The name “Quivira”
How did you select the name for Quivira Farms?
The Quivira Farms name symbolizes the programs novel approach to creating self-sustaining, social enterprise, community farms.
The word Quivira is associated with the Spanish Conquistador explorers name for the lost city of gold. The Native American language references a “large, open, level expanse of land” as quivira.
In 1540, Coronado lead an expedition towards an area now known as the State of Kansas to locate the lost city of gold, Quivira. Upon his arrival in Kansas, Coronado was disappointed to only find vast, green lands of grass and game (The Great Planes and prairie grasslands). On their lengthy exploration through northern Mexico, eastern Arizona, north and central New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and central Kansas, the Spaniards did not discover any “shinning cities paved with streets of gold”. In 1542, Coronado returned to central Mexico so that his troops could fight to put down the Mixton Rebellion.
While the original Conquistadors were not able to discover the lost city of gold, Civitan Foundation profoundly believes that the discovery of the symbolic city of gold lies within a self-sustaining social farming enterprise. Where the community participants turn green into gold. The green represents Quivira Farms sustainable agricultural practices and environmental stewardship. The gold represents efforts to achieve economic self-sufficiency, to enrich the soul of the participants and to revitalize the collaboration within low-income neighborhoods.
Additional readings of Coronado’s search for Quivira: