Mi vida en Totonicapán

On several occasions I have been asked how I came to work with EcoLogic. This is my story.
In 2007, there was a call for work in Totonicapán that caught my attention because it was where I had grown up and, well, it was time for me to return home. It was time for me to use my knowledge, experience, and support for innovative projects for people and families as part of my goal in life, which is to help others.

For several years I worked outside Totonicapán, now this was my big chance both to return and to help people who had been less fortunate in life.

That's me all the way on the right, with my friends Don Augustin, the Greenhouse Manager in Totonicapán and Técnico Fernando Recancoj.

In Totonicapán, among my first projects working for EcoLogic was training and consultation with the board of the 48 Cantones, an indigenous quasi-governmental structure that has helped govern local communities of Totonicapán for over 800 years. Working with the communities and the 48 Cantones, we were able to create a modern project that used a system of micro-irrigation (a watering system that maximizes water use) to produce more trees for reforestation with less work then had ever been done before in the area.

Greenhouse Manager  Don Augustin showing the rows of tree saplings that, when large enough will be reforested.

I also promoted EcoLogic’s fuel-efficient stoves. With these stoves we give families the hope of an improved quality of life.

A local family showing off their new stove.

Another project of particular significance was collecting and organizing the ancestral knowledge about natural resources, mountains, forests, and water from community elders. This was one of the projects with greatest impact on teachers, students, authorities and the general public.

EcoLogic's Traditional Memory project aims to preserve the values and traditions of the Totonicapán Quiché Maya by inspiring the next generation of leaders to learn, understand, and continue their customary system of forest management. Here, Quiché Maya offer prayers to the forest before reforestation begins.

Working with less fortunate people and families is one of my purposes in life, something that has brought me pleasure, happiness and personal joy. To be someone’s source of hope for a greater tomorrow, to take action to ensure availability of water for children and women, is priceless. Personally, this brings me immense satisfaction.

I was presented a banner by a local group of women and recent fuel-efficient stove recipients to show their appreciation for their new stoves.

With respect to the culture of Totonicapán, I understand that each day is like an experiment with the individual aspects of life, in my case I can say that I have total connection: of thought, culture, language, leadership, love of my neighbors. This connection is not just with the Quiché Maya village, but also with the Keqchi people, the Man, Chuj, and other indigenous communities which have a wealth of ancestral knowledge.

Aside from my work with EcoLogic, for two years now I have been a member of the Board of Directors for the 48 Cantones, as Mayor of my Paquí community. I coordinate volunteering services to the community and to the town of Totonicapán. Here the experience is enormous in regard to leadership, decision-making, management, politics, administration and more.

In Quiché the word chiwimequena means “over hot water”, in Spanish it is totonicapán which comes from the Náhuatl Atotonilco, totonilco means “the place of hot water.” And it’s true, in Totonicapán there are hot springs accessible to everyone. However, I feel like the communities of Totonicapán, and the families I call neighbors are not in hot water – but on the road to a very bright and sustainable future.

- Francisco Tzul, Program Officer for Guatemala
Francisco provides technical assistance to EcoLogic’s Guatemalan partner organizations. He is from the western highlands of Guatemala and has an agricultural engineering degree focused on systems of production. He enjoys working directly with people and looks forward to developing new ways to support EcoLogic’s partners in Guatemala. He speaks Spanish and Maya Quiché. 

Illustrating History

The children from 48 Cantones arrive early at the Riecken Library in Xolsacmalja. Running, sweating, pushing and shoving, they ask for the ball to get a few minutes of play in before the creativity workshop starts, three times per week.

They are punctual and responsible. And rarely ever absent. In those cases when a child doesn’t show up, someone from his or her household diligently brings me a handwritten note from the family explaining the child’s absence: “He had to plant in the cornfield today.”

The purpose of the workshop series is to publish a book that collects the stories from the oral tradition in the community, illustrated by children. The stories told are about the Maya Ki’che’ people, the Ajaw of the mountain and the water, and some old rules to save the forest, such as “Pixab”, “Pixan”, “Toj” and “Repuj”. All of these are concepts that direct us as human beings to relate to nature: the mountains, the forest, the water, and the animals.

To collect these stories, we go to the “Plxab” (Council of Elders). Every Thursday we walk down the narrow dirt paths to the house of somebody’s grandfather. The children sit and listen. Usually, they are speaking Ki’che’. So I sit with my notebook, the page blank, until Evelyn comes and translates the story into Spanish for me.

For the illustrations, we are experimenting with different techniques and visual mediums such as painting, drawing, collage, photography and photo montages. We will also go to the forest to listen to the sound of the pines, smell them, touch them, and of course, draw them.

Mr. Urbano, the teacher at the library, also taught us the kirigami technique, cutting paper to make airy and light forms, something that the children enjoy very much. We plan to paint a mural inspired by these simple forms for Reforestation Day in May.

The idea is that we can experience and appreciate the forest, and that all of its stories – which will be represented in the illustrations, can be heard in due time, enjoying the journey and along the way discovering some new perceptions that come from old stories. Because ancestral wisdom is passed down from generation to generation, and we don’t want it to stop with us.

- Special Guest Blogger and ArtCorps Fellow Isabel Carrió. Youth Leaders in Conservation listen, feel, express their thoughts through images and share the ancestral wisdom of their Mayan community, under the guidance of Isabel as part of EcoLogic's ongoing work in Totonicapán, Guatemala. The blog is reproduced from its original posting on artcorp.org.

We gotta fix them holes!

So much has happened this week! I'm back in the office now after a week visiting our project with the 48 Cantones in Totonicapan. Meetings, greenhouses, water sources, stoves, reforestation zones - all this week! Some of this stuff is going to have to wait for some later posts or else you'd be reading a novel. It's been a really great experience - I've been able to learn so much more about the issues facing the Communal Forest of San Miguel and the communities located around it. This is the forest managed by the 48 Cantones which I talked about last week. The forest houses the largest remaining stand of Pinabete (an endangered variety of pine) and is absolutely essential for the delivery of water to over 100 rural communities. The water doesn't come from a stream, river, or well. It literally comes from the forest ground itself.

On Monday, I attended a meeting about logging. This is becoming a major problem in the forest. Gathering wood for household cooking fuel is legal and accepted by everyone in the community including the leadership of the 48 Cantones. And if you ask for permission from the leadership, you can enter the forest to take a few trees to build a house, a pen for your sheep, etc. But over the last 10 to 15 years, high demand for wood and diminishing resources in areas all around the communal forest has created a livelihood opportunity for many people. People enter the forest, cut down trees, sell them to a driver who fills up his pickup truck, takes the wood to nearby towns and cities, like Xela, Huehuetenango, and Solola for profit.

In attendance at the meeting were members of the Natural Resources Committee of the 48 Cantones, two past presidents of this committee, village water board leaders, and two members of the national police department assigned to natural resource protection. EcoLogic arranged this meeting to focus specifically on this subject and create an action plan with multiple stakeholders. We have been building greenhouses and growing trees to reforest around water sources in the area for over 10 years. But it doesn't make sense for us and the community members who support the cause to work so hard to reforest if we're watching 10 times the amount of trees disappear and doing nothing about it. It's like trying to fill a bucket with water that has big holes in the bottom. We gotta fix them holes! From one of the four exits of the forest there are an estimated 50 pickups full of wood leaving per day according to the police. Which translates to 50 meters squared a day of forest. And that's only one exit. This was the first meeting to really talk about the issue in an open and honest way. What's exciting is knowing that once we do come up with a plan and carry it out, it could serve as a model for so many other regions. This issue is certainly not unique to Totonicipan. It's a national and international concern.

We'll keep you posted on what the working group comes up with.  That was Monday.  Then I met with the one and only Don Augustin. This man LOVES TREES!


- Chris Patterson, Program Officer for EcoLogic

Chris collaborates closely with the senior program officer by writing grant proposals and project reports, investigating potential funders, and following trends in philanthropy, conservation, and international development. Chris was a fellow for the Ford Foundation's Difficult Dialogues Project and has documented his time working from EcoLogic's regional office in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala from March to June, 2011. 

Yes We Can-ton!

I'm prepping and anxiously awaiting a field trip to Totonicapan soon.  I'll be meeting with members of the 48 Cantones, our regional partner for around 3 years.  I thought I would take this opportunity to ask Francisco, our Guatemalan Program Officer:  "What is a cantón, anyways?" 

EcoLogic doesn't translate this word into English in our documentation because it doesn't really translate.  It's always been sort of mystifying to me.  So what I discovered is that a cantón is a small, rural community on the outskirts of a more populated town (in this case the town of Totonicapán) that does not have access to the resources of the town, as in the waterline, the waste system, the street maintenance, etc.  A canton is sort of a little village left to its own.  But that's not to say that they're totally lost or without leadership.  The 48 Cantones is very structured and very well-organized.  It is an ancestral structure, centuries old, which Maya Quiche elders maintain.  Each canton has its local leadership to solve land disputes, record births and deaths, plan village improvements, etc.  Then those leaders form a general assembly with other canton leaders, forming the Association of the 48 Cantones.  This association has a regional mandate, taking care of the communal forest, protecting water sources, organizing local water committees, handling larger political and social concerns, and advocating for communities with the more "formal," state government. 

According to Francisco, who was born and raised in Totonicapán and is still a resident, the Association of the 48 Cantones is an extremely well respected and revered authority.  If there was a significant issue that required a community meeting, all he would have to do is call a member of the 48 Cantones Board of Directors and the next day hundreds of people would be there.  Despite the fact that it does not collect taxes or have any kind of legal authority, the Association of the 48 Cantones is essentially the government of these rural villages.  It has a local commitment and focus in small communities that fall outside the reach of the official government.  Few areas in Guatemala have successfully maintained this indigenous, parallel government.  Centuries of oppression against indigenous peoples, including a recent genocide in the 70s and 80s, have rendered most traditional authorities extremely weak if not completely obsolete.  According to Francisco, the Association of the 48 Cantones is the most powerful indigenous quasi-governmental structure left in Guatemala.  It is over 800 years old.  What an accomplishment for them, and what an honor for us to work with them.

So this is our partner; pretty inspiring.  A group of Maya Quiche elders - just everyday rural people - who are doing everything voluntarily as part of their heritage and commitment to their communities.  EcoLogic is helping them protect their water sources through reforestation and forest protection, the installation of fuel-efficient woodstoves, and the transfer of their traditional knowledge regarding environmental stewardship to younger generations.

I'm excited to go check out this project, too.  I'll have much more to share at that point.  But now you have a decent background on our local partner.  And you can impress all your friends with all your new cantón knowledge


- Chris Patterson, Program Officer for EcoLogic

Chris collaborates closely with the senior program officer by writing grant proposals and project reports, investigating potential funders, and following trends in philanthropy, conservation, and international development. Chris was a fellow for the Ford Foundation's Difficult Dialogues Project and has documented his time working from EcoLogic's regional office in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala from March to June, 2011.