Week 8 Brainstorm - Sadie Van den Bogaerde

These readings were equal parts hopeful and disheartening. Reading the clause in Ecuador’s constitution which gave rights to la pachamama made me so happy, but also made me wonder what it would take for more countries to begin including respect for Mother Nature in their central doctrines. Also, knowing the reality of life in Ecuador gives the perspective that even with these historical constitutional clauses there still are ongoing fights to preserve the natural world instead of exploiting the land for its natural resources.

I particularly enjoyed reading about the Afro and indigenous perspectives of the natural world and could so clearly see the connections with Chicana feminism and resilience practices so necessary for the survival of the movement.  The entire way of life, in all aspects, of Afro and indigenous culture described in Walsh’s “(De)colonial Perspectives in Bolivia and Ecuador” matched my understanding of convivencia. The importance of embracing people’s differences to become a community greater than the sum of its parts is the idea of developing a differential consciousness. When one begins to look at life from the perspective of cosmo-vision, and sees the necessity of living in harmony with fellow humans and the natural world, there is no place for sexism, racism or any form of oppression that disfigures neoliberal societies across the world. 

Going into the future and thinking in terms of Chicanxfuturism, I see social media playing a big role as a method of holding the government accountable. With an explicit constitutional clause protecting the natural world, violations of this cannot be permitted. While this is an extremely complex issue, I believe that those in favor of actually protecting la pachamama could make good use of exposing violations through social media in order to reach a greater audience. Drawing national attention to governmental violations of the constitution using social media would help unite people for the cause and facilitate real change.