source: NISGUA
On June 4th, the community of Copal AA La Esperanza invited NISGUA to participate in their annual Mother Earth Festival—a day to celebrate the soil, water and forest that sutain their livelihoods and to explicitly reject the corporate interests that exploit them.
Situated on the banks of the river Chixoy, Copal AA has founded in 1996by returnee population. When authorities sought to impose the Xalalá hydorelectric project on them, the community knew that the river was suffering the consequences of a similar project downstream: the Chixoy dam, completed in 1985 at the cost of some of the bloodiest atrocities commited during Guatemala's armed conflict. Recognizing this historical violence and understanding its environmental implications, the community overwhelmingly rejected the project in a 2007 consultation.
Every year, the festival reaffirms the community’s commitment to the river and earth, particularly among its youth. In recycled-material-costumes, school children gather and march through the streets of Copal AA, denouncing the corporate destruction of and demanding respect for their natural goods. They then stage plays, dances and speeches to highlight the importance of caring for their environment. This year, kids of the community high school performed a scene remarkable for its hard-hitting political analysis: a closed-door meeting between politicians and business executives, a cardboard helicopter displacing Indigenous Authorities, and the triumph of community organizing to save their land.
After the festival, accompaniers joined Copal AA for a long night of dancing to live music performed by their very own community land defenders.
Last year's Mother Earth Festival, we had the opportunity to sit down with the principal and a teacher from the local middle school to learn more about their struggle for a healthier environment and for future generations
