Dakota Wint
Founder, board member, and lead organizer for the foundation's public work. Dakota shapes the trips, story work, language-book projects, education efforts, and Oaxaca relationships.
About The Community Garden
People first. Paperwork second. Wonder always.
The work starts with people on the ground: artists, teachers, guides, translators, organizers, families, and field leads who know the place because they live there or have stayed in relationship with it. The foundation exists to help trips, books, archives, and support move through those relationships with more care.
Where it began
It started with one child in Peru.
The Community Garden began after a medical fundraiser for Haviv, a little girl from Urubamba in Peru’s Sacred Valley. People answered quickly, and that first act of trust became the foundation for everything that followed — the trips, the language books, the archives, and the field projects we run today.
We still work the same way: person to person, in relationship, alongside the people who know the ground. Read the founding story →
Foundation leadership
The people keeping the work steady enough to stay alive.
Pete Tran
Board member, tattoo artist, and founder of One Tattoo (“PetesOnEarth”). Pete carries the artist-led side of the foundation through Escuela Uno and long-term work with children in the Peruvian Amazon.
Anita Spelich
Foundation treasurer and officer. Anita handles records, governance, and the financial discipline a grassroots organization needs if people are going to trust it.
Field leadership
The people carrying active programs.
Dakota Wint
Dakota leads cultural trips, language books, education support, and Oaxaca work with Zapotec and Mazatec partners.
Pete Tran
Pete leads One Tattoo and Escuela Uno, turning artist support into art materials, uniforms, school supplies, and a creative space where children in Libertad, Peru build real art skills.
Ramazan Aygat
Ramazan is the foundation's Turkey director and one of its key field leads. He carries the Taş Tepeler Archives, Turkey tours, Şanlıurfa relationships, Soğmatar education work, Göbekli Tepe Film Festival partnership, and Turkey relief coordination.
Community partners
The local partners who shape the work.
Margarita Gutiérrez Martínez
Margarita is an Oaxaca community partner and artisan collaborator from Teotitlán del Valle. Her Zapotec weaving knowledge, family practice, and local trust guide the art and language work.
Jazmín "Coyotita" Casimiro
Jazmín is an Oaxaca community partner rooted in Mazatec cultural work. She has been part of this story since before the foundation had a name, and her guidance keeps the Oaxaca work accountable to place.
Jose Saenz
Jose is an Amazon and Shipibo community partner. He connects Shipibo collaborators, translation work, funding paths, and research around language, art, ethnobotany, and spiritual cosmogony.
How we work with people
Names, roles, and pay should be plain.
Some collaborators are board members or officers. Some lead programs. Others are paid for trips, translation, guiding, artisan work, local coordination, or research support. Each role is different, and the public record should say so.
Artisans