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The environmental movement has long-struggled to diversify. Meanwhile, rapid demographic changes make the need for broader engagement all the more imperative. In Colorado this is truly a force: Within 6 years, 52 percent of high school students will be Latino -- these teens will soon be the adults on whom the future of the state will depend.
For Irene Vilar, the founder of the Americas Latino Eco-Festival, diversifying isn't difficult - she argues that Latino cultures in the U.S. and globally are inherently deeply ecologically aware because of traditional indigenous-based reverence for the earth. In fact, as she said at the Colorado Climate Summit in Nov., the poll findings are that "96 percent of Latinos believe in climate change" - findings that replicated elsewhere, including an NRDC poll that showed 68 percent of Republican Latinos want government action to prevent climate change.
Vilar, originally from Puerto Rico and now in Boulder by way of Vermont, started the Americas Latino Eco Festival two years ago, held in September in Boulder and Denver for six days of films, art, music, hikes, parties, and workshops. The festival, the first of its kind in the U.S., lures in arts and culture lovers and then exposes them to green themes, lifestyles, and attitudes.
There is so much there, just looking at the program: the stories of the environmentalism of Chico Mendes and Cesar Chavez, standup by Rick Najera, panels on Latino urbanism in the U.S. and how Chicago is adopting the sustainability practices of Curitiba, Brazil.
Providing the stories of environmental leadership in Brazil and elsewhere in the Americas has been particularly important for young people, Vilar told the Summit. There is a significant kids' component to the festival, including cartoons and participatory art.
"Mother Earth has been the backbone of the indigenous peoples of the Hemisphere for more than 20.000 years. Today it still drives the spirit of the Americas of the South...it resonates in their religions, their social structures, their agricultural practices, and their arts and crafts," writes Vilar in her introduction to the festival.
"Reverence for Mother Earth and what we now call ecosystems and ecology is not a recent achievement but an organizing metaphor for daily survival and resilience. Reconnecting with our “Green” legacy and infusing the shifting demographics of the North with the ecological legacy of the South is the new shade of green."
Vilar is an editor and publisher by day, and the Festival is one of many arts and cultural projects born from her umbrella organization, Americas for Conservation and the Arts. AC+As has other initiatives including a sustainable food initiative and the Americas Latino Book Awards.
"Art unites everyone," says Vilar. "It doesn't use normative language, and it doesn't have an accent."
You can see some of the clips and programming on the ALEF Youtube channel here.
Hannah Miller is a writer, ecologist, and adventurer living in Colorado. She is interested in everything, but particularly in creative sustainability practices, the Internet, arts and culture, the human-machine interaction, and democracy. She's lived in Shanghai, New York, L.A., Philadelphia, and D.C., and taught English, run political campaigns, waited tables, and written puppet shows. She definitely wants to hear what you're up to. You can reach her at @hannahmiller215, email at golden.notebook at gmail.com or at her site: www.hannahmiller.net.
