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The Connection with Mexico
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North
America is home to three countries and today´s borders are relatively
recent. Look at this map of 1812.
Alta California (English:
Upper California) was a
province
and
territory in the
Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and
department in independent
Mexico. The
territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former
province of
Las Californias, and consisted of the modern
American states of
California,
Nevada,
Arizona, Utah,
western
Colorado and southwestern
Wyoming.
The territory passed to American control after the
Mexican–American War and ceased to exist with the creation of the State
of California in 1850. ( Refer to
Wikipedia)
Source for the map
Generations of people
have changed the landscape a great deal, population size and
the gap between rich and poor has grown exponentially.
Solutions for today´s problems are out there, and we believe
the Sierra Gorda is an important model for rural mountain
living anywhere.
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“Here in the Sierra Gorda we know that it is
not convenient to do away with the trees; with my
85 years I
can tell you that over time I have seen that where there are
woods there are springs and there is life. The youth go to
the [USA] to seek fortune and when they come back they don’t
know
how or they don’t want to work the fields.
Our region requires knowledge, awareness and
roots, we have to conserve a love for the Earth that gave birth
to us, because if we as Serranos don’t do something for this
land, others aren’t going to do it either.”
A
testimony by Don Teodomiro Benítez, resident.
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Sierra Gorda: A green jewel in Central Mexico.
Photographic exposition by Fulvio Eccardi |
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Viva Sierra Gorda supports projects that demonstrate the
necessity of bottom-up solutions to benefit people and
nature.
Turn
poverty around and connect with rural communities creating a
biosphere with a future.
Make a donation by cheque to:
Viva Sierra Gorda/Earth Island Institute
Mail to:
2150 Allston Way, Suite 460
Berkeley, California
USA 94704 - 1375
Email: laura@sierragorda.net
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“And
so [Sierra Gorda] was a revelation to me: a cloud forest of
majestic oaks, cedars and firs a hundred feet tall, draped
with mosses and spangled with bromeliads – a soaring,
humbling place. This is the real treasure of the Sierra
Madre.” Scott Weidensaul, Return to Wild America: a
yearlong search for the continents natural soul. © 2005. |
Viva Sierra Gorda is a
project of
 Earth
Island Institute.
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