El Rabinal y Río Negro

Wednesday 13.02

On Wednesday we headed to El Rabinal, one of the three cities of Baja Verapaz Department. Here we were hosted by an organization who works in rescuing native seeds and distributing them among communities. One of its members is original from a community called Río Negro, settled in the river Chixoy.
Río Negro has suffered a very sad story... back in the 80, in the middle of Guatemala's civil war, the government and the electrification company of Guate wanted to build a dam in the Chixoy river. 33 communities would be affected by this plan, and were supposed to be relocated to another smaller and less fertile land...The inhabitants of Río Negro refused to leave their beloved and fertile land. As a result, the military committed terrible massacres accusing them as guerrilleros (you can read more detailed information of internet, just google Rio Negro Massacre ).
From 800 people, around 177 people were assassinated and many disappeared. The same day of the last massacre, the dam got approved. The people that survived run to the mountains, to feed themselves out of leaves, fruits, roots and whatever they could find. Some people stayed up to 5 years in the mountains. Finally, they accepted the relocation to the settlement created by the military to control guerrilleros in Pacux.
In 1994, some families went back to start up their community again. Nowadays, 16 families live in the new Rio Negro. Although the most fertile lands remain under water and the community is almost isolated they are back in their land and claim justice for the lost relatives.

If you are asking yourself, why do we want to go there to do our study? Well, the answer is that the people that lived in the mountains developed a knowledge about edible wild plants out of "trial and error" method and following the advise of their grandparents. Nowadays, it is preferred to cultivate food plants or just purchasing them in the market, rather than walking in the mountain to gather them. No one is blamed for that, but this pattern changes are worth to study and to document a knowledge before it is completely lost.
And how can the community benefit from the study? Well, I want to believe that the information we will gather about what they can find in their surroundings is valuable and they can use it sometime. From the other side, their story spreads a little bit more as now you know about it, so it doesn't sink into oblivion. Plus, having two guests living with them generated some good revenue.

As it is quite difficult to arrive to the community and we have to wait for a permit to get there. We have to wait one  week to depart... so we have decided to explore new places in this spare week... ;)