Bianca and Andrea have a story to tell, one in words and the other through the eye of a lens.
By Bianca Villegas
As familiar as I am with the city of Tijuana it was not easy to reach the destination of this particular clean up of the Tijuana river canyon. Feeling like a tourist I made my way to a student and asked for their teacher. I talked to maestra Claudia Ines Sanchez, who is the social coordinator at Lazaro Cardenas high school. Starting at 8am, her students were picking waste off the Tijuana canal in the community of Los Rosales.
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| Photo credtis/Andrea Hernandez |
Students and teachers have the interest to support this cause because they do not want the waste to be released into the ocean. Calidad de Vida is the organization that since 2008 encourages the participation in these cleanups, and they don’t want to break this habit. They have formed groups of volunteers that meet on Saturdays in different checkpoints throughout several cities south of the border.
In the playas area, the high school Reina Isabel collaborates with Calidad de Vida to orchestrate these cleanups. Most of the volunteers are either citizens of the communities, or students that became interested by hearing about the programs and events at their schools.
There are clean up site “checkpoints” throughout Tijuana and reaching all the way to Ensenada. These clean ups have been going on for 10 years.
Alejandro Reyes was the site captain at this particular checkpoint. He was also part of organizing the event Salvemos la Playa, which comprised of various ecologically friendly organizations in Tijuana and businesses that support them, who strive to maintain the beaches of Tijuana clean.
In attendance were 38 students in one area of the clean up. Around 50-60 were cleaning on a separate site. The organizers of Calidad de Vida and theatre students from the Universidad Autonoma de Baja California (UABC) were set up in another site.
The students organize the trash at their high schools according to a registry to determine which is the most common trash found in the canal. From their respective schools they send the trash to the dump and the rest of the classified waste to the recycling center.
Every site has a different workshop: sports, health, and various creative activities. Environmentalists make up the leadership of these organizations. Young themselves, the organizers understand the importance of implementing the efforts of the youth.
Reyes said they urgently need the help of young volunteers, which is why they recruit at high schools where they require hours of social volunteering.
He believed it was necessary to stress that:
“From the people of this same community there hasn’t been much response. They are indifferent, but it is hard to believe that they don’t care about waste. In order to progress, one has to clean up first.”
Cleaning up the Tijuana river canyon is about a quality of living space, hygiene, and education. This is a program for the bettering of quality of life. September was the month of action for this organization, Tijuana River Action Network. Every month there are different cleanups throughout 20 sites in Tecate, Rosarito and Playas de Tijuana.
Like Alejandro Reyes Carmen Romo, Gabriel Sanchez, Claudette Ramirez and Jose Segovia have been working for Calidad de Vida since 3 years ago.
About the organization, Carmen Romo said,
“Nacimos tratando de promover calidad de la vida urbana” We [this organization] were born with the intention to promote the quality of urban life.
Los organizadores come from a background in architecture or engineering.
They people need to live is to feel secure and comfortable and aesthetically pleasing, in a clean place. Calidad de Vida also promotes the cycling movement by repainting bike lanes. They have increased vigilance in the malecon for more security.
Calidad de Vida has been using a technique called YANTEK, which consists of shaving down old tires arranging them as seats or decorations at parks. They have also started a movement to demand the use of permeable pavements: hexagons made of cement and gravel, so the water passes through when it rains.
Parque binacional was developed on a stretch of land that is bisected by the international border with the purpose of educating about conservation for native plant life. Inciting environmental education in neighborhoods or communities, Calidad de Vida has been maintaining this space clean and sustainable as their message to the community.
This organization has created a compost center, in order to create more fertile earth. At the town council and airport. Want to convey a message to the suburban communities. The earth is used in gardens and schools, where growth and learning takes place. The message seems clear to me: a clean canyon can mean a new life.
Montserrat Torres, 17, a physics major from the high school Lazaro Cardenas has been participating every year. There is promotion in her school she says, but participation is optional. Torres said:
“Having clean ups of the canal is a good idea”.
Present also are the students of visual arts from UABC. The students are complying with their social service requirement by giving workshops on how to maintain the place clean, and planning an art activity to do with the community. They take these workshops from site to site like gypsies. The students use recyclable materials for their art supplies.
UABC’s Tania Munoz, 24, theatre major. Munoz said,
“Queremos implementar el arte en el reciclaje y el reciclaje en el arte”. The students make their rounds through their neighborhoods clad in feather and sequin masks, inviting the people to participate. An entertaining nomadic invitation to social aid. Collective efforts are silently enticing, the art and the cleaning, the work and the play are something to be enjoyed as a community.
The next artistic endeavor of the visual arts students will be to paint the trash containers that are used to classify recyclables and waste with the people of the communities. The promise of a quality future is attainable when the community takes part in rebuilding their own home. The classification of waste needs to be reevaluated, much like our knowledge; the trash needs to be weeded from material that can be reused in consideration of progress.
Photo credits/Andrea Hernandez
