Confluence of Life: When Personal History Meets Environmental Action
Two Origins, One Current I come from two origin stories that meet within me as if they had always been destined to cross paths: a rural maternal family and an exiled father. My mother, now 67, is a woman who made herself with the tools life gave her. She did not complete even the second […]
Giving Water a New Language: Community Science & Care in Claypole, Argentina
Our history in Claypole (Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina) is repeatedly marked by the same image: the San Francisco stream overflowing after heavy rain, advancing through the streets, entering homes, and reminding residents that water-related and sanitary risk is part of everyday life. For years, the community lived with these overflows, until in 2018 we […]
Introducing the Feminist Political Ecology School in Uruguay
In July, 21 women from different territories along the río de los pájaros pintados—the Guaraní name for what is now Uruguay—gathered for the first Feminist Political Ecology School in this corner of Abya Yala. This school was born from the need to name the violence that shows up in our bodies-territories, and the everyday strategies […]
Rooting in Collective Memory: An Afternoon with Las Gurisas
We arrived around noon at Unidad Cooperaria No. 1, in the town of Cololó, department of Soriano, about 300 kilometers west of the capital. As soon as we got out of the van, we were met with a suspicious heat that foretold a storm—and a swarm of teenagers. Las Gurisas—Lucía, Mariana, Lucía, and Laura—were fully […]
Listening to the River: How Indigenous Peoples Weave Story and Science to Chart a New Course
In these times of polycrisis—where ecological collapse, systemic inequality, and a loss of communal meaning intertwine in a spiral of destruction and disharmony—the dominant economic model continues to operate like a devouring machine. In the face of such voracity, we must urgently turn our gaze toward those who have maintained, for centuries, a reciprocal relationship […]
Seeds of Resilience: One ORA Fellow’s Movement to Protect Ecuador’s Chocó Andino Reserve
By ORA Fellow Maria Victoria ‘Vivi’ Jaramillo Ecuador’s Chocó Andino Biosphere Reserve is just an hour away from the concrete jungle better known as Quito, but for most city dwellers, it seems like a world away. Between traffic lights and Zoom calls, here in the city, we forget about the interdependence between our mouths and […]
Carding, Spinning, and Weaving: Stories from the Rural Women’s Group of Piñera-Beisso
We arrived in Piñera very early—it was raining and cold, but nothing diminished our excitement to meet the women of the Piñera-Beisso group. When we arrived, most of them were already there: Rogelia, Elvira, Claudia, and Mercedes. Angélica needed a ride, so we went to meet her on the road connecting Piñera with Beisso, surrounded […]
Women Weaving Memory and Plotting Life in Northern Rocha, Uruguay
We arrived Saturday night in Chuy, a border town in the north of the Rocha department that borders Brazil, where we were planning to sleep before heading out early to the rural area where the gathering would take place. We were tired—it had been a drive of just over five hours, most of it at […]
Meeting the Hum Pampa and Its Interwoven Body-Territories
Photos by Val Rodlez The Hum Pampa community is a group of women descended from the Indigenous Charrúa nation (which once inhabited what is now Uruguay, as well as parts of western Argentina and southern Brazil). It is a decentralized collective spread across the country, with members living in various towns and departments, primarily in […]
Weaving Resilience Through Collective Action
I am passionate about discovering my own land, my culture and the communities that inhabit those territories.