Posted 521 days ago
Women and Men As Corn: Campesino Gathering in Nicaragua
by Natanael Disla, Dominican Republic
Last October I was sent to Nicaragua by the Dominican Republic Baptist Seminary (where I study) to participate in a campesino gathering organized by the Latin American and Caribbean Community of Ecumenical Theological Education (CETELA). The purpose of these campesino gatherings is to visit environmental projects and take the principles back home.
Corn is the main ingredient of the Mesoamerican diet. It is said that women and men came from corn seeds, growing straight out of the earth. Therefore, it is important to take care of the soil that produces corn, wheat, and other components of the daily diet.
First, we went to Loma de Viento, a community in the hills of Nicaragua where they have an eco-friendly community-operated hotel. There is no electricity, but they have managed to build a solar power system. Tourists come there to explore the hills and swim in the Acayo River.
Agriculture there is sustained by the farmers and community. Hotel bookings supply funds required to buy seed and instruments to work the land. Turtles and iguanas are also raised there to maintain a proper balance of fauna.
The project has been very successful, and more and more communities have required workshops to learn its principles. They hope to repeat the same experience from Loma de Viento and promote a sustainable lifestyle in a rural context without electricity.
Ten water springs have been found again that were buried by deforestation and soil mismanagement, restoring hope and water supplies for the forty families that live there. They built trees around the river basins in order to protect the springs from further contamination. “Discovering these water springs again brings new life to this community. We never imagined that this could happen again,” said Jáenz Marcial Umaña, the manager of the community rural project.
Churches have been an important part of this new life. After beginning to work on restoring the land, the Loma de Viento community partnered with the Inter-Church Center for Social and Theological Studies in Managua. The center came with their Agro-Ecological Formation and Community Development Program to train some of the farmers in agro-ecological techniques. These farmers then served as catalysts for engaging the entire community in this process of change. Since then, they have become a successful communitarian tourism project.
But in most parts of Nicaragua, things have not been like in Loma de Viento. Rampant deforestation and limited knowledge of soil cultivation have led farmers to grow crops unsuitable for these types of soil, causing resource waste and poverty among families.
Land contamination is a big issue in Nicaragua. Many farmers and their families suffer from diseases caused by improper use of pesticides. Many initiatives have been formed to help the farmers to discontinue pesticide use, but many parts of the land are still contaminated, causing thousands of people to suffer from indirect exposure for the rest of their lives. Every three days a person in Nicaragua dies from Nemagon, a dangerous pesticide, one of the so-called “dirty dozen,” the twelve most hazardous pesticide products in the world.
There is a great need to rediscover ancient wisdom on the use of land and soil. Technology has permeated rural techniques and management of nature resources and become a way to gain money for a few rather than a resource for the common good, which should demand all respect from us. When ancient Mayan people needed to work the land, they lifted up prayers to Mother Earth, asking for forgiveness: for them, to respect the environment was at the core of social organization.
When the last river has been drowned…
When the last tree has been cut down…
When there were no fishes to eat…
Then you will realize that even money can’t feed.1
During the gathering, fellow theologians from across Latin America talked about the challenges their communities are facing. Claudia Tron from Argentina presented a paper about the work the Waldensian Church of Argentina is doing with farmers in the Entre Ríos province. Álvaro Pérez from Guatemala talked about the colonial mindset that continues today in the paradigms of rural people that sometimes makes their claims go unheard by the oligarchic government. I talked about the Dominican utopia of the areíto and batey as new words of encounter with a new imagination, and the work theological institutions are doing with impoverished Dominican-Haitian communities in rural areas. Roberto Zwetsch from Brazil talked about how through the years CETELA has worked to encourage Latin American theological institutions to include environment care-related courses in their educational programs. One of the most beautiful moments of the gathering was when Brazilian pastor and poet Louraini Christmann read some of her poems that were inspired by the work she is doing with farmer women groups.
There is a great need today for people who love the land and its people to engage and incarnate initiatives that can bring change where change is most needed. There is a need of more people who were willing to promote communitarian life where everyone cares for everyone, where creation is respected like another human being; where the earth, animals, and trees dance with people in a dance that never ends. Another world is possible if we care for Mother Earth, ask her forgiveness, and ask her, as our sister—Madre Tierra, Pachamama—to bind us together in this dance called life.
Natanael Disla is student of the Dominican Republic Baptist Seminary in Santo Domingo. He blogs (in Spanish) at karmatarsis.wordpress.com.
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Notes
1. Indigenous quote.
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