In anticipation of gentrification processes triggered by new metro lines, large-scale developments, and other urban displacement dynamics, this project proposes to use Community Land Trusts (CLTs) as a tactical tool of resistance. Deploying comprehensive, yet playful advocacy by using grassroots organizing, popular education, cultural engagement, as well as architectural and artistic expression., the goal is to secure long-term affordability, strengthen community governance, and preserve affordable housing threatened by displacement. Grounded in the Southeast Gateway Line expansion through Paramount, California – a working-class, predominantly Hispanic city – the Tierra es Vida Land Trust advances culturally rooted outreach through signage, crafts, food, and collective expression to build CLT literacy. For properties incorporated into the CLT, Tierra es Vida develops an architectural language drawn from Chicano traditions – muralism, color, courtyard typologies, and symbolic form – positioning architecture not only as an expressive, legible and community-driven practice, but ultimately as a form of resistance as well.
