Driving on Central Mexico’s mountain roads, I couldn’t believe how quickly the scenery changed. My journey started in the bustling city of Santiago de Querétaro, and in less than an hour, I was in rural, quiet, and lush Sierra Gorda. The ride was quite the experience – we stopped for cows crossing the road (twice), saw lightning, and were pelted with hail, all within that hour.
Hello, my name is Ava Adoline, and I am an environmental advocate, writer, traveler, and reporter. I traveled to the Sierra Gorda region, home to about 100,000 people, to visit the Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda (GESG) headquarters in Jalpan de Sierra, Mexico. GESG leads environmental education, forest conservation, and regenerative economy efforts to protect the well-being of this unique region and the people who live there. I was on a mission to understand the interconnectedness of policy, education, community empowerment, and conservation efforts in one of Mexico’s most biodiverse regions.
Discovering an Ever-Expanding Web of Community
While in the Sierra Gorda, I stayed in GESG’s ecotour accommodations, where I woke each day to hear a chorus of birds squawking in the trees. I spent my days visiting different communities and seeing many examples of sustainable initiatives, from environmental education to teaching sound harvesting practices and the benefits of planned grazing for soil health.
I was amazed by people’s eagerness to share their stories – stories of poverty, of living simply, of the power of family and land owned for generations, of mercury miners becoming pine nut harvesters in the Ejido Maguey Verde (Ejidos are communally owned plots of land granted to citizens by the Mexican government), and accounts of men becoming firefighters to protect their beloved forests.
From the hot, prickly lands of the semideserts to the lush cloud forests across the 383,000 hectares of the Sierra Gorda, I soaked in the beauty of this area, recognizing all of the hardships and resilience of the land and people. More than anything, I discovered this deep sense of belonging that threaded throughout the Sierra Gorda. The land is their home, an extension of their family. While I have heard endless stories, here are a few that showcase a deep love and powerful sense of interconnectedness among people and their environment to create more sustainable lifestyles that are balanced with nature.
Bringing Mother Earth to Life: ‘Fiestas de la Tierra’ Champion the Power of Environmental Education
Huddled in a half circle on the basketball court, kids of all ages smiled, clapped, and cheered as “Mother Earth” shared her wisdom as part of a play. Every child participated in songs, dances, and presentations, all part of an initiative GESG created called “Fiestas de la Tierra,” or Earth Festivals.
Every spring, GESG hosts these festivals at different primary schools five days a week. The most beautiful part? Families are involved, too. They cheer during the kids’ dances and presentations, and some parents bring traditional homemade foods from wildflowers and seeds they harvested. Others help make the tree and sparkly butterfly costumes that some students wear.
I chatted with one parent, Humberta Angeles, about her involvement with the school. “There is a strong sense of community here,” said Angeles. “The Grupo Ecologico helps involve us parents in these Earth Festivals. They invite us to bring dishes and things to recycle so they can be sold to pour more money back into school supplies and other things the students need.”
Together, parents and children learn and sing about the benefits of recycling and why it is better not to cut down the trees that are a precious part of their home.
How incredible would the world be if we all pictured Mother Earth as a part of our beloved family?
Forest Healing: How One Community is Sharing its Passion for Conservation
Presence. Learning who you are. Recognizing the forest as your kin. These are some of the many messages ingrained in the forest therapy offered at Ejido Tejamanil, where the community that owns the land has come together to provide a transcendental type of tourism that offers visitors powerful guided healing journeys. I was led through the woods by Eli Aguas García, who leads tourism in the Ejido. “We want to change the dynamic of tourism; we want to teach tourists about our forests because if they know about the complexity and beauty of the land, they care more to help protect it,” García told me.
By integrating sustainable tourism through hikes and camping, this community is doing just that – providing tourists with a unique experience while supplementing individual incomes and boosting the local economy.
Ejido Tejamanil Trail through the Woods
Previously, outside forest managers had come in and cut down many of their trees, but GESG helped Tejamanil stop this practice. Instead, they let their old-growth forest naturally regenerate. When I walked through this revitalized ecosystem, I thought I could feel the energy of the ancient trees, and I paused to soak it all in.
García and his family moved to the Ejido when he was young. Since then, his family has started EDEN (Estación de Desarrollo Ecosostenable y Natural), a small eatery for locals and tourists alike to enjoy traditional foods and a campsite destination. Sitting in the kitchen with Eli, his sister Itzel, and their mother Concepción García de la Cruz, my heart was warmed by their pride in how they care for their land. They shared homemade marmalades while revealing a deep conviction to protect the land and the area’s rich biodiversity.
A Passion for Living Close to the Earth
Eleven years ago, Margarita Pedraza Muñoz began digging up the earth from her property to use as mud to build her home. Now, she owns five small eco-homes, “La Casita Ecologica,” that she rents on Airbnb as a sustainable, low-carbon-footprint option for travelers. But for Muñoz, it is about much more than tourism: She offers others a chance to unwind while learning about her sustainable practices.
With solar-powered heating, wells, rainwater catchment, and dry toilets, Margarita created every piece of her home and property with intention.
“I was born here in an environment where we didn’t know anything other than organic. There was not that question. We lived off the earth, surrounded by nature, and never thought the world would change so much since then,” said Muñoz. She works with GESG to help local businesses that are part of the Ruta de Sabor (flavor route) create sustainable and beautiful adobe structures.
Sharing her knowledge of building adobe homes is part of how Muñoz connects and empowers others throughout the Sierra Gorda. “When I teach people how to beat the clay with their feet, I ask them, ‘Do you think the mud is ready?’ and they feel the earth and say, ‘No, a little longer.’ There is a genetic memory that shows one how.” Knowing how much work is involved in following this kind of lifestyle, I was amazed by the simplicity with which Muñoz described living with such intimacy with the land.
Not only are these adobe structures sustainably made – but they are also long-lasting buildings that regulate outside temperature extremes so inhabitants don’t need other heating or cooling mechanisms.
Things I’ll Forever Remember
Sustainable integrated land management, conservation, and supporting community livelihoods are all crucial to caring for the environment and one another. GESG and the Alliance for the Conservation of the Sierra Gorda have created a web that interconnects these sectors across 638 communities.
Having lived in a string of large towns and cities, I can find myself disconnected from the impacts of a year with little rain or forgetting the path a plastic fork may take to the ocean. But for many of those in the Sierra Gorda, the interconnectedness of consumption, economy, and natural ecosystems is ever-present. These connections bring a strong sense of belonging and love, a fuel that stokes their efforts to protect their natural home and one another.