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Live from Huichol Country: Susana Valadez & Friends

Community institution opens its virtual doors to the public as it plants seeds of change

UPDATE: Zoom Into the Huichol Center was a huge success with thousands joining from across the globe as Founder Susana Valadez and her team reported live from the Center’s remote headquarters in Mexico’s Western Sierra Madre. Susana shared with us the ways in which Covid-19 is transforming the continued operation of the Huichol Center, an […]

By Esperanza Project Posted in Indigenous Peoples, Wixarika on May 29, 2020 Continue reading
Esperanza is the Antidote: The Video

17 creative voices for change from the USA to Argentina share their work and messages of hope

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.

By Esperanza Project Posted in Esperanza Project on April 26, 2020 Continue reading
The Woman Who Stopped a Dam  

An Interview with Guadalupe Lara on the Story Behind the Struggle of Arcediano

This plain-spoken country woman became the face of a movement to stop a megadam from destroying her village.

By Esperanza Project Posted in Esperanza Project, Megadams on January 9, 2020 Continue reading
Temaca to the World: We're Not Going Anywhere

10th Annual Chile Fair carries on a tradition of resistance to a megadam slated to obliterate three villages

TEMACAPULIN, Jalisco, Mexico — It’s been 14 years since the people of this charming colonial town in the Green River Valley of Mexico’s agriculturally rich Jalisco state have gotten a good night’s sleep — 14 years of fighting the thirty-story megadam that poses an existential threat to their precolonial heritage. A generation has nearly grown […]

By Esperanza Project Posted in Megadams, Mexico, Water, Water, Territory and Resistance on September 1, 2019 Continue reading
Striking Back Against Femicide in Costa Rica

Aude Mulliez on Femicide, Empowerment Self-Defense, and Turning Garbage into Houses

Aude Mulliez is a woman for the new millennium. At 33, she has launched her own green social enterprise, become a continental ambassador for female empowerment and impacted lives in half a dozen countries – including her own. She’s tackled some of the thorniest issues of our time – migration, environmental degradation, extreme poverty, and […]

By Aude Mulliez Esperanza Project Posted in Latin America, Sustainability, Women's Empowerment on May 9, 2019 Continue reading
Restoring Paradise: Permaculture Meets Disaster Response

Grassroots groups seize opportunity after devastating California fires

As permaculture educator and community organizer Matthew Trumm was evacuating from the raging Camp Fire in Northern California last November, his mind turned to a video he’d seen recently with one of his heroes, the ecosystem restoration expert and filmmaker John D. Liu. Just the week before, Liu had invited him to serve on a […]

By Esperanza Project Matthew Trumm Posted in Fire, Natural Building, Permaculture, Regenerative Agriculture, Sustainability on April 27, 2019 Continue reading
For the Love of Panamá

From Río Cobre to Barro Blanco, filmmaker Hernán García captures the stories about water in the country - and much more

It’s a long way from Buenos Aires to Panama City – and the distance is not just physical. When Hernán García made his first journey to the country in 2011 as a young film student, he was captivated by the natural beauty and the cultural diversity of the country. He returned at every opportunity, and […]

By Esperanza Project Hernan Garcia Posted in Indigenous Peoples, Panama, Water on April 10, 2019 Continue reading
Dismantling the Patrix with EcoSocial Design

An interview with Gaia University cofounder and author Andrew Langford

Andrew Langford has been practising the art of hands-on learning since his early days in manufacturing, and then in his first solo enterprise as a shoemaker. He came to formal university education a bit late, and perhaps that’s why he was able to look at it more objectively than his younger counterparts. It was while […]

By Andrew Langford Esperanza Project Posted in Alternative Education, Permaculture, Regenerative Agriculture, Sustainability on April 3, 2019 Continue reading
She Started a Movement that Speaks for the Forests

An interview with Joan Maloof, founder of the Old-Growth Forest Network

It’s not every day that one bumps into a visionary – but it seems to be happening more often these days. On the “dance floor” of a very special beach party, on the wild Pacific Coast of Oaxaca, we found ourselves face to face with the founder of a movement to protect those rare and […]

By Esperanza Project Joan Maloof Posted in Activism, Environment, Forests on March 19, 2019 Continue reading
Esperanza Project Celebrates 10 Years of Hope

A decade covering inspirational social change in the Americas 

Inspiration thrives in times of darkness. That’s what a decade of coverage of social movements in the Americas reveals. At the dawn of 2019, thousands of Latin American asylum seekers huddle in tent cities along our southern borders, having risked their lives for the hope of a better future for their families. Thousands of children […]

By Esperanza Project Posted in Esperanza Project on January 15, 2019 Continue reading
From Ferguson to the Frontera

Elizabeth Vega: “Music and art should be the heartbeat of every movement.”

Elizabeth Vega has been incorporating art into her own work – as a journalist, a poet, a hospice and social worker and an activist – for decades. But it wasn’t until the shooting death of Mike Brown at the hands of St. Louis police officers that she began to truly understand the power of art […]

By Esperanza Project Posted in Activism, Standing Rock, United States on December 22, 2018 Continue reading
The Godmother of Craftivism

Betsy Greer on the hidden power of craft, empowerment as activism and craftivism through the ages

Betsy Greer is one of the most unassuming people you’ll ever meet. She’s much more interested in promoting other peoples’ work than her own. Still, her impact, as the one who first popularized the concept of craftivism, has crossed continents and changed lives. As a sociologist, her approach has been one of intellectual curiosity combined […]

By Esperanza Project Posted in Activism, Climate Change on December 18, 2018 Continue reading
A Kinder, More Beautiful Activism

Sarah Corbett demonstrates the quiet power of craftivism

Gentle is not the same as weak. If you don’t believe it, just askSarah Corbett. I first encountered Sarah in my research for a story on activism for introverts. Her now famous Ted Talk inspired me to seek her out, and luckilyfor me, she responded, leading to several stories – one for RiceBusiness Wisdom and […]

By Esperanza Project Posted in Activism, Climate Change, Environment on December 18, 2018 Continue reading
 21 Planet-Friendly Holiday Ideas

If Christmas is about the children... Why not give them a cleaner planet?

As I was researching this story about being mindful of creating more joy and less waste during the holiday season, I had some lovely conversations with three women who have been working to reduce their carbon footprint for a long time. Yvonne Jacobs, Susie Hairston and Katy Katz left me with enough ideas to write a book – and some poignant thoughts, […]

By Esperanza Project Posted in Environment, Sustainability on December 9, 2018 Continue reading
More Joy, Less Waste

How to Have a Happier, Planet-Healthy Holiday

Holidays are a time for giving – and increasingly, people are thinking about ways to give back to the non-human inhabitants of our planet. Mindful of the fact that we’re generating a million tons of extra garbage in that month-long space between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and that our runaway consumption is causing alarming devastation to the biosphere, we caught […]

By Esperanza Project Posted in Environment, Sustainability on December 9, 2018 Continue reading
To Bag or Not to Bag

Retailers at a Crossroads after Texas Supreme Court Strikes Bag Ban

By Tracy L. Barnett The Texas Observer Nine-year-old Mauricio Treviño is every retailer’s worst nightmare. On a field trip that included a walk along the Rio Grande recently, his grandmother, Laredo businesswoman Tina Treviño, took Mauricio and her nine other grandchildren to a taquería for lunch. The restaurateur brought their order, served in Styrofoam and double-bagged […]

By Esperanza Project Posted in Environment, Texas on August 31, 2018 Continue reading
Running for Temaca

Hundreds turn out for 11th annual race to support town fighting inundation by hydroelectric dam

We came from all over the republic and beyond to show our support and to run this historic “Carrera con Causa” – Race with a Cause – to enjoy the charms of a threatened yet defiant pueblo and to bask in its famous hot springs. Here are a few images from the 11th annual Carrera […]

By Esperanza Project Posted in Ecotourism, Megadams, Mexico, Water on August 29, 2018 Continue reading
The Last Straw

If Plastic Is Out, What's Next? A New Generation Of Innovators Rise To The Occasion

For some, it was the baby albatross whose autopsy revealed a belly full of bottle caps and other plastic debris. For others, it was the video of the sea turtle with the plastic straw stuck in its nostril, a team of marine biologists trying to remove it with a pair of pliers as it struggled […]

By Esperanza Project Posted in Environment, Sustainability on August 28, 2018 Continue reading
Race against time in Bacalar

An interview with Marco Jerico of Agua Clara Bacalar

Overlooking the brilliant, placid waters of Bacalar Lagoon, in the breezy shadow of a palm tree, it’s easy to imagine that one has landed in a sort of tropical paradise where the noise and traffic and contamination of tourism magnets like Cancún are a world apart. But Marco Jerico, founder and director of the environmental […]

By Esperanza Project Posted in Water on March 31, 2018 Continue reading
Turning the tide

Savoring - and saving - Bacalar's threatened Lake of Seven Colors

By Tracy L. Barnett for The Washington Post Looking down from the hilltop through the palm fronds, the sight took my breath away: at least seven hues of blue, stretching out before me to a green-fringed horizon. This was the Lagoon of Seven Colors, and it was everything I’d been told, and then some. Set […]

By Esperanza Project Posted in Ecotourism, Mexico, Sustainability, Water on March 31, 2018 Continue reading
Puebla festival seeks to restore contaminated river

"Rios Vivos Atoyac Xicome" rallies artists, activists and citizens to turn the tide in water protection in Mexico

Río Atoyac in Puebla has gone the way of most rivers in this country: It’s become a contaminated, barely recognizable version of its former self. But something is different about Río Atoyac. That’s because a handful of people cared enough to fight for it. The result: Ríos Vivos (Rivers Alive) Atoyac Xicome Forum + Festival, the […]

By Esperanza Project Posted in Environment, Mexico, Water on March 7, 2018 Continue reading
Esperanza Project at a Crossroads

This year The Esperanza Project will celebrate nine years of life – nine years of bringing inspiration and hope to the work of environmental and indigenous rights journalism. We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished, and poised to take our work to the next level. Please read on to see our highlights, our exciting plans for […]

By Esperanza Project Posted in Alternative media, Latin America, Permaculture on January 6, 2018 Continue reading
8 ways you can help build hope in 2018

Feeling a little hopeless about the state of the world today? It’s understandable. Most of the news you see these days doesn’t inspire a lot of optimism. But there are a lot of positive trends and uplifting initiatives that are putting us on the path to a better world. How can we nurture and grow […]

By Esperanza Project Posted in Environment, Esperanza Project, Sustainability on December 31, 2017 Continue reading
Call of the Water

XV Vision Council harvests solutions for threatened Lagoon of Seven Colors in Bacalar

Left: Cayuco Maya, the venue for the XV Vision Council, “Call of the Water,” was held on the shores of Bacalar Lagoon. Foreground: The Rainbow Peace Caravan’s Circus Tent has been a trademark gathering space for two decades in Vision Councils from Peru to Mexico. BACALAR, Quintana Roo, Mexico — The XV Vision Council – […]

By Esperanza Project Posted in Ecovillages, Environment, Mexico, Permaculture, Rights of Nature, Sustainability, Water on December 14, 2017 Continue reading

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