While we were visiting Shreveport, Louisiana, we discovered lovely, peaceful gardens in an area that most people once avoided. Now, however, a piece of downtown has been transformed into a revered spot where urbanites can get away from the hustle and bustle of life. This place where people come to enjoy a quiet rest in the beauty of nature is the ASEANA (Association of South East Asia and North America) Asian Gardens, established by immigrants from Asia.
Originally from the Philippines, Mary Grace de Joya Vea, a retired cardiovascular pathologist, and her husband, Dr. Romulo Vea, then in interventional radiology at the Louisiana State University Hospital of New Orleans, as well as their daughter, Isabelle, were displaced to Shreveport by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Through a mutual friend, Mary Grace met Lumen Tindell, a Shreveport long-timer who was also originally from the Philippines.
The women often visited this neglected and overgrown place, then known as Municipal Park Plaza, envisioning it as a place that could echo the gardens they missed from home. They agreed to adopt the park and created a garden reminiscent of the ones in Asia, open for everyone to enjoy. Mary Grace discovered the original dedication plaque of the park underneath debris and overgrowth. It read, “Dedicated to the Creator. October 21, 1995. When a remnant of His children of diversified ancestry and culture gathered together in this place to reconcile themselves to God their Father and to each other. Amen. ... And the leaves of the tree shall be as a healing to the nations. Revelations 22:2b.”
This was a deeply touching moment of affirmation that indeed the plan to create an Asian garden to highlight diverse ancestry and culture had been the place’s original purpose, even though it had been neglected and forgotten over time. The women met with other immigrants from different Asian countries and other ethnicities and dedicated themselves to creating the gardens.
They formed the ASEANA Foundation as a nonprofit organization and began to transform this unsightly and dangerous area into a place of peace and thereby beautify their adopted city. Members from several Asian countries gave their money, time and labor in creating these gardens. Thanks to local government, friends and volunteers, the ASEANA Asian Gardens of Shreveport opened in 2006.
All of the other original members have since moved out of state or into other projects. Now Mary Grace and her daughter, Isabelle De Joya Vea, continue the work and are the current president and vice president respectively. They are supported by a culturally diverse board of directors.
This garden is the only one of its kind in Louisiana. Their annual festivals have presented music, arts, crafts, the Japanese tea ceremony, Philippine Tinikling bamboo dances, Indian Diwali Festival of Lights, lion and dragon dances, Korean fashion show, Suzuki concerts, ballet, tai chi, fencing, martial arts, bonsai, lantern display, kimchi-making and more—all free to the public. Participants can also purchase authentic Asian cuisine, souvenirs and attire at cost.
These events are all set in an array of exuberant color and the ambience of the gardens. Visitors enjoy the sculptures and symbolic items, bridges and statues, and the gardens interspersed among plants, trees and flowers representative of the members’ 15 homelands.
