WOODVILLE, Calif. – It’s 8 a.m. on a Saturday. The July sun is already heating up the basketball court at Woodville Community Park as a group of elderly women are gathered around.
There’s no ball game happening. Instead the women giggle and sport big smiles as they name off favorite fruits and count their numbers backwards. It’s an activity that flexes their brain muscles before they get on their feet – walking laps around the court.
And then, the women are moving side to side, clapping and cheering as they dance to music blaring from a speaker.
Residents call this “baile terapia” or “dance therapy.”
It’s a new activity in Woodville, an unincorporated community in Tulare County.
In fact, much of the activities at the park are new. Late last year, alumni of the Woodville Elementary School started raising awareness to make improvements to the park since, for much of the last 15 years, residents say, the park was degrading and people hardly visited.
Sprinklers were no longer watering the trees and the equipment was unusable. Some in town were not aware there was even a park, as it sat secluded off the town’s main road.
But now residents have a space to move and stretch — and they say they will work to keep it that way.
I hope residents keep up with this, so this doesn’t go away.Berta Rico Martinez
The weekend dance sessions are as much about fitness as they are about community, says Diana Oceguera, the secretary of the alumni group.
“A lot of [the women] worked their entire lives out in the fields,” Oceguera said. “Now that they’re seniors and don’t have kids to take care of and get up early and go to work, what’s going to benefit their mental health?”
The activities have drawn residents to become more active in their community.
The women even voted to name their group “Corazón Valiente,” or “brave heart.” It’s a fitting name for residents in a community who are getting out of their comfort zones and speaking up about what their town needs.
Berta Rico Martinez has lived in Woodville since 1965. Her children grew up here and she said she has done almost every type of work out in the fields.
Now retired, she enjoys seeing new things happen in her community, and that children have alternatives to being home all day on their phones or watching TV.
“I hope residents keep up with this, so this doesn’t go away,” Rico Martinez said in Spanish.
Alumni stick by their town
Pedro Martinez is the president of the Woodville alumni group. He says Woodville is one of those small towns with a reputation of people leaving, and not returning. But what is changing is residents are sticking by their town.
Woodville residents have little access to fixed areas for recreation. The community of roughly 1,800 people sits surrounded by dairies and crops such as nuts, plums and alfalfa. It’s located just south of the Tule River forks and largely made up of farmworkers.
The community is not immune to the typical burdens of life in the San Joaquin Valley: water quality, transportation and air quality concerns. Local political representation comes down to a county supervisor. The K-8 school and a small clinic are among the few institutions operating in town.
Martinez said for years, nothing was working at the park, and “life was falling out of it.” But now, he said, “We seem to be moving forward.” The revival of the community park is a win for a community that has only seen things disappear.
“If it wasn’t for ‘baile terapia’ and these kinds of activities, [residents] would have to travel,” Martinez said. “Many of them, their own children are working and they can’t drive anymore. So this provides a local venue.”
Residents — old and young — have come together to contribute to the parks’ improvements.
Some planted flowers at the gates of the park which were brought from their own house gardens. Others helped plant trees and cut weeds around the open fields. Some women even water the big trees that have stood for years but where the sprinklers don’t reach. The alumni group has also organized resource fairs and outdoor movie nights at the park.
On a recent Friday, residents were learning how to play disc golf thanks to a workshop from the Tulare County Disc Golf Club. Disc golf is among the new equipment — like picnic tables and barbecue pits — that have been installed at the park.
Residents have taken a liking to it. “The kids are teaching the grandmas,” Martinez said.
There are about 20 active members of the school's alumni club that now functions as a community nonprofit. Martinez said everyone who has pitched in to fix the park are not just giving life back to the park, but to the community too. He said it’s a show of gratitude.
“Because there’s individuals who are willing to volunteer and individuals who are willing to give financially, and individuals who know how to put the different policies and practices together, we can make it work,” Martinez said.
Painting a new picture of Woodville
A community as small as Woodville often relies on outside help for improvements. Funding for the park’s upgrades came from county funds delivered through the American Rescue Plan Act.
Larry Micari, Tulare County supervisor who oversees the community, said the county approved $8 million for county park investments. Some of it went to Woodville. The money helped bring in new water systems and other park infrastructure. A separate grant helped bring in over 100 new trees to be planted.
Micari has visited Woodville multiple times as the community has been undergoing its projects, including a new mural coming up on the side of an abandoned grocery store.
He said improving the park and promoting different activities among residents also acts as prevention of blight, gang involvement and violence, “all wrapped into one.”
“We’ve just got to work together,” Micari said.
Micari said he connected with Woodville residents after he received an email from Martinez about the needs in Woodville, but funding was needed, too. Residents helped give input on what they wanted to see.
Martinez, the alumni president, said the funding and support from the county is just one part of the puzzle. He said he understands that government can’t solve all the problems.
“One thing is having the infrastructure, the other thing is having the volunteers,” Martinez said.
Lately, alumni volunteers have indeed been busy cleaning things up.
Across the street from the park, Violet Chavarria has been spearheading the town’s mural project – which is being painted over graffiti.
Part of the mural shows a dad holding hands with his daughter as they fly a kite at the Woodville park. That is a special recognition of one of Chavarria’s favorite memories with her dad when she was about 5 years old.
“There’s some big fields in the back. And on windy days he would take me out to fly kites, and that was our favorite thing to do,” Chavarria said.
Last year, Chavarria’s dad was shot and killed less than half a mile away from the mural she is painting. Chavarria was back in Woodville during her break from university.
She said just weeks before his death, her dad bought her a kite and wanted to fly it like old times — but the two never did get to go.
Chavarria said she had once dreamed of building a big house on the outskirts of town because she likes the area so much. After her dad was killed, those dreams were clouded by grief and anger.
Chavarria says choosing to put up a mural shows that Woodville can take a different path when faced with challenges — one away from violence.
”I thought that the town was so ugly with all the violence that happened in the last couple of years that it needed something to make it look pretty,” Chavarria said.
The mural honors a mix of former alumni who grew up or attended school in Woodville and went on to do other work but still support the community, like the controller and national vice president of the United Farm Workers union Connie Perez-Andreesen and formerMajor League Baseball player Rance Mulliniks.
Chavarria said those are people who local children don't learn about in school, so she wanted to turn the wall into a teaching tool.
Holding on to community roots
The wall also features the daily work of the farmworkers who largely make up the community. Orchards and grape vineyards are painted in to show the work that has sustained the community for so many years.
Two large boards at the front of the building display the Mexico and U.S. flag. It’s a nod to the immigrant background and also the history of U.S. military service found in Woodville. Just outside the park, banners display the faces and names of those who have served in the military from this small town.
One of those is Daniel Romero, who served four years in the Army. He grew up in Woodville as well as the Woodville Farm Labor Camp, a migrant farmworker housing complex four miles east of town.
Romero said he felt one way upon seeing the way his town is honoring people like him: “Proud.”
Romero’s father still lives in Woodville, so he visits regularly.
In his most recent visits, he, too, has made his way to the park, where he’s volunteering and taking part in the new volleyball team.
Martinez, himself, is an Army veteran and a former mayor of the nearby City of Porterville. He quit politics and moved back to Woodville around 2012.
He said having served in the military reminded him of the opportunities he had growing up — and that sometimes those opportunities don’t come on their own.
Back at the park, he drills the U.S. flag onto a pole that stands over the freshly cut green grass. All around him is the hard work of so many in the last year.
Like serving in the military — where there are many backgrounds but a common goal — Martinez said serving to improve the community of Woodville carries a similar sense of purpose.
“If we’re willing to work and put our foot forward and make connections and make friendships, then we can make things happen,” Martinez said. He adds, “we’re trying something new” in Woodville.
