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.

"The trees are absolutely essential"

This Wednesday, I visited the 5 greenhouses that EcoLogic has built and currently manages in Totonicapan, Guatemala. Within each greenhouse are 16,500 saplings of several varieties of native trees. Community members, led by two local full-time caretakers, do everything: collect the seeds from the forest, plant them, water them with water flowing from the forest above the greenhouses, apply organic compost and fertilizers, and then take them into the forest once they're big enough (about 10 months old). The greenhouses are managed by Don Augustin. This man LOVES TREES! Three more greenhouses are currently under construction and will be done this year! We have greenhouses in this region because of the altitude - it's pretty cool and at night it even frosts over. Also, the greenhouses protect the trees from animals and insects and offer the ability to set up irrigation systems.

All the trees will be planted around water sources and in recharge zones (land that absorbs water faster than most) in order to combat erosion and ensure that the water doesn't dry out. In order to get water in your home, you have to do two things: 1) pay a water user fee to your local village water committee (each village has one of these - totally volunteer run) and 2.) volunteer your time in some capacity. The water user fee covers expenses related to the maintenance of water tanks, pipes, etc. The volunteering can consist of helping out in the greenhouses, reforesting, or providing materials for the greenhouses, like soil or compost. Most people opt to reforest, and during the months of May and June - the beginning of the rainy season - groups of community members enter the forest with all the saplings from the greenhouses and plant the trees in strategic places around their water source.

Each village water board has an executive committee that manages the money, goes into the forest to check out and perform maintenance on the tanks and pipes, and ensure that each household is volunteering and paying their fee. Or the water gets cut! Village water board leadership are voted into their position and the leadership changes each year.

So what's a water source? It's basically the ground. That's it. Community members have identified spots in the forest where there's significant water underground, based on the type of plants that are growing and the moisture in the soil. Then, you dig it out, lay some concrete in a way that collects the water, and install a pipe that carries the water to a larger tank. This larger tank collects the water from several of these sources, called "nacimientos" or "births." From the larger collecting tank, the water travels via pipe all the way to a community distribution tank, which could be 10 or 15 kilometers away. From the distribution tank, the water travels to households.

Ain't gravity somethin?

So the water essentially comes from the ground, not a stream or river or well. It's not that deep. The reason you want to capture the water from the ground itself is because it's pure. If you get it out of the stream or river, it could be contaminated with animal waste, algae, tadpoles, trash, who knows? So you get the water before it's exposed to the elements. The trees sort of filter and slow down the water after it rains which enables the water to accumulate enough to be captured. The trees are absolutely essential.

I asked Fernando, EcoLogic's project technician in Totonicapan, how everyone knows that there is a close relationship between the trees and water; if some expert came in and told everyone or if the people have known for generations. I bet you can guess the answer: they knew. They knew based on experiences of villages who cut all the trees in their nearby forests and lost their water. And these stories have been passed down for generations. It was later that the experts came in and essentially confirmed what the locals already understood.


- 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.