Meet Zafiro

Veronica Patiño Correa, better known to all of us as Zafiro…

was born in Argentina. Her passion, personal healing and building community through food, brought her to Boston in 1983 to study Japanese macrobiotic philosophy at the Kushi Institute. 

While working with KidsArts at the JP Firehouse Arts Center, Zafiro met Femke. She remembers carrying a basket of empanadas in the Wake Up the Earth parade and giving them all away before arriving at the festival site! 

Femke, doing festival workshops in the basement of the firehouse, shared her dream of finding a place where “Festival Arts” and related intergenerational community activities would fill the building throughout the year. One day she said, “I want to show you something,” and invited Zafiro to go see the “Old German Club” with her. 

“After walking through the building, we ended up in the basement. There was a feather there, hanging in the place where we were sitting. We took the feather down and passed it around, saying what we each felt, what we envisioned happening in this space. Inspired by the potential of the building, we also felt a commitment to make those words real…  to make our ideas tangible.” 

Zafiro left Boston in 2002 to spend the last 20 years in Mexico, starting a trattoria with her husband and raising their son. She’s returned to JP many times in the last few years to help with festival workshops and looks forward to “passing the fire” to young people. “There are a lot of people I love here and I want to help, to revisit the vision – doing it better.” Bringing her enduring passion and a lifetime of experience, Zafiro hopes that the new kitchen will help create a place of healing and strengthen the bonds of our community. She tells me, “There is joy in seeing faces lit by the magic of sharing food, music, dance, laughter, children, puppet-making, and more. I’d love to be part of that.”

The lines from the poem that resonate most with Zafiro are:

“A welcome home where we get some healing,” and “Where everyone’s voice can find its sound.” 

What parts of it call to YOU? What dreams, passions and skills do you want to share?