March 11, 2013: and so the rest of my life begins

So I am actually doing it. I had to cash in my retirement savings, and take the biggest chance of my life; leave behind a life and start over in a foreign country, but I am doing it. I am applying for temporary citizenship in Latin America, and still finalizing the process for legalization of the non-profit, but I now consider myself a citizen of Guatemala more than of the US. It feels so good to be saying this. I have been through two jobs, endless hours of coursework, 3 relationships, countless pointed questions from friends and family, and lots of natural tranquilizers, sleepless nights, and enough self-doubt to float the Titanic to its intended destination.

 

 

I feel like I owe it to you, the WC community, to explain a little of what has kept me off-site for so long, and the reason I am doing what I am doing, where I am doing it. I know that I have dropped form former circles for being offline for long periods of time; all I can say is that sometimes things get dropped when your average work week tops 90 hours for an extended period of time, like, say, 3 years.

 

To put it simply: I am studying the impact of first world caused climate change on third world cultures struggling to adapt their agriculture, economies, and lives to its effects. I chose to start my work in Guatemala because that is what I know and love, through my decade of being involved with the Maya there; and becuase the Guatemalan highlands are seeing changes happen at roughly 3x the pace of most of the rest of the world.

 

I want to write a series that talks intelligently about the things you should know about climate change impacts and adaptation; the stuff that is not making the sensationalist newspapers and headlines in the ongoing "debate." I will not waste my precious time trying to convert rabid climate change deniers. Therefore, I write under the assumption that most people have a sense of what is going on, but not a detailed picture, and are willing to hear about real impacts and the people whose lives are being most affected. I will be walking you through the science and the effects in layperson's terms, talking about what our group is hoping to do.

 

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Before that, though, let me talk to you about the international exhibit we are planning.

 

I want to start introducing you to the eyes and faces and homes and hearts and minds of real human beings. I want you to hear their voices, the voices of some of the world's most vulnerable cultures. These are people who live very simply, who are adapting to modern advancements while trying to hold on to their identity in a world where cultural identity is rapidly homogenizing between populations. They are a people who suffered genocide and oppression and some of the world's worst inequality and malnutrition rates. They are people who expend and consume very few of the world's resources, who in fact do not even have a consumption based market economy, and who currently enjoy one of the world's highest rates of overall happiness. For every wrong that has been inflicted upon them from within and without there is a lot they are doing right, too.

 

I have spent two years interviewing subsistence farmers, greenhouse managers, municipal workers, resuce personnel, foresters, and NGO workers about locally specific climate change effects. The reason for this is simple: it is very difficult to define, depict, or describe effects of a changing climate at the regional ecosystem level, and this task get stougher where climate data do not exist, and/or where the region is broken into very different microclimates by topography. Such as forested mountain tops in the tropics and subtropics.

 

Recently, I joined forces with two other amazing individuals, and we are planning an international traveling art exhibit. Central America has extremely low amoutns of support for fine artists, and my close friend and talented artist Elvis Perez (Holttem.art https://www.facebook.com/pages/Holttemart/378807248821473?fref=ts) is trying to build his career on  a shoestring. He is completely self-taught, and his joys are in portrait painting and impressionist landscape work. Elvis lives on the Eastern side of Gautemala, away form the Indigenous Maya culture, but he wanted to get his hands on some photos for portrait painting, due to the incredible character in the faces and dress.

 

To do this, we enlisted the help of my Maya friend and associate Ramon, and have thus startred a series of interviews and photodocumentation trips that are bringing us into the living rooms and workplaces of his own asosciates. Their words, my research, Ramon and my photos, and Elvis's paintings; will be the backbone of an interdisciplinary work on how one culture is adapting to modern socioeconomic and climate pressures.

 

So meet our first three interviewees:

 

 

 

[picture taken by Ramon, Feb 21, 2013]

 

This young woman is wearing her traditional work attire, a Maya huipil and corte with a tied sash. She is 23. We interviewed her at her family farm and greenhouse, and asked her why her family decided to invest in greenhouse production. She told us how crop yields have been steadily declining over the past 15 years, giving fewer and fewer returns as cliamte becomes more and more irregular and unpredictable. The stroy she relates is bcked up by facts from my research, which not only document raw data from changing weather patterns but astonishing rates of 30-95% crop losses annually in key staple crops. This young lady;s family farm in the single most productive region of the highlands. For them, moving to enclosed production systems allowed them to do something most families cannot do: invest in their children's education. This young woman struggles daily to balance family obligations and traditional expectations with the demands of a changing and evolving workplace, one that must include a blend of ancient wisdom and modern technology to survive.

 

 

[picture taken by me, 2/21/13]

 

This woman was 8 weeks shy of her 98th birthday when we photographed her and interviewed her daughter and grand-daughter. For many years, the prevailing belief in development has been that paid labor in large factories is the only ladder out of poverty. Guatemala is known for its textile factories; this woman started working in its first textile plant during its first week of operations and worked there for 40+ years. We have some incredible close-up shots of her hands, twisted beyond use by the hard work, and her back is bent completely out of shape. She has not been able to walk in over a decade, and her every need is tended to by her family. They dressed her in front of us for her interview, in her best clothing. The old woman's husband died shortly after the first of her daughter, and she faced the social stigma of being a single mom, using her resources wisely to invest in land and plant an orcahrd. Later, the orchard proved far more lucrative than the factor work, and she gave up the crippling job to move closer to the land, taking back her Maya heritage which was denied when she worked for others. The damage to her body had been done, but she regrew her spirit through her connection. Today, the orchards are dying due to climate change and seasonal variation. We now know that empowering people to create their own micro-enterprises, such as her orcahrd, is the far more effective strategy for long-term job security. Social and climate pressure are making this goal increasingly difficult.

 

 

 

[photo taken by me, Feb 21, 2013]

 

The man in this photo is 78, and the boy is his youngest son. He and his wife and son live a hrmit-like existance in a small basic home 1000' up the side of a mountain at an important minor archaeological site from the pre-classic Maya period. An international soccer player in his youth, then a police officer during the civil war, this man was part of the expedition that found the artfiacts he now excavates and protects. He welcomes visitors to his humble property and mountain views, and talked to us in length about his life's work and the Maya connection to land, water, and spirit. He has been documenting biodiversity loss in wild and cultivated plants for the past 3 decades. For him, it is like losing old friends. His young wife (24!) is mute, and they care for each other in what would otherwise be a lonely existence for them both. They are both extremely hard working, and are turning the hillsides around their humble home into cultivated land for extra income and food security. He talked specifically of changing patterns in groundwater and changes to bean crops, a protein nd vitamin rich staple of Guatemala cuisine for some 5000 years or more. In the past, he said, 5 varieties could be grown in this area; now they can barely get one. My research once again corroborates this fact, as bean crops are being especially hard-hit by insect plagues and plant diseases that are flourishing in the warmer temperatures and extended pest seasons.

 

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We expect to have the full exhibit, with 20 such similar stories, ready for early 2014. You can see more photos, folow our story, and see examples of artwork in progress on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Snapshots-of-a-Living-Culture-of-My-Land/528237500560049?fref=ts.

 

 

 

 

Author's Note

affordably priced speaking engagements by the author available; PM Marie Anzalone for details; author is an ecologist/ animal scientist who has been studying climate change impacts for 15 years; she is now making a living as an economist by finding community-based climate change adaptations, and teaches people to start talking about adaptation in their own homes, properties, workplaces, and towns

Reviews

[Tree]

A courageous move. But worthy of such a risk. I love the idea you laid out for us. The interviews, the words, the research, and the art. If done with care I could envision this being incredibly powerful. Important.

I respect this honorable endeavor, Raquelita. And look forward to reading any material put forth by you and your colleagues...

Diego

[Marie Anzalone]

Thanks, Diego. Courageous? Perhaps... and perhaps I was just tired of waking up in a panic every night, knowing that I was not where I needed to be. I am still not sure, but I have made a step in a direction, and that always leads to other steps, other directions, other doors. I am amazingly happy that you think this is a powerful and important endeavor. The more I think on it, the more I believe that there may be a book in it, down the road. More than reading the work, it would be an incredible honor to have you meet ym colleagues on one of your trips south. Just sayin' :-)

May your own sleep ever be untroubled by fears of time lost, my friend.

[Larry Dyson]

you and your project are truly amazing...I follow you and the fellas also amazing folks on every posting ,If all I can do is support you and them by passing the word ..I truly will do that...I do feel like I know them as well...Laury

[Marie Anzalone]

Thanks, Laury, yes they are truly some special individuals. Please do pass the word for us; it would mean the world to our efforts. This is only one of ten projects we are juggling, but perhaps it is the one with the most curb appeal.

[Emily B]

amazing work :)

glad that I can claim you as a sister and friend

[Marie Anzalone]

I assure you, the honor is mine, dear friend, siter, and fellow traveler. you know of what I speak.

[Marie Anzalone]

*sister