On Lexington Avenue, between 104th and 105th Streets, is a little green oasis behind a gate with painted letters that read, “Modesto Flores Garden.” A little Puerto Rican flag is tucked behind the word, “garden.”
The Modesto “Tin” Flores community garden in East Harlem was born in 1981, according to Yvonne Pacheco, 56. She has been volunteering to run it for the last 10 years for Hope Community, an organization that owns around 75 affordable housing buildings and around eight community gardens including the Modesto garden.
Roger Cabán is 75 and sits on Hope’s Community’s board of directors. He says that the 50-feet wide, 100-feet deep garden was started by the Puerto Rican superintendent of the building adjoining the garden. Cabán says his name was Modesto Flores, and he was known by his nickname, “Tin”. When he passed away, the garden was named after him.
A few decades ago, East Harlem’s community gardens were buzzing with activity. Puerto Ricans would build a caseta in each one, Spanish for “little house.” According to Jordan Dyniewski who works with New York Restoration Project, helping to restore some of these gardens, these were once extremely prevalent in the community.
These days, most of them are falling into disrepair, according to many older Puerto Ricans who’ve lived in the community for a while. As it is a block away from the Hope Community offices, “in the heart of East Harlem,” according to Cabán, the Modesto garden is like “the old guard” of community gardens, he says.
