Tongva Vineyard

Before the Spanish arrived and started planting their own grapes everywhere, the Tongva had a grape of their own. It was native to Los Angeles and part of their foodways. The vines of the grape were also used for construction material. When the Junipero Serra expedition arrived in 1769, the man who kept a journal of the expedition, Father Juan Crespi, wrote about observing an abundance of wild grapes that seemed to him “arranged almost as if they had been planted.” The statement may reflect a lack of knowledge about the ways in which the Indigenous people shaped the landscape. The question can function as a jumping off point for the design of this part of the Grape Garden.