Breathe
By Thania Marreros, community journalist, member of Radio Tsinaka and inhabitant of the ejido of Tecoltemic.
Community struggles are the bearers of our freedom; they are a fundamental part of our search for justice and peace. Those of us who coexist with them can name them from our collective experiences, challenges, threats, losses, but, above all, hope, perseverance and achievements.
This is what the Journalism of the Possible project is all about, a podcast space where we narrate from the victories of the struggle of our peoples and communities in defense of territory in Mexico. This initiative created by four civil organizations (REDES A.C., Ojo de Agua Comunicación, La Sandía Digital and Quinto Elemento Lab) has become a narrative different from traditional journalism that tends to give more weight to the conflict than to the solution.
What we seek to transmit is a message of what is possible in the face of the vast threats to the environment that surrounds us, to share the processes of community struggle that led us to triumph over invasion and dispossession. In this project we are journalists, communicators, community radio broadcasters of our country, who tell the stories from the territories we inhabit.
As a member of the first season made up of 12 episodes, and specifically as the director of episode 1 "Puebla: A People's Struggle to Exist", I have been able to weave networks with the members of the other 11 storiesI have been able to weave networks with the members of the other 11 stories, to share, resist and name ourselves from a reality that managed to be transformed.
"Journalism of the Possible" became my safe place to tell my story and reflect from my identity a different way of appreciating life. Here I was able to feel accompanied, strengthened and supported, firmly convinced that our victories can be a source of life for new conquests in other territories that are in struggle.
The resilience that is enunciated in each of the social struggles has allowed those of us who make up the resistances to move from narrating from the denunciation to expressing from the strategies that worked to provide concrete solutions, taking into account the self-determination of our cultural identity.
This project has been one of the best journalistic experiences of my short life, thanks to it my role as an activist was able to merge with my work as a journalist, managing to create a very own and intimate content, respecting my place as a member of the struggle and the community.
She is Tecoltemic, the protagonist of the story I tell in the first episode, the community that saw me grow up and that welcomed me to face the destructive threat of open-pit mining in my community and municipality, Ixtacamaxtitlán.
This struggle is full of faith, hope and love, because despite adverse circumstances, for more than 10 years he remained believing in his people and in a possible achievement: this shared strength allowed Tecoltemic to remove the Canadian mining company Almaden Minerals from the territory of the municipality in the Sierra Norte de Puebla.
The podcasts of the first season of Journalism of the Possible tell hopeful stories where community organizing, joining with other struggles and the determination of the people has made the intention-action for a better world flourish.
Being part of this wonderful project has meant a feeling of gratitude for the Tecoltemic community and its struggle; having been selected has allowed us to reaffirm the importance of the defense process that takes place in our territory. Knowing how valuable and impactful it has been that others have listened to us fills us with joy, because we know that everything we have done, even with fears, is the result of love for mother earth.
Each fragment of this story has been reunited with its protagonists. I remember the day when journalists Aranzazú Ayala, Eloísa Diez and Maye, who are part of the creators of the Journalism of the Possible initiative, in addition to the presence of members of Tsinaka community radio , who were able to carry out this journalistic work, returned to the community to present "Puebla: The Struggle of a People to Exist".
In such an emotional moment, listening to us and reliving every moment of the struggle narrated, made us cry, laugh, be speechless, but deep inside we were filled with satisfaction for all that we had achieved.
Besides the nostalgia, it was an atmosphere of festivity, with music, dance and food, we celebrated life. We were grateful for the work, dedication and effort to produce this podcast that now makes us resonate in our sister territories.
Of the most particular and humane actions of this project, the gesture of returning the works to the communities and peoples narrated in the stories has been a way to generate trust, empathy, recognition and gratitude for their work as guardians of the territory.
Now that the preparation of the second second season is about to begin, I'm sure they will be stories that will continue to inspire, embrace, unite causesI am sure that these will be stories that will continue to inspire, embrace, and unite causes with heroes and heroines without superpowers, but with big hearts.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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