Endemic Expresion

(Endemic Expression) There are feelings that emerge only in specific situations.

Capitalism wants to limit our gradient of experience, so it puts up borders and fences to corral us into a flattened life, void of sincere emotion.

Capitalism takes beauty and magic and buries it deep below the layers of “security,” “conservation,” “national park projects,” and “order.” It knows that the powers of a free world are contagious and transformative, so it hides them. It is not convenient for capitalism that we know the endemic joy that sprouts in liberated lands, free parties, or deep in the mountains…

And despite this massive project of destruction, life and the world can still be beautiful. We are only witnessing the tip of the iceberg of how incredible the world can be, and it is still worth committing to its defense. Endemic expression, sincere joy, and free beauty are ABUNDANT- it’s just a matter of trespassing capitalism’s traps and finding each other on the

Endemic Expression

Hace unos meses atendí el aniversario de 10 años de la Liberación de la Madre Tierra por el norte de las montañas Caucanas de Colombia…

Entre la abundancia interminable de guarapo, chicha, bufalo frito, baile, recoche, cuentos y gente hermosa, penetro una claridad pura: esta energía ocurre por que estamos en tierras liberadas. Energía vital que es irreproducible en la ciudad o en paisajes colonizados.

Esta claridad también me hizo reflexionar en la importancia de los encuentros… cuando uno va en su dia a dia individual temas de liberación parecen estar muy lejanos. Pero cuando uno se encuentra con otros que comparten una misma visión, esa claridad colectiva se convierte en motor y compromiso. En este encuentro, después de escuchar de procesos liberatorios de defensores de todas partes de Colombia y del mundo, y de pisar el mismo suelo donde se ha vivido mucha represión pero al mismo tiempo una liberación de terreno real, la claridad de que toca seguir luchando, donde quiera uno este, fue radiante. No hay de otra-- hay que seguir.

También reflexione en el nivel de generosidad y colectividad tan sofisticado que tiene el pueblo Nasa. En este encuentro (al igual que en el Encuentro de Flautas y Tambores al que atendí unos meses antes que este) nos compartieron, nos alimentaron, nos emborracharon, nos cuidaron, y nos bienivinieron a muchas personas, de todo el mundo, por varios días, simplemente para crear conexión. El valor del compartir y de la conexión en estos encuentros es alto, y se nota que para los Nasa les brota naturalmente.

Lo que también es claro es la belleza de las montañas Caucanas. Ver salir ese sol todo poderoso detrás de la cordillera central después de una noche entera bailando cumbia todos descalzos en la tierra… ¡Qué bendición! Como nos compartio un compañero de la liberación:
“Después de tanta represión y muerte…sacamos fuerza de la madre naturaleza misma...miramos hacia el horizonte y no vemos caña…”

Muchas más reflexiones pero por varios motivos es mejor dejarlo así. ¡Mil y mil gracias al Boyaco, a Tati, a los mayores y a toda la gente linda de la liberación!

Puerto Limón, Putumayo, Colombia
Purga con el Taita Oscar y con su "yajecito," su ortiga, sus vomitivos y su sauna de hierbas hecho en casa (como visto en la foto a al izquierda).

8 Dias, 3 Ceremonias. Duro en el cuerpo pero compasivo en el alma.
Muchas reflexiones. Entre ellas es que el Sueño es un proceso poderoso, un espíritu con actitud de bufón. También la importancia del viento...la importancia del rezo..Y honrar de ideas con acciones.

(Si no conocen mucho del Proceso de Liberación de la Madre de Tierra les invito acá a leer esto... La verdad creo que el hecho de que este proceso no sea mas popular demuestra un tipo de represión informática...)

other side.

Aca un video de Adriana improvisando en la finca del Taita Oscar. Grabado e iluminado por mi y el hermoso atardecer Amazónico.

Jardín en el campamento del encuentro.

I've visited many mountains and many páramos this year... Each time I do I am so grateful...

These outings have become an investigation of what it means to spend time in the Colombian landscape. And... I won't say much here because these reflections will become a larger project. But I do want to highlight the experience I had in “Los Nevados National Park”, where, in addition to experiencing beautiful views and sensations, I faced the heart breaking project of LIFE FLATTENING carried out by “CONSERVATION”

After 2 days of walking and walking and at 3,000 meters high in elevation we arrive at Finca El Jordan. An over 100 year old wooden mountain house surrounded by waterfalls, cliffs, and mountains that resemble two gorillas kissing. There’s chickens, dogs, a really fat pig that ran really fast, and two people, Mario and Maria, who live there.

We spent two nights in this house. Each night for dinner, we sat and ate on top of a raised platform inside the kitchen that had the kitchen’s wood stove/oven inside. It was designed and built this way to resource the stove’s heat into a warm sitting area. There were many other design details like this around the house, each revealing a deep relationship between craftsmanship and mountain-living wisdom.

While getting our feet warmed in the heated platform and eating soup and lots of potatoes cultivated by Mario himself, Maria told us some unbelievable stories about what they have witnessed and lived by growing up in this mountain. They told us about people who have had near-death experiences from getting lost or from “sacrificing themselves” to the mountain, they told us about an abandoned house further up the trail where they go and party in with candle lights. They told us about their family lineage, about playing in the valley as a kid, about almost drowning in the lake as a teenager, about mountain life… about its challenges but also its freedoms, and about being grateful for living in paradise. They also told us that their way of life is about to end.

Due to the LIFE FLATTENING project carried out by CONSERVATION or by the Colombian state disguised as national parks, all people like Mario and Maria who live in the mountain are getting kicked out. People who have lived there for generations, who sustain themselves there, who have developed profound relationships with the landscape, who have unique knowledge about the secrets, the necessities, and cycles of that place, are being kicked out from the houses that were passed down to them by their families. To “conserve” the mountain… says “national parks.”

It’s a struggle. Maria told us there’s been some resistance but that it has been difficult with “National Parks” ruthless commitment to privatize every mountain in Colombia… on their side they have state power, corruption, and the successful propagandistic project that has convinced many that conservation is what the world needs.

While the same entity behind “National Parks” sells rivers and mountains to COCA COLA, mining, and to rich eco-tourism, they kick 10 families out of a mountain, and with them a whole way of life, unique and rich wisdom… Flattening the world more and more.

I am writing to you from this corner of the internet to invite you to DELEGITIMIZE National Parks in Colombia and elsewhere, and to cultivate suspicion for any project branded as “conservation.” Do not buy into the idea that the cause of our eco-crisis are a few families cultivating potatoes in their plot, or 3 cows, or someone hiking without a “permit,” or trespassing, or people sustaining themselves from the land they live in. These are all scapegoats used by the state to legitimize their LIFE FLATTENING project of PRIVATIZATION and DESTRUCTION.

They want us out of the mountains not because they really think we are the threat, but because they know that relating with our mountains (or any landscape) is a threat to them!!

Gio, Jardín y Tikal en el camino hacia Laguna del Otún.

Hermoso valle con la finca El Jordan a la distancia.

Texturas y elementos de Páramo.

Plantas en Cojín- Adaptaciones al clima frio y arido del páramo.

Sunrise view from finca el Jordan with the mountains that look like two gorillas kissing.

The walls of the finca were insulated with newspaper with dates from 2004.

Raised platform inside El Jordan's kitchen working as a wood stove/ sitting area.

Texturas y elementos de Páramo.

karaokesounds@proton.me

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Yo en el piso con la compañia de la hermosa instalación por Clo Pantano. Esculturas hechas durante su residencia en Bogotá. Foto por César.

Viaje a Tenjo, Cundinamarca. Con Carbon, Jardín, Fede y Guirchita ... experimentamos en un montecito con sonido, movimiento y video. Acá Carbon con su ofrenda de sonido. Me rei demasiado en esta salida. LLoré tambien.

From Rebecca Solnit's "A History of Walking"

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Had to move out of my dear home in Bogotá. It had become a very special place.

-D