The last four years have been lethal for defenders of the territory. In 2021, Mexico became the most dangerous country for land activism with 54 murders. Different community groups have sought to confront the devastation of ecosystems by claiming a spirituality and political praxis committed to life.
This is how he explained it to IBERO Puebla David Jimenez Ramosprofessor at the Universidad Campesina Indígena en Red. Community relations focus on a holistic view that recognizes the permanent interactions between the human and the non-human. Contrary to Western views, the central axis of indigenous spirituality is located in the territory.
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The specialist explained: “We are territory. With our joys, sorrows and hopes. We live, enjoy and organize ourselves to take care of each other. […] We are community, diversity and life”. The narratives are built from ancestral knowledge and communality.
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Such is the case of the Sierra del Tentzo (which translates as ‘grandfather’), where the figure of the water snakes represents the path of the aquifers between hills, caves and ravines. The myth, inspired by Quetzalcóatl, is used as an allegory for endorse the importance of the vital liquid for communities near the state reserve.
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For Jimenez Ramos, water represents a sacred element from which all that exists emanates. “It is life for everyone, especially women.” Therefore, cannot be viewed as an object or resource. Organized communities, he added, find in water one of the common interests that drive the creation of assemblies and representative committees.
During the First National Assembly for Water and Life held in Santa María Zacatepec (Juan C. Bonilla), it was expressed: “We call on all the peoples who fight and defend life to join these joint actions, to embrace our sister water, to let ourselves be connected by its channelsin order to continue building the possible worlds that we dream of”.
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These values have been key in the collective struggle against the Bonafont bottling plant. In February 2022, the community took over the premises of the unit belonging to Nestlé to stop the extraction of water which, they say, has led to disasters such as the sinkhole. Representatives of the community cause are expected present the case at an international meeting in France in the coming days.
Western societies have lost community values and practices in favor of individualistic lifestyles and tending to excessive consumption. Along these lines, David Jiménez called for the spiritualization of politics —and vice versa— as a way of protect life from a comprehensive perspective. The processes of collective growth, warned the collaborator of The House of Peaceare long and complex, contrary to capital and its obsession with the immediate.
Lessons from ecospirituality for political activity | e-consulta.com