The book Ecobarrios en América Latina: Alternativas comunitarias para la transición hacia la sustentabilidad urbana (Ecobarrios in Latin America: Community Alternatives for the Transition to Urban Sustainability) is an exploration of the committed and valuable work of a movement of people throughout the continent. One of the most outstanding has been the co-editor of the […]

Antonio Sánchez Gramiño was always one of those who would shake is head and laugh when he heard people talk about changing the world. It’s not that he didn’t care; he’s always been ecologically minded. It bothered him to see people wasting water and creating trash. It’s just that he thought it was a lost cause.

“I used to call them pendejos (fools),” he told me with a laugh. “Now, I’m one of those pendejos.”

By Tracy L. Barnett Antonio Sánchez Gramiño was always one of those who would shake is head and laugh when he heard people talk about changing the world. It’s not that he didn’t care; he’s always been ecologically minded. It bothered him to see people wasting water and creating trash. It’s just that he thought […]

By Tracy L. Barnett and Angélica AlmazánWith collaboration by Noelle Romero and Martín Buen Viaje Alberto Ruz Buenfil, the inspiration for The Esperanza Project* and many other initiatives to create the better world we know is possible, passed away on Dec. 7, 2023, after a courageous three-year “transit through the Tropic of Cancer” as he […]

I learned the news when I was in the middle of a meeting. The notification sounded and I checked my screen – I could only see the last words from a dear friend, “…he was suffering so much.”

In a heartbeat I knew. Alberto was gone.

Last year was a tough one, on many counts. A pandemic that wouldn’t let go; devastating heat waves, wildfires, storms and floods around the globe; spiraling inflation and economic hardship; the war in Ukraine, with heavy worldwide impacts. Sometimes it was hard to see the silver lining.  But behind the headlines, good things were happening […]

One of the principal founders of the Vision Council – Guardians of the Earth is also an icon for the World Rainbow Community since the seventies. “Coyote” Alberto Ruz Buenfil is a visionary revolutionary who has been planting seeds of change in every step of his way.  Alberto, a native of Mexico born in 1945, […]

Select Recordings of Event AND Resources Will be Uploaded Soon! Cheryl Angel is an indigenous leader, Lakota (Sioux) elder, mother of five children, and devoted water protector who helped initiate and maintain the Standing Rock camp from April 2016 until its forced dismantling. She was vital in the nonviolent resistance to the Dakota Access and Keystone XL […]

For those of you who joined us this weekend for the epic Call of the Turtle Mini Vision Council, and indeed for any of the brilliant EcoSapiens who shared their stories and insights with us during the monthlong Restoring Sacred Culture in the Americas Convergence, we are so grateful to you. You, in fact, are […]

In the best Vision Council tradition, we closed The Call of the Turtle with a “Cosecha” or harvest of the group wisdom. In the context of the real, week-long transformational event that is the Vision Council, this closing ceremony takes the form of a pilgrimage from one Council Space to another, where each council shares […]

The Call of the Turtle, a Mini Vision Council Sun. Aug 7, gives a small taste of this south-of-the-border phenomenon that has transformed lives and communities throughout the continent.

I dedicate these farewell lines to Gustavo Esteva, an exemplary teacher of life, who, like his friend and contemporary philosopher Ivan Illich, dared to develop and put into practice revolutionary and comprehensive education systems. His groundbreaking work was aimed above all at “those from below:” peasants, indigenous people, young revolutionaries, and ex-guerrillas. I am not […]

Cosmology & Pandemic: A Journey through Ancestral Cultures During the Pandemic that Shook the World Episode 1: Colombia — The Body as Territory For the Indigenous peoples of Colombia, Covid is a consequence of a development without conscience that robs cultures and attacks the biodiversity of the territories, of which our own bodies are a […]

Earth Day 2020 marked a milestone for The Esperanza Project. We took our first baby steps into the world of broadcasting with our very first online program: Esperanza is the Antidote, a lineup of Esperanza Project collaborators from the USA to Argentina.

Saving your garbage is a tough sell in a place where gardening is seen as peasant labor. But that doesn’t stop Dulce María Vega from rolling up her sleeves, going door-to-door and recruiting her neighbors for a grand mission. Dulce is the friendly face of sustainability in her neighborhood. With more than 30,000 residents, Lomas […]