LA VERNE >> Oscar De Leon Xicara, 34, of Duarte grew up eating fresh food prepared by his biological mother in Guatemala from produce grown in a family garden.
“She’s a wonderful cook,” said the younger son of homemaker Rafaela and knife sharpener Marco De Leon. “If people wanted great traditional Guatemalan dishes, they called her.”
Little did Oscar realize that years later he would shift from a communications career to fresh market food management and inspire Rafaela to become a farmer providing fresh produce to churches in Guatemala. On Saturday, he adds the new Old Town La Verne Fresh Farmers Market to his management roles at Claremont and Riverside fresh markets. The certified fresh market at D and Third Streets in La Verne operates from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Saturday, rain or shine.
The years in between his mom’s meals and today’s market management have been filled with trauma, joy and circumstantial miracles for the man born in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala in October 1980.
All roads ultimately led to the Inland Valley, thanks to the intervention of individuals dedicated to international service, volunteerism and family values.
De Leon was only 6 months old when he suffered third-degree, scarring burns to his face, arm and hands. His parents sought help of American medical experts and groups for him. At age 9, Healing The Children paid for Oscar’s surgery and medical treatments in Michigan and arranged for him to stay with an American family during treatment. He returned to Guatemala three months later and would wait another five years before there was again help for needed reconstructive surgeries.
Fate interceded when Rafael began working for Dr. Oscar Tarrago, a local surgeon and hospital director. Luis Enrique De Leon (no relation), a nurse and socialworker, had arranged a visit of American doctors affiliated with Xela-Aid, an international nonprofit founded by Leslie Baer Dinkel, a now-retired Harvey Mudd College and Catalina Island Conservancy executive. The two men added 14-year-old Oscar to visiting Xela-Aid surgeon John Francis Padilla’s operations’ list.
“I was in the hospital, waiting, but there was a miscommunication and the surgeon never got to me,” Oscar recalled. “During routine patient stops, Dr. Padilla got to me and said “Hey, I don’t remember you.’ He couldn’t believe I had been missed and asked me if I’d like to come to the United States for surgery.”
Padilla, Xela-Aid and Dinkel footed financial bills for Oscar’s return to America and more surgeries. The powerful emotional and spiritual connection with Dinkel prompted her and her first husband, horticultural specialist and pioneering Southern California farmers’ market manager Wolfram Alderson, to adopt him and share him with his biological family. Big on education, she insisted he enroll in high school and take college prep classes. He went to Pitzer College first, then transferred to the University of La Verne to earn a communications degree.
Oscar’s focus shifted from journalism to the food industry while volunteering in the horticultural therapy program Alderson pioneered at Casa Colina. The Claremont farmers market was struggling to survive at Foothill and Indian Hill boulevards until activists Bobbi Hill, Clark Staub, Mark von Wodtke and Alderson relocated it to the Claremont Village as a certified fresh farmers market. De Leon was assistant to its first manager and then market manager who, said La Verne businessman Craig Walters, made it a popular produce stop for people preferring produce fresh, organic and chemical-free.
“When they started in Claremont in 1999, fresh farmers markets weren’t common,” De Leon said. “They had a vision and an amazing sense of community. They wanted to support local farmers, educate people about healthy nutrition and improve the local economy. Since 2004, the Claremont Forum has sponsored this market.”
De Leon stresses relationships in the family now including wife April, professionally applies the principle to create strong ties with farmers, restaurants and community and, said Walters, adds quality produce and consistent availability to make fresh farmers markets successful.
“My mom grew vegetables and raised chickens for our family and neighbors, so I appreciate how critical farmers are to healthy nutrition,” De Leon said.
