Chris Donnelly Fellowship Report
Rich Traditions and Fragile Ecosystems: The Dual Impacts of Tourism in Oaxaca
After leaving Ciudad Oaxaca, we began to make our way to the coast through the winding mountain roads. We stopped in San Jose Del Pacifico, a mountain town renowned in mycological circles as one of areas in Mexico where you can find an incredible variety of species of mushrooms. The whole tourist infrastructure of the town is built around fungus.
The tourist infrastructure of the town is rapidly expanding into the forests on the mountainside, greatly impacting the local ecosystem. We found it interesting how people coming to experience the biodiversity of the area are ultimately responsible for degrading its vitality.
Our next stop was Pluma Hidalgo, a coffee growing town about halfway down to the coast. The town was very poor and had little tourism infrastructure. Most people worked for absentee owners of the coffee plantations. There was an aid organization working to organize the people so they could get paid fairly for their work on the plantations. The coffee
was sustainably grown in the shade to help maintain the biodiversity of the area. We got to tour a coffee plantation and can confirm, the coffee produced in the region is delicious!!
After a couple of nights in Pluma Hidalgo, we went to Huatulco, a consciously planned tourist destination built by the Mexican government’s tourism arm called FONATUR. Huatulco is built up around 7 different bays, 5 of which are still in mostly pristine condition. The others are built up with hotels, shops and restaurants. The main draw there is ecotourism so the government works hard to keep the area’s ecosystems intact. There are many ecotourism activities like scuba/snorkeling, boat trips to explore the bays, hiking and fishing. The town felt very curated and catered to mostly Mexican tourists coming from Mexico City. The beaches around Huatulco are home to turtle nesting grounds called
arribadas. Every summer thousands of turtles migrate to these beaches as they have for thousands of years to bury their eggs. Coastal development, pollution and people’s taste for their eggs have threatened the vitality of these nesting grounds. Privately funded organizations patrol the beaches to prevent people from harvesting the eggs and have
created sanctuaries on the beach to collect and incubate the eggs. Every night tourists pay money to release baby turtles into the ocean. It was an amazing experience to watch the baby turtles wobble their way into the sunset soaked sea.
After a few days in Huatulco, we drove up the coast to the bustling city of Puerto Escondido. Puerto had a very different feel than the rest of the towns that we visited. There were a large number of ex-pats and European and American tourists. The infrastructure of the city was built up incredibly quickly over the past 40 years with seemingly little thought to environmental impacts. Puerto was discovered as a surfing destination in the 1970’s and blew up as a surfer’s paradise in the ensuing years. The Mexican government originally had Puerto pegged as the area on the Oaxacan coast they wanted to consciously develop for tourism but there was a huge campaign against this that was led by indigenous communities in the area that felt that their land was being taken from them. Their campaign was successfully led by Alejandro Cárdenas Peralta who organized the communities in the Puerto area to prevent the government from seizing indigenous land and developing it. To this day, the area around La Punta in southern Puerto has been left mostly undeveloped and gives a glimpse into what the area must have looked like before the northern half of the bay
was claimed by land speculators and subsequently paved and built up with hotels, shopping centers and modern neighborhoods. After Peralta’s (semi)successful campaign in Puerto, he moved south to organize the communities in Huatulco against coastal development. Sadly, he was shot and killed for his efforts at the age of 27 after an altercation with government officials. You can read all about it here. Huatulco was subsequently developed in the following years.
There are many different environmental issues facing Puerto. The rapid development and lack of planning has created serious sewage overflow issues that are degrading habitat and ruining the very resource that made Puerto so attractive in the first place. It was very interesting to see the juxtaposition of the consciously planned, eco minded development in
Huatulco and the seemingly lawless development in the northern and central parts of Puerto. You can read more about it in the links below. Overall, the entire experience was a fascinating study in the intersection of indigenous culture, economic development and tourism.
Land ownership in Puerto Escondido: A Very Short History of Puerto Escondido
This experience has informed my teaching practice in many ways. In my Green Infrastructure class, I was able to bring in how the poorly planned stormwater drainage coupled with a lack of sewer infrastructure in Puerto is leading to large scale degradation of the environment due to algal blooms caused by eutrophication. The turtle populations as
well as the coral reefs are particularly impacted as a result. Helping students identify the cause and effect relationships the built environment has on surrounding ecosystems was powerful. In many of my units I practice “perspective taking” with my students where we take on the role of different stakeholders in the community who need to make a decision about a social/environmental issue in their community. As a result of our experience in Oaxaca, I was able to create a mini unit that culminated in a town hall meeting with students taking on the role of developers, families, indigenous leaders, tourism operators and government officials who were trying to decide whether or not to develop one of the untouched bays in Huatulco.
Here is a link to the unit.
How have your knowledge, skills, and capabilities grown?
My knowledge of land use issues and urban development has grown immensely. I have also learned a lot about the intersection of indigenous culture, development and the environment. I never realized how geography plays such a role in helping indigenous cultures maintain their customs and beliefs. I also didn’t understand the degree to which the government influences how indigenous communities can be supported or pushed to lose their culture and
traditions. I have become more confident in my ability to teach about sustainable developmentand how governments play such a large role in shaping the way that areas are developed.
As a result, in what ways will your instructional (or other) practice
change?
I have really started to focus on the idea of perspective taking. Developing this unit based around what it feels like from various points of view and having those people work together to create a solution that works for everyone is a
powerful tool for students to develop. Using this strategy in the classroom will help me create a more collaborative classroom environment and deepen my students’ understanding of what it takes to create a world that works for everyone.
What is the greatest personal accomplishment of your fellowship?
Immersing myself and my family in the rich cultural traditions of Mexico was amazing. I have such an appreciation for the people of Mexico and their cultural heritage. Being able to expose my daughter to how people live in another part of
the world was something we will never forget. I was able to develop my ability to communicate in spanish which has helped me better communicate with many of my English Language Learning students.
How will your experience positively impact student learning in new ways?
I am able to discuss development issues in the context of indigenous culture and biodiversity loss in a personal way because I was able to witness what is happening first hand. It’s not just a theoretical issue that is happening to someone else. I was able to talk to and develop an understanding of the issues that are facing people in these communities in a personal way. I have been able to pass that level of understanding on to my students easier than I otherwise would have.
What are your plans to work collaboratively with colleagues?
I think the method of perspective is really valuable and can be used across disciplines as a way to help immerse students in someone else’s situation. I would like to help my colleagues understand this method of teaching so they can develop units like the one I created based on my experiences.
Are there issues or challenges in your school, community or the world that you feel better prepared to address with your students?
Biodiversity loss, green infrastructure development, and maintaining cultural diversity in the face of increasing cultural homogenization are issues all around the world. Having experienced these issues first hand, I am better equipped to understand the issues and talk about ways we can work to solve these problems with my students.
How would you describe to a friend the most fundamental ways in which your fellowship has changed your personal and/or professional perspective?
I would say that having the time and space to think about and experience these issues first hand fundamentally changed my worldview. Seeing the juxtaposition between the pace and style of development in Huatulco and Puerto Escondido provided a textbook case study of the do’s and don’ts of sustainable development. That experience coupled with our time immersing our family in the cultural traditions that have existed in the valley where Oaxaca City exists for over 4,000 years helped change my understanding of the importance of respecting indigenous wisdom and their
relationship with Nature. Being there to experience and study it firsthand for an extended period of time (we were in Oaxaca for 6 weeks) was certainly the most powerful and valuable professional development experience I have ever had.