew, and fostered greatly. Free drinks and kolaches just to celebrate this moment for all.

All of of MACC family supported us and the guest speakers were amazing. A great piece of Austin was unleashed that day. We all took our mini tasks to create something wonderful. Truly this was an unforgettable addition to the community.