Market Opens Today in La Colonia Area

Starting today, La Colonia residents will have greater food-shopping options, with the opening of a supermarket formed by a coalition of government agencies.

El Mercadito de La Colonia was formed in hopes of giving residents a fresh start by offering fresh fruits, vegetables, canned goods and other items at cost, along with health-care services.

The goal of the market, which will operate every other Saturday, is not just to feed basic needs, but to empower residents and ultimately turn over the operation to them, organizers said.

Before today, there was no supermarket in La Colonia.

The market is a service that sprang from the work of Henry Casillas, a second-generation resident of La Colonia.

Casillas worked with the Colonia Neighborhood Council, the Oxnard Housing Authority and the Oxnard Police Department to realize the idea.

“We wanted to use the market as a community organizing tool,” said Casillas, who works for the Oxnard Housing Authority and Cabrillo Economic Development Corp., a nonprofit group that builds low-income housing.

The $3,000 shipment of food received Friday came from downtown Los Angeles. Organizers will set up the open-air stands where the old handball courts once stood in La Colonia Park, situated in the 100 block of Juanita Avenue. Years ago, the park was home to tattooed gangs and crime that residents say was emblematic of the problems that ate away at the neighborhood.

Casillas hopes to reverse those problems with this community-based effort.

“We don’t know if this thing is going to flop in our face,” Casillas said. “We might show up Saturday morning with the crickets chirping in the background, or we may get mauled to death.”

“At the end of all of this, it’s a great experiment in community organizing and trying to bring people together. The bottom line is there’s hope there.”

The market will be open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. today and on every other Saturday.

For more information, call 385-7977.