36th Avenue in the Fruitvale district of East Oakland, California, is the turf of four major gangs. The fourth one, according to Pancho Ramos-Stierle, who is one of the anchors of Casa de Paz (House of Peace), is the police, an institutionalized gang, and the most dangerous. Yet the residents of this house never lock their doors. Casa de Paz is part of a group of several homes that form an intentional community of peace and nonviolence in an area rife with structural and physical violence. In order to serve their community, they sit in receptive silence at least two hours a day and they live with the people - laugh with them, cry with them, and eat with them. They embody "giftivism" - practicing radical acts of generosity that changes the world, one heart, one home, one block at a time.
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