The tonokoté woman who fights against the clearing: "the earth cries out for help"

The sun falls relentless during the Santiago nap.Colorados Quebachos, Blancos Quebachos, Mistoles, Talo, cardones, shrubs and other species of the mountain supply a half shadow.The sand and the salt of the soils extend everywhere.Lagartijas of different colors, brunette mountains, torders, tastings, parrots, coves and sparrows look from their corners, look out, let themselves be seen, allow their natural beauty to be admired.Footprints of turtles and rabbits indicate that they walk around.The burrows of the Vizcachas hide in the depth of the mountain.Local "lions" - which are not the African melenudos, but a type of puma - are not seen, but the remains of dead animals and traces compatible with their attacks indicate that they are on the prowl of new prey.

As the landscape spend hours, which is drawn in the tone of the grays and brown, it becomes a deep green because the sun's rays no longer fall on them.While the day goes out, on the horizon begins to show an immense full moon that becomes a giant lantern that illuminates the mountain.The starry night becomes synonymous with peace.

However, not every night or days are like that.There were whole months where animals died of thirst, where the cardons shrinked at the lack of water, where the drought ravages on the mountain.More frequent and prolonged droughts, one of the faces of the global climatic crisis, they feel in the Mount of Santiago, since Santiago del Estero is one of the most affected Argentine provinces, in recent decades, by deforestation and the shift ofThe agricultural border.This means greater vulnerability for rural communities and native peoples.

“We are playing the persistence of humanity and the impact of deforestation on the common house is not less.This impact is already suffered by the communities that live in these forests, ”says María Magdalena Abt Giubergia, a doctor of forest sciences and professor of the first Faculty of Forest Sciences of the country at the National University of Santiago del Estero.

The lack of water takes it in the name

Yaku Much a few means in quichua "scarce water."It is the name that this community receives, located in the place of San Felipe in the department of Figueroa, where one of the last native forests of the province is.It is not easy to get there.From the provincial capital, we must travel more than 100 kilometers of paveBifurcan as labyrinths on the mountain.

Although it is an ancient community, it has has an electric light since 2018. It is one of the 27 communities of the Tonekoté people recognized in Santiago del Estero by the National Institute of Indigenous Affairs (INAI), but the self -perception process as members of an original community notit was easy.The ancestral character of the occupation of the territory had to be verified and that required several investigations by the provincial and INAI State that derived in the authorship of the first 14 families of the community.Then another 10 were added.

In Yaku they have a lot of primary school, with unique personnel, and a small chapel.The Internet connection is only given by areas and at certain times of the day.It is difficult to communicate.Bicycles and motorcycles are the usual means of mobility.

The community is composed of 24 families, which are mainly dedicated to the breeding of animals for domestic use, in a territory of 8,431 hectares surveyed by the INAI, although the next survey is expected to include more than 5,000 hectares that are in dispute.

The main reference of the community, the Kamachej, is a 43 -year -old woman.She is the Chief Guide of the Yaku Town Much, belonging to the Llajtaymanta de Pueblo Toukoté Council that brings together the indigenous communities of the departments San Martín, Avellaneda, Figueroa, Capital and Banda.Her name is Angelica Serrano.

Truncos dreams

From his place, sitting under the roof of his home, a social home that he received from the authorities of the provincial government in 2018, Angelica is dismantling his history, which is intertwined with the history of his land, of his community, the one that he has as asprotagonist to an original forgotten and invisible people.Her voice does not stop.She has a lot to count.

Angelica grew in this forest that in Santiago del Estero they call mount.The grandfather of her was a hack, her grandmother dedicated himself fully to her ranch, her children, her grandchildren, to the breeding of animals and to do everything necessary to survive in that territory that, decades ago, was too hostile.

None knew how to read or write.Therefore, despite her deficiencies and her limitations, she struggled and became the flag bearer of her school.She dreamed of "being someone."But those dreams were truncated when she was about to finish primary school.

He was 13 when an aunt returned from Buenos Aires and told her that a family needed her there as a nanny of her children.From one day to the other, unable to say anything, she left her land with the promise of sending money to her grandparents.It was the "destiny" that almost all the young peasants had marked there and she had to comply with that mandate.

Angelica remembers that he became ill, because in addition to being a nanny he had to take care of all the chores of a huge house.It was an excessive pressure for a single girl in the immense and unknown Buenos Aires.

Thus he returned to San Felipe three years later.Although she tried to finish primary, she had to emigrate again because a letter from her same aunt came from saying that she had found a new job like a nanny, this time, in the Buenos Aires conurbano.

Fight for Earth

He returned two years later, in 1996, but he was already very big to study again.He was 18 years old.This time, the return of him was definitive.He found his place in the Catholic Church and began to participate in all the activities proposed by the Diocese of Añatuya.She became a catechist from a young parish group called "Missionary Childhood", animator and even prayer.

On the way he met love and formed his family with Héctor Eduardo Mansilla, with whom he had his three children: Gabriel, Lucía and Rocío.

When the Italian priest Sergio Marinelli took the initiative of a parish radio, the first antenna was placed in his old ranch.She then trained in the area of communication through courses of the same Church and community workshops, where she understood that she could transform her voice into a tool that would serve her people.Today, her daughter looked from her, already received from a psychology professor, follows her steps on a radio in the town of Flag Down.

Thus, he learned not to lower his arms and, without realizing it, one day he was discovered leading his community against those who intended to dismantof adulterated property.

He also had to learn to fight for his rights, to understand that the ancestral possession of his territories could not be overwhelmed by the landowners who appeared with their topers to destroy the mountain.Generally, the intention of these entrepreneurs is to acquire large estates, disassemble them and then turn them into soybeans.Examples of this are embodied in dozens of complaints in the Santiago courts.

The drought

Angelica says that in the community they are accustomed to living three months of drought per year, but that in 2021 there were more than six."The dams that supplied us, dried," he says.

“Only one had some water in the middle, which was rather mud.The animals looked for to drink and bogue.They had to get them out of there and then sacrifice them, because they could not recover.Cows, kids, pigs, even chickens have died, because there was no water, ”continues his story while his deep green eyes seem to sink into memories.

His hands perch in his very long hair, of a spent coppery tone.She looks straight ahead and silently.Words arise from her lips and she simply speaks, tells, details the hardships they had to endure during the more than 200 days in which the sky refused to water the fields.“Almost all water wells dried up and nobody wanted to open them, because they have salt water.Not even the little birds want to drink the water that comes out, ”she says.

According to the document “Deforestation of native forests in Argentina: causes, impacts and alternatives”, of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of the Nation, deforestation decreases the productive capacity of soils by salinization in arid areas.This is confirmed by Abt Giubergia, who adds that "salt tends to ascend when there are very heat phenomena."

The last great drought began in April 2021 and ended at the end of October of that year, when the earth received the gift of abundant rainfall, which multiplied throughout the following month and turned the impassable roads.In Santiago, as in other Argentine regions, the climatic crisis is expressed through greater recurrence of extreme events.

Shalaca

“I live here for a lifetime.I was born here.I've raised here.I am the daughter of the grandparents because they have raised me, ”says Angelica.She with them always spoke in Quichua, the tongue originally from her, although - to avoid teasing - the "dad" asked him not to use it in the town.“They are going to tell you‘ Shalaca ’,” she says she told her, and she stays thinking about the meaning of that word.

From the Alero Quichua Santiagueño, a radio program with more than 50 years that was born to rescue, conserve and disseminate the native language that is still spoken in 14 departments of the province, they bring the explanation.In the popular speech of Santiago not informed about the Quichua language, the word Shalaco defines the quichuista in general and, worse, to whom a Spanish Castilian speaks.

“Some people say Shalaco, in a derogatory tone.The ignorance and imitation to those who ignore, lead to falling into those mistakes.The right thing is that the word quichua ‘shalacu’ designates the born in the area of the Salado River, ”says researcher Cristian Ramón Verdu in that radio program.

Despite the derogatory qualifiers he suffered as quichua-speaker, Angelica always felt proud to speak her ancestral language and this was a fundamental part in its self-knowledge.“I always felt that this knowing how to speak the language was important.There are many who were ashamed to speak and that hurt, because it was the language of my grandparents, and of the people before, ”she says without false pride, convinced of the value of their roots.

A sigh barely stops his voice, which is lost in the burning Santiago nap.Her hands move in synchrony, as each word reaffirmed.With impetus, as shouting at the world, she exclaims: "Our blood shouts that we are here and we are alive."

Native forest

The Yaku Much community, with Angelica in the lead, does not lower the arms and struggles to protect its territory as one of the last native forests of the province.According to National Law 26,331, all natural forest ecosystems are understood as a native forest, in a different state of development, which have tree coverage of native species greater than or equal to 20% with trees that reach a minimum height of 3 meters and aContinuous occupation greater than 0.5 hectares, including palmars.

Argentina has 536,545 square kilometers of native forests, 19.2% of its surface.Santiago del Estero, with 7,108,203 hectares, is one of the provinces with the largest native forest area, next to Salta, Chaco and Formosa, with which the Chaqueño Park forms, according to the data of the Ministry of Environment of the Nation.

Native forests are fundamental for water regulation, soil formation and conservation, biodiversity conservation, carbon fixation, food provision, water, energy sources, construction materials or medicines, preservation and defenseFrom cultural identity, this document points out.

Deforestation

Argentina is among the ten countries in the world with the highest net loss of forests in the last three decades.Only between 1998 and 2018 were lost around 6.5 million hectares (65 thousand square kilometers), the equivalent of surface to three times the province of Tucumán.43 % of that total (2.8 million hectares) were disassembled as of 2008, and with the Law of Forests in force, according to the report "Causes and impacts of deforestation" of nation environment.

The loss of native forest between 2007/2018 was located mainly in the region of the Chaqueño Park (87%), more than anything in Chaco (14%), Formosa (13%), Salta (21%) and Santiago del Estero (28%).In the context of South America, the expansion of the agricultural border in the region makes it the second focus of deforestation after the Amazon.

According to deforestation monitoring in northern Argentina that performs Greenpeace annually, satellite images revealed that during 2020, despite the restrictions by the Covid-19 pandemic, in Santiago del Estero, 32,776 hectares were dismantled (327km2), almost once and a half the surface of the city of Buenos Aires.Only between January 1 and March 31, 2021, 9,126 hectares were deforested in the province.

Impact

Deforestation is an important cause of air pollution and contributes to global warming.It also has a strong impact on the most vulnerable populations."In the history that we have as a province, with conflicts over land tenure, this issue has coexisted that the titles have the private ones, but the possession of the Earth has the communities," says Abt Giubergia."This weakness makes population exodus, conflicts over the land, loss of roots and communities that can no longer subsist because they are restricted and have to go."

“In some areas, the use of agrochemicals can impact populations and water quality.The population that suffers the most the consequence is the most humble, the most vulnerable, which is closely related to the forest, ”says the researcher.The technological package associated with Argentine agribusiness is very chemical dependent, with great demand for products such as pesticides and insecticides that generate an impact on the socio -environmental health of the territories.

According to Greenpeace, deforestation emissions in Santiago del Estero, Salta, Formosa and Chaco, for 2020, were 20,922,835.07 TN CO2 equivalent, a value that is comparable to the issuance produced by more than 4 million vehiclesin circulation for a year.

Abt Giubercia remembers the words of Nestor Ledesma, one of the founders of the Forest Engineering career in Santiago del Estero, who said that the forest prevented Santiago del Estero from becoming a desert.“If one sees the position we occupy on the planet, the great deserts of the world are the same latitude of us.But instead of having deserts, nature has generated a forest that adapts to this semi -arid climate we have, ”he confirms.

Marginal land

The expansion of the agricultural border from the Pampas region to the Chaqueño Park, a process that accelerated at the end of the 20th century, allowed the real estate market to come out in search of land with forests, which were then dismantled and sold at major prices.So it is that the value of the land dismantled triples to that of the earth with forest.

According to data from the Ministry of Environment of the Nation, in Santiago del Estero, a hectare occupied by forest can cost $ 800, while its price without forest reaches $ 3,200.A large part of those lands, which were previously considered marginal, are under precarious possession (a loan that can end at any time), either under twenty possession by peasant communities or for being part of indigenous territories.

The resistance

Angelica and the Yaku community know that they have to protect their native forest.And they do it with nails and teeth.Already in 2013 they resisted the progress of a company that, with topers, tried to disassemble the field where families made the essentials to live.That is how, he recalls, "among all, we agreed that it was necessary to resist at any price that outrage and defend the same."

They had also had to support contradictions of entrepreneurs who accused them of excesses within the framework of resistance, so 21 residents were prosecuted, including a child under twelve and a young man with maturative delay.

In this scenario, the Tonekoté town of Yaku learned much to resist and fight for their rights.Angelica became the visible face of that fight.She assures that, despite her deficiencies, she is happy, because the earth gives her everything she needs to live.

“We know that thanks to that land space we have we can develop, raise animals, sow and make our normal way of life.Without land we are nothing.Today, many changes are noticed because the earth, little by little, cries out for help, ”she says.

And strongly, he says: “We want to have a place in this society and take into account.Let us know that we exist, that we have a culture and rights too.That we do not have to walk with feathers or with the clothes that our ancestors used to be identified.We are today's Indians.We are aborigines today. ”

Angelica dreamed of "being someone."She still does not become aware that she became a true giant who struggles for the historical rights of her people.

This story is part of "territories and resistances" federal and collaborative research of powerful girls Argentina, which was carried out between October and December of the year 2021, with the support of the United States Embassy in Argentina, by a team of more than 35women and people LGBTTQI+ throughout the country collaboratively.

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