You Defend What You Feel
Young people with a strong commitment to the environment have one common denominator: they each have their own personal, as if customized, relationship to nature.
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Young people with a strong commitment to the environment have one common denominator: they each have their own personal, as if customized, relationship to nature.
I was aware of the changes in Cuba, and what organizations need to do to survive. Yet, I could not imagine how much, in just three years, this space and its people could have transformed. I started asking myself a few questions: the first was how much things were really changing in Cuba, and if this type of mentality . . .
we won’t be just ranting about ‘young people and climate change in Cuba’. We are telling a story of Cuba. But still – this is a big deal. Because Cuba is different, is misunderstood, is polarized, is polarizing.
Cuba has survived many waves of cultural colonization. From American-inspired baseball and old Chevrolets, to the Soviet designed apartment complexes. These hallmark cultural pieces make up Cuba’s image to the world – but new waves are arriving every day.
When Elisabeth and Rolando decided to clear a garbage dump right next to the Bay of Cojímar, and start a family farm on the site, their friends, neighbours and the local authorities all thought that they were bananas. El Cachón is now one of the biggest environmental community projects in Cojímar (East Havana).
The dominant view is that the marabou prevents people from using these idle lands and making them cultivable. Ironically enough, the “weed” has actually helped to rejuvenate the land and biodiversity.
So I am sitting here thinking I am having a sort of epiphany – solidarity can’t be a hobby. I need to make it a lifestyle.
the national flower of Cuba, the Mariposa Blanca or White Ginger Lily, isn’t endemic to Cuba but originates from Asia.
The first time I saw a billboard saying ‘everything within socialism, nothing outside of socialism’ I thought it was pretty disturbing. Can you imagine a sign in Germany, Italy, England or Canada that says ‘everything within Capitalism, nothing outside of it’’?
Nothing facilitates your connection to the environment better than being in nature. Sounds silly? I invite you to observe how you feel the next time you are walking in the woods, swimming in a lake, diving under the waves, or running in a park. Why do you go to these places? What do they make you feel?
“I am like an ant, I am like a bird. I am neither unique nor better or more valuable than any other part of nature. We are all important.”
Over the past several weeks, we talked to a lot of young people who are organizing and/or participating in community projects that specifically use the arts to stimulate environmental education
Recrear sat down with 8 Cuban youth leaders and discussed the power and importance of music for them. Each participant chose one song and explained to us why they believe it represents Cuban youth. Here is what they told us
Maria Silvia and her family have transformed a community garbage dump in Havana into a a piece of extremely fertile land where a variety of native trees and shrubs now grow freely and provide compost for future generations of plants.
The Recrear-CYEN participatory research project is being done by, not for, local youth, meaning that they constantly influence and direct the entire research process
As South Americans we live in complex contexts that have led us to search for new paths of social change. During this search we have discovered the great potential
Liliet told us that she believes in ‘carpe diem’, in living life to the fullest. She explained that everything that she does, she does it to create ‘cambio real’, ‘real change’.
She thought it was crazy that an orange could travel all the way from Morocco and end up on her plate. Roberto just laughed and said, “No what’s crazy is that oranges can travel and we can’t.”
During my work with a local NGO in Nicaragua I was asked to give a workshop about basic grains. The organization I am working with has been striving to diversify
I see him as a Batman type; he is everywhere and manages different lives. Roydes spends about half of his time with his mom and great-grandmother and the rest of
MANNAGGIA…!!! Cuba is slapping me. Today I got lost. Stuck in a bus so crowded that by the end of the ride I was soaked and smelled like a mix
