Brainstorm Week 8 - Albert Lam

The legislative action taken in Ecuador exhibits traits that are related to covivencia through placing community as the core stakeholder. That is, their granting of rights to nature, which has changed "the status of ecosystems from being regarded as property under the law to being recognized as rights-bearing entities" demonstrates their commitment to the improvement of their nature, where Mother Nature is the first and greatest community we all share (Revkin). In fact, even prior to the passing of the provisions, the concept of coming together as a community was demonstrated in the construction of the very provisions. Andrew Revkin's New York Times article notes that "the language in these provisions was written by Ecuador's Constitutional Assembly with input from...a Pennsylvania-based group providing legal assistance to governments and community groups trying to mesh human affairs and the environment."

The reading from Catherine Walsh details how these events are tied to Chicanxfuturism: "these  Constitutions afford radical turn–arounds recognizing,  as is the case of  Ecuador,  nature as the subject of rights and ancestral knowledge as necessary components of science, technology and education" (51). It represents a new and novel approach that, although it seems to be something that should have already been done, is a very welcome change to how environments are represented in the eyes of the law.