LOS ANGELES — Miguel Ramos turned his east LA house into Casita del Barrio, which means the community house.

Though he owns it and lives in it with his wife and infant daughter, the family made it a shared community space with a sustainable garden open to anyone.

Ramos said he created the space to hold “relationships near and dear to what our ancestors had.”

Modeled after the sustainable community spaces Ramos found in Oaxaca, it has become a beacon of culture for the community in LA.