The panel “Latinx Environmental Activism,” held during the ASLE + AESS Conference: Reclaiming the Commons, marked the first time an ASLE panel was conducted in Spanish. As such, the panel addressed what entails to be an activist in Latin America: whether through visual arts, poetry, or academic research, militancy and activism varies in its scopes, approaches, and goals. Visual artist Saul Hernández, Poet Celerina Sánchez, and linguist Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil (via Zoom) discussed the challenges, opportunities, and threats ingrained in activism in Mexico.
The panel was organized by Gisela Heffes and George Handley, and was sponsored by Hablemos, Escritoras and the Center for Environmental Studies at Rice University, and was recorded by Plataforma Latinoamericana de Humanidades Ambientales.
Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil is a writer, linguist, translator, researcher, and Ayuujk (Mixe) activist. Aguilar’s work focuses on the study and promotion of linguistic diversity, especially with regard to indigenous languages at risk of extinction in Mexico. Aguilar has participated in projects documenting linguistic diversity and has developed informational material in indigenous languages. She is also a member of Colmix (Mixe College), a youth collective that organizes activities for the research and promotion of the Mixe language, history, and culture. Along with her linguistic work, Aguilar is involved in activities to raise awareness about environmental rights, especially related to water scarcity.
Celerina Patricia Sánchez Santiago is an oral storyteller, cultural promoter, and tu’un ñuu savi (Mixtec) and Spanish poet. She has been a cultural promoter of the Ñuu Savi people since 1988. She studied Linguistics at the National School of Anthropology and History and has served as an oral storyteller since 1993 and as a poet since 1997.
Saúl Hernández-Vargas is an interdisciplinary artist, whose work invokes the specters haunting the cracks and fissures of the Nation-State’s narratives. Recently, he has exhibited in the Blaffer Art Museum (Houston) and the Lawndale Art Center (Houston. He was an artist in residence at the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands (Arizona State University), and the Dust Program (Marfa). His work has been discussed in The Tyranny of Common Sense by Irmgard Emmelhainz (Sunny Press, 2021). In 2020, he developed Afilada Radio and co-curated No hay lengua humana que—a series of radio interventions for independent radio projects in Mexico. His first book, Te preparé humo, was published in 2019 (UNAM, Mexico). He co-founded the publishing project Sur+. Hernández-Vargas holds an MFA in Visual Arts from the University of California, San Diego and an Interdisciplinary PhD from the University of Houston.
