Our Story

We are a collective of 8 queer, trans, Afro-Indigenous farmers and multidisciplinary artists from NYC – first generation americans and migrants from Puerto Rico, Philippines, Dominican Republic, & Trinidad. Stewarding land was once a far-fetched dream that we’d yearned 4 for over a decade. 

We come from no generational wealth–no strangers to food apartheid, displacement, or homelessness. But with the help of a Community Land Trust, and the will to build a legacy, we’re proud to be actively working toward our vision of creating a farm-arts hub rooted in sustainability. At a time where the idea of LANDBACK seems out of reach for people like us, Ceiba Valley Farm is fostering the repair of fraught relationships between agriculture and the members of our community. Food and flower production is our pathway to sovereignty. 

Ceiba Valley Farm’s governance structure is communal – it is equally owned and all responsibility is shared between the 8 of us. We operate in two major committee buckets – Farm and Programming.  

Our gorgeous valley property, previously the Homonick dairy farm, envelops all who visit in its cozy contours. The Ceiba Tree, native to our homelands, reminds us that growth emerges from humble beginnings. We are honored to provide a brave space for others who seek the same path – look out for the big red barn <3 

Meet Our Team

  • A woman wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat, a brown jacket, a white hoodie, and brown pants sitting on a yellow ride-on lawn mower in a grassy backyard.

    Sunny Vazquez (She/Her)

    Farm Manager & Grant Coordinator 

    The land remember those who take care of it. I believe it is our duty to leave this world better than we found it. Land stewardship and food sovereignty are my tools of liberatory work in a broken system that doesn’t care for the people. We are all we got! 

  • Chloë Nuñez (She/Her)

    Infrastructure Lead and Farmer

    Chloë is an outdoor educator who specializes in urban agriculture and political education for high-schoolers. As the first to have moved to CT from the Bronx, she is the administration and infrastructure lead for Ceiba Valley Farm, as well as part of the core grounds crew maintaining our growing fields and all structures. 

  • A woman standing outdoors leaning against a weathered wooden wall with a window, dressed in a brown blazer, white pants, and accessorized with jewelry.

    Zen Astrud (They/Them)

    Flower Farm Manager

    What they create serves as a reminder that beauty is always in some shape or form connected to our livelihood. This is an ideology of resistance and love supremacy.

    Their role within the caretaking of Ceiba Valley Farm is to lead the production of Cut flowers as well as being lead caretaker of the Residential structures.

  • Woman with glasses and a red bandana in a wooden room, looking thoughtfully by a window with a heart drawn above her head.

    Jesenia Lopez (She/Her)

    Social Media & Marketing Manager 

    This work matters to me because now more than ever we get to build new worlds, highlight the importance of food sovereignty, and foster brave spaces for our direct community and future generations to come. 

  • A woman standing outdoors on a grassy hill, smiling and laughing with arms crossed, in front of a black and red barn-like structure.

    Demi Vera (They/Them)

    Programming Director & Operations Manager, Finance Liaison 

    The work we are doing with Ceiba Valley Farm is as crucial as ever. Our ancestors have always passed lineage through food. What we carry forward are seeds, both metaphorically and literally, to plant and harvest for future generations. As a mother, this feels like the only way forward.

    I’m a Production and Operations Manager who has spent the last decade building the behind-the-scenes systems that support creative and community-based work. I manage programming, coordinate events and workshops, oversee operations, and create systems that support our collaborators, land-based work, and community offerings.

  • A person with short black hair and sunglasses standing outdoors near a body of water, adjusting their sunglasses with both hands.

    Amanda "iiritu" Morell (She/Her)

    Story Keeper x Filmmaker

    The gravitational pull towards this work is rooted in a commitment to safeguarding future generations, creating spaces for folks to cultivate and deepen their relationship to the land, and reconnect with their own forms of expression. 

  • Young woman with curly hair holding a stick across her shoulders outdoors in a natural setting with trees and grass.

    Maya Nuñez (She/Her)

    Programming Assistant Manager, SECT CLT Finance Lead

    Maya Nuñez is a Bronx native specializing in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning. Her commitment to enhancing community well-being through urban policy and planning sets her apart as a valuable member of her cohort. Maya brings a legal perspective to the forefront of discussion on enhancing housing policies to elevate the overall quality of life.

    Her strengths will be in working with local governments and the SECCLT(Southeastern Connecticut Land Trust) to work towards further land sovereignty for BIPOC.

  • A young woman with long dark hair, wearing a pink jacket over a tie-dye top and a beige skirt, stands in a doorway of a wooden building with a grassy outdoor background. She has earrings, necklaces, and bracelets, and is looking at the camera with a neutral expression.

    Stephanie "Cherry" Ayala (She/Her)

    Photographer x Visual Direction

    This work matters to me because creating spaces that reconnect people to land feels urgent. Through farming and photography, I trace relationships shaped by care, memory, and time. I see both growing and image-making as ways to tend to connection and collective futures.