Fiestas de Quito: Y sin los toros, quien somos?

La definición de "arte" y "cultura" evoluciona en Latinoamerica. En el año 2012 el alcalde de Bogotá Gustavo Petro anunció entrar en diálogo con la comunidad capitalina para prohibir la tradición de las corridas de toros en la ciudad y darle a la Plaza de toros de Santamaría un uso distinto, además de negar recursos de empresas públicas para tales fiestas. Actualmente es usada para eventos culturales.

Un ser humano es parte de un todo, llamado por nosotros Universo, una parte limitada en tiempo y espacio, se experimenta a si mismo, sus pensamientos y sentimientos como algo separado del resto; Esa separación es una especie de ilusión óptica de su conciencia; Esta falsa ilusión es una especie de prisión para nosotros. Nos limita a nuestros deseos personales y a dar cariño sólo a personas cercanas. Nuestra tarea debe ser liberarnos de esta prisión ampliando nuestro círculo de compasión, incluyendo a todas las criaturas vivientes y a toda la naturaleza en su belleza". -Albert Einstein

Los toros son un tema delicado porque para muchos está en el corazón de lo que forma parte de nuestra identidad como quiteños. Dada la inestabilidad ambiental, social, y económica a nivel mundial, es urgente que nos pensemos más allá de la tradición en favor de la innovación, la creatividad, y la diversidad. La suspensión de las corridas es una oportunidad para repensar quiénes somos y -aún más importante- quienes queremos ser.  

Quito fue fundada en el tiempo del cacique Quitumbe, quien dió nombre a los primeros pobladores de la región -los quitus. Las fiestas de Quito pasa por alto esta primera ‘fundación’ y son insólitas por abiertamente celebrar la conquista de la ciudad milenaria. Pero esto es simplemente la primera parte de un proceso más largo de globalización: antes de la colonización española, los Quitus se habían fusionado con los Caras; después llegaron los españoles trayendo personas esclavizadas desde África que se encontraron con los habitantes originarios de las Américas, y es hasta el dia de hoy que nosotros seguimos mezclándonos con culturas de todo el mundo. En todos estos casos compartimos distintas descendencias genéticas, lingüísticas y culturales. Entonces ¿por qué practicar pasivamente nuestra herencia histórica? El que nuestra identidad esté cambiando constantemente nos permite a cada uno de nosotros el definir qué es lo que queremos ver cuando nos vemos en el espejo.

Toda sociedad colonizada o ‘globalizada’ tiene una profunda crisis de identidad porque no se es ni lo uno ni lo otro. En 1928 el poeta brasileño Oswald de Andrade propuso junto al movimiento antropófago trabajar la contradicción entre las culturas “primitivas” (amerindia y negra) y las “modernas” (de herencia europea) a través de la metáfora del caníbal, digiriendo la mezcla de culturas en un proceso de asimilación activo y armonioso que deja lo malo y re-elabora lo bueno.

Para construir una nueva identidad es necesario revalorar nuestro pasado, presente y futuro. Las corridas de toros vienen de la España medieval, notoria por la crueldad de sus festividades con animales como gansos, patos, cabras, cerdos, codornices y por supuesto, toros.Aunque se hable de las corridas como un tema de libertad de expresión ¿realmente queremos perpetuar el elemento cultural de la tortura y el sufrimiento animal como un espectáculo público? La “libertad” de torturar nos cuesta nuestra propia humanidad.

La suspensión de la Feria Jesús del Gran Poder en el 2012 es tan importante para los 36 toros que no morirán en el ruedo este año como para toda una ciudad que tiene la oportunidad de evolucionar con los tiempos. Tenemos mucha riqueza local que podría ser celebrada para llenar el vacío existencial y económico de una plaza sin feria medieval. Apreciar desde a todos los artistas que necesitan espacios y apoyos para continuar haciendo música, literatura, cine, danza, teatro, etc. hasta la gran diversidad de nacionalidades, lenguajes, delicias culinarias e inclusive nuestra forma de relacionarnos con la diversidad biológica que nos rodea.  Las posibilidades para redefinirnos son infinitas. El reto es aprovechar esta oportunidad y celebrar un Quito megadiverso donde el espectáculo de la vida no gire solamente alrededor de la muerte.

BOOK FUSION: Beak of the Finch + Pedagogy of the Oppressed = Intergenerational Tyranny

Above: Young girl putting UN dignitaries in their place at UN meeting about the environment in Brasil.

Below: A short fusion between Weiner’s Pulitzer-prize winning account of the Grants’ fundamental research in evolutionary biology, The Beak of the Finch, and Freire’s seminal contribution to critical pedagogy, Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

We are living through the sixth mass extinction. The first to be driven by the expansion of a single species. The first that this species is conscious of its effect on its surroundings. Evolution is accelerated as conditions change. Like all organisms, humans must find new niches that are favored by the new conditions in order to survive. Unfortunately, we are often not allowing our population to explore the diversity of currently empty niches because a minority of humans is imposing their will over other humans, making them “less human”. Such dehumanization is often recognized with the socially, economically, and culturally marginalized worldwide. I want to explore the missed evolutionary opportunity for our species when we dehumanize younger generations. Their particular situation this planet in crisis: as relatively new arrivals to Earth, as subject to the decisions of older generations, as the largest portion of global population, etc. has carved out a clear niche for them in the evolution of our species and our planet.

The evolutionary niche of the younger generations is to liberate themselves and older generations from environmental disaster. The unsustainable lifestyle and actions of living generations lead to environmental degradation. Environmental degradation is a legitimate form of oppression towards future generations – the fact that the living generations are taking more than their fair share as a generation result in future generations being left with diminished lifestyles – Just like the socially, economically, culturally oppressed that share this Earth with their contemporaries, this oppression cannot be overcome by the oppressors. In other words, the oppressed cannot be liberated; only they can liberate themselves AND their oppressors. This can only be accomplished through dialogue, critical analysis, and action. However, as oppressors, how do we engage in dialogue with those who do not exist yet (future generations – the most oppressed)?

Younger generations are the most affected by this oppression from the past few generations (especially those since the industrial revolution up to those currently living) and have the least amount of time participating as oppressors themselves. Responsibility falls upon them to speak for their generation and of those coming after them, as they are the ones who can most legitimately claim “oppressed” status.

Current trends show accelerating global resource depletion and increasing exposure to harmful environmental conditions caused by pollution and natural disasters. We have imposed upon future generations, through our unsustainable lifestyles, the most unfair distribution of resources and exposure to environmental hazards – they will bear the brunt of our actions the most while reaping the least benefit from our resource depletion and polluting of Earth. Yet the fact they are young does not make them any less human, and so should not mean that they are any less entitled to those resources than an adult. After all, everyone was young, and its only a matter of time before the young become old.

In this case, everyone is simultaneously oppressor and oppressed, some people (the majority) are just more oppressed than others (the minority). After all, you will not lead as full of a life, environmentally speaking, as your predecessors did (they ate fruits you will never taste, breathed air more pure than that you will ever breathe, saw animals you will never see, ) and likewise, your progeny’s welfare will be diminished even further than your own (you eat fruits they will never taste…etc)

As intergenerational OPPRESSORS, what can we do? We need to trust young people are able to reason in order to engage in an honest conversation with them as equals. Meanwhile, we must abandon unsustainable lifestyles: intentions don’t matter if we do not translate them into actions. To ask for the abdication of an oppressive, unsustainable lifestyle, while not living like those oppressed is a farce.  “Think seven generations ahead”, famously said the Iriquois. What would it mean to be sympathetic with people a couple hundred years into the future? How would you live if you were to live like they will have to live?

As intergenerationally OPPRESSED, what can we do? We must break the cycle of oppression by no longer defining ourselves in contrast with those who oppressed us. i.e. we must not yearn to have as much material possessions as those who came before us, use as much resources as those who came before us, lead the lifestyle of those who came before us. We must not become oppressors ourselves, and thus perpetuate the oppressor-oppressed dependency cycle. We must create a new identity for ourselves, go a new direction that does not involve gauging ourselves as humans based on the measuring stick of past generations (often wealth and power). Fulfill our humanity in a new way, find a new meaning in life.

What if this denouncement of intergenerational injustice, voiced by the younger generations themselves, goes through the proper legal means to influence policy/regulation? What if engaging young generations in the exercise of critical reflection and action to change their condition as “environmentally oppressed” by past generations becomes the praxis of educators (in this case, the revolutionary leadership)? What if, in their search for a new way of life which does not emulate that of its predecessor’s, the young generations free themselves, and older generations from environmental collapse? What if this niche is so fitting in the face of current environmental degradation that it is able to drive the evolution of our species, through our economies and societies, and the planet into a sustainable, non-oppressive direction?

Global population pyramids comparison in developing and developed countries 1950, 1990, 2030. Notice the pyramyds are wider towards the bottom. Most people are towards the younger side of the spectrum. Most people live in "developing countries". Two forms of the oppressor-oppressed dichotomy are depicted: by age and by "developed" vs "developing" countries (oppressor & oppressed countries, respectively). In both cases you have those who consume the most resources as the minority: People towards older side of spectrum & people in developed countries.

Works Fused:

Weiner, Jonathan. (1994) The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time. Vintage. New York.

Freire, Paulo (2006). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. 30th Anniversary Ed. Continuum. New York.

Project Pinta: An ecological analog ‘test drive’

Did you know giant tortoises were common on all continents except the Antarctic? Galapagos giant tortoises are a relic of prehistoric times that have formed close bonds with their environment, and like many other tortoises, still play an indispensable role as seed dispersers. The effects of their disappearance are difficult to quantify on mainland. We require a natural laboratory like the Galapagos islands to evidence the ecological impact of their extinction.

Galapagos National Park (GNP), with the support of Galapagos Conservancy and SUNY-ESF, is currently carrying out a pilot project for the ecological restoration of the island Pinta through the introduction of thirty nine adult giant Galapagos tortoises. These will be the first tortoises to set foot on Pinta since Lonesome George (Geochelone abigdoni), the last specimen endemic to Pinta, was removed from the island almost four decades ago. The introduction of “ecological analogues”, or species with a high degree of genetic relatedness with those that once occupied an ecological niche, has rarely been attempted around the world (like for example, the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone Park to control herbivore Populations). This is the first time that it will be tried in the Galapagos islands in hopes to revert some of the negative impacts that humans have had directly or indirectly though the introduction of invasive species.

The Galapagos Islands used to be a world-renowned destiny for whalers, buccaneers, and sailors since the XVIII century, where they could easily catch dozens of tortoises at once to obtain fresh meat that would not spoil during their long journeys. By the end of the XIX century, the exploitation of tortoises intensified to such a degree that tortoise oil was used to light up the streets in Quito at night. Today, 10 of the 14 identified galapagos tortoises still have populations in the wild. In the case of Pinta, we know that the G. abigdoni populations were already so small 100 years ago that they could have already be considered “ecologically extinct” then. Records from the California Adademy of Science from 1906 state that they removed three male tortoises from Pinta. G. abigdoni was considered extinct in the wild since, until Lonesome George was discovered by chance and taken to captivity in 1972.

In 1959, the same year that GNP was established, fishermen introduced three goats to Pinta, and their numbers exploded to over 30,000 in less than 15 years. After arduous efforts from GNP, Pinta was finally declared goat-free in 2003. The eradication campaign eliminated over 40,000 goats on Pinta, which clearcut large part of the island’s vegetation, severely threatening the 176 native plant species and the ecological processes that have sustained local flora and fauna for millions of years. The presence of goats and the absence of tortoises was a fatal combination, as it heavily altered plant communities. For example, the native woody shrubs that goats would prefer not to eat (Castela galapageia and Cryptocarpus pyriformis) have become abnormally abundant. Furthermore, the absence of a large herbivore could result in the demise of other endemic species, especially those that are most shade intolerant. Due to the close interaction between tortoises and Pinta’s vegetation, several experts have advocated for the return of tortoises to Pinta to restore and balance the ecosystem.

Unfortunately, Lonesome George is the last known member of its species (G. abigdoni), and any solution that involves his descendants (to this day nonexistent and with each passing year his reproduction becomes less likely) would take decades to bring about while the island ecosystem continues to degrade without a tortoise population. The most genetically similar tortoises to G. abigdoni are those from Española island (Geochelone hoodensis). A recent study has shed light on the possibility that there may still be G. abigdoni descendants on Volcan Wolf, Isabela Island. Until these tests are finalized, GNP chose to introduce a small population of non-reproductive tortoises - thirty-nine hybrid tortoises that were kept in captivity by the GNP. Their behavior, movements, and impacts were monitored from May to July 2010 after their initial introduction and follow up studies will take place throughout the following years. These tortoises were chosen for their morphology and size. The GNP has the support of Dr. James Gibbs and Elizabeth Hunter from SUNY ESF, who are leading the monitoring project with three main goals:

1. Monitor tortoise impacts on island vegetation
2. Estimate what is the island’s tortoise carrying capacity with the present plant composition
3. Develop a strategy for future releases

The return of tortoises to Pinta, besides an besides an event of great ecologic importance, also has great symbolic value for GNP. Not only are Galapagos tortoises the most emblematic creatures of the “bewitched islands”, but Pinta is the specific island where Lonesome George comes from, perhaps the best known galapago in the world. We hope this project helps us return Pinta to a more pristine state. Projects like these, which help us better understand the complexity of the systems in which we live in and our place within them, may demonstrate our capacity to be a a positive influence on the ecosystem.

Read more about this fascinating project on its official blog: http://retortoisepinta.blogspot.com

Update

on 2012-11-18 16:55 by The HumanCoral Team

On June 24 the symbol of the Galapagos National Park and of conservation worldwide, Lonesome George, passed away. Lonesome George was thought to be the last remaining member of his species, Geochelone abigdoni. However, George might have not been so lonesome after all: scientist have just found 17 hybrid tortoises which can trace ancestry to G. abigdonion the island of Isabella. Five of them are juveniles, suggesting that there may be a live purebred specimen still running around. Yale and the Galapagos Conservancy hope to collect hybrids and any surviving members of both Pinta and Floreana Island species and begin a captive breeding program that would restore both species.