Arbol de Fuego (Tree of Fire)
“Smoke and Rain” (Yolo Martínez Spinoso)
Editor’s note: This is an English translation of a text published today over at our Spanish-language blog, El Tejido.
Suffocated by the accumulated heat of the day, the night became long. The smell of smoke woke us up. At that moment we thought that some neighbor was burning garbage. We soon realized that the smell was different. It smelled more like burnt wood.
In the morning, we read the news and people commented through different media about the fires around us. Some people were already calling on the population to collect water, food, and tools. Others looked for transportation to get around and grouped themselves into brigades to climb the mountains on foot.
People went up to put out the fires with their farming tools: shovel, machete, hoe. They armed themselves with what they had at hand.
Hillsides on fire. (Photo: Alejandro Beltrán Cordero)
Circuits were formed in which people gave their support by preparing and carrying food, collecting water, tools and joining in the work of organization, mobilization, and emotional support. Despite the stressful situation, people were willing, in good spirits, supportive, cheerful, and firm.
Those of us who went up the mountain knew that it was going to be an exhausting day, due to the excessive heat (37°) plus the heat of the fire. With our eyes watering from the smoke, we witnessed how the low humidity of the mountain gave way to fire. That fire consumed, little by little, what remained of the rainforest (Mesophyll Forest of Mountain).
With sadness we saw that the fire was not the only one that consumed the vegetation, but that the mountain had already been usurped. This is the result of man's gradual devastation of the forest's resources: the soil, the flora, the trees, and the fauna.
Concentrating on the strength of our arms, we opened a gap and surrounded the fire. Between laughter and concern, men and women asked in our hearts for the rain to come.
We heard from other companions that, in other parts of the mountain, the fires surpassed any human solidarity. He advanced like a dragon climbing the most inaccessible ravines.
The Pescados River on the verge of overflowing. (Photo: Alejandro Beltrán Cordero)
As the days passed, the rains arrived and with it the hope that a cycle would be renewed. However, the storms have been severe due to lack of vegetation cover and the riverbeds are uncontrolled. Although fire and rain are necessary in the process of renewal of nature, they are now intense due to the pollution we have generated in the water, forests, air, and mountains.
This is just a reminder of the climate change we are experiencing. Not all of us are aware of these challenges. But we exist as a group of people who act with the same purposes and actions; take care of the soil, regenerate it, learn its agricultural cycles, and reforest the mountains with native species.
The social response has been fortunate. Although the magnitude of the events makes us look small, like the little trees we carry in our hands, we continue and will continue reforesting the forest.
Coatepec, Veracruz, 21 June 2024
Yolo Martínez Spinoso
Alejandro Beltrán Cordero
SMOKE
The smell of smoke woke us
The forest is flaming
The earth is complaining
The people are uniting
We are organizing.
With just a machete and trowel
They are already attacking the inferno
The fire must be extinguished
We are not going to relinquish
That is what we vow.
Food is prepared
Food is life, provides sustenance
Provisions with potential
That help us immensely
And please us.
Now hundreds of people
Are assembled by zones
They are bearing tools
Joyfully face the wildfire
amidst playful laughter.
Our people responding
To the climate emergency
In a practical way.
The cynics disrespect and ignore
Resting on their laurels.
They didn't want to help.
So, to conclude our poem
We depart conveying
Our admiration for the community
Valiantly collaborating.
Alejandro Beltran Cordero, Yolo Martínez Spinoso
Translated by Janet Izzo
