Planting for peace
On a windswept Friday morning at the Arnold Arboretum, Pedro Reyes wandered through the lawns holding the hands of his two children. In Boston from his home base of Mexico City, Reyes, an internationally acclaimed artist, was awaiting the arrival of schoolchildren from the Spanish Heritage Academy, a Spanish language program of the Boston Public Schools. Their agenda? Planting a tree — or in this case, a Japanese hydrangea — using a shovel made from the metal of surrendered firearms. This idea, “making life from death,” said Reyes, began in 2007, when Reyes organized Palas por Pistolas (Shovels for Guns), a campaign against gun violence in Mexico that called for the voluntary donations of weapons. The campaign netted 1,527 firearms, said Reyes, 40 percent of which were high-powered assault rifles. “We took the guns to a foundry, melted them, then took that metal to a factory that produces hardware and we made...