EAST VILLAGE — Carmen Pabon, a beloved community activist known as the "Mother of Loisaida," has died at 94, weeks after the unveiling of a new community garden named in her honor.
Pabon died on Saturday, according to the office of Councilwoman Rosie Mendez. She was a towering humanitarian figure in the Lower East Side and the East Village, known for her work serving the area's homeless and low-income individuals, and for cultivating a community garden as a sanctuary when the neighborhood was overrun by crime and drugs in the 1970s and '80s.
The garden, previously the El Bello Amanecer Garden, meaning "A Beautiful Dawn," was reopened on Oct. 26 as the Carmen Pabon el Amanecer Garden following a decades-long battle to preserve the green space after developer BFC Partners bulldozed it in 1999 to make way for a residential development.
Though two of the three lots formerly comprising the garden were lost to the construction, the developer ultimately worked alongside the community to renovate one of the lots as a community garden.
Pabon was present at the ribbon-cutting ceremony in October, where family and community members praised her legacy of service to the community's most vulnerable, volunteering at local nonprofits and using her garden as a space to feed the homeless and serve the neighborhood's elderly.
Councilwoman Rosie Mendez, who also attended the ribbon-cutting, on Tuesday released a statement recalling her first meeting with the activist at Loisaida Inc., an organization serving low-income community members where Pabon volunteered her time.
"There was Carmen with a broom in one hand sweeping the floor and a pen in her hair that she was using to register people for tables for the upcoming Loisaida Fair," Mendez recalled.
"I will miss her dearly. All of Loisaida will."
Pabon shared her story as part of the Lower East Side Biography Project, describing her contributions as a "social worker without a license."
A wake for Pabon will be held at the Ortiz Funeral Home at 22 First Ave. on Wednesday from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.
A funeral service will be held the following morning, Thursday at 9:45 a.m., at the Church of St. Brigid at 119 Avenue B.
