Mi medio ecológico

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Mi medio ecológico

Para explicar lo que siento cuando estoy en casa (cuando estoy en el caribe), les dejo un fragmento de una entrevista que le hizo Ernesto McCausland a Gabriel García Márquez en 1994:

Te voy a decir qué es lo que más me gusta de la Costa. No te lo digo, te lo explico. Yo vuelo de París a Cartagena, o de Madrid a Cartagena, por ejemplo, o a Barranquilla. En el momento en que desembarco aquí, yo noto que todo en el cuerpo y en la mente se me reajusta, y se identifica perfectamente con toda la realidad ecológica que tengo alrededor. Yo llegué a la conclusión que uno es de su medio ecológico y que es peligrosísimo y gravísimo salir de él. Entonces a mí me sucede solamente, francamente no en la Costa, sino en el Caribe, en cualquier lugar del Caribe. A mí me sueltan vendado, y yo sé que estoy en el Caribe porque el organismo me está funcionando de una manera que no me funciona en ninguna otra parte y la mente, todo. Es un reajuste que se debe a una identificación total del cuerpo y de la mente con el medio.

Estas fotografías reflejan la cotidianidad de la vida en una pequeña isla, la isla que me reajusto el cuerpo y el alma.

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Islas del Rosario (The Coral Islands of Rosario) is an archipelago comprised of 28 islands located on the Colombian Caribbean coast. In 1977 the marine area surrounding Islas del Rosario was declared National Park, as the accelerated development of tourism and private infrastructures started to damage the ecosystem.

The biggest island in Islas del Rosario, as its name implies, is Isla Grande. It takes approximately 45 minutes to get from Cartagena to Isla Grande by boat.

Isla Grande has a stable population of approx. 800 natives (self-denomination of the Afro-descendant community). 300 of the population live in a small town called Orika, the rest live close to the Colombian elite’s mansions where they work.

According to Durán Bernal, the Colombian state didn’t accept that Islas del Rosario has been inhabited since 300 years ago by Afro-descendant people. For years the population demanded the recognition of a collective ethnic territory in the islands and their community council. This political organization was created in 2001, the same year that the small town of Orika inside Isla Grande was founded. It was named Orika in honor of an African princess, victim of slavery in Cartagena. Natives weren’t expelled from the island because there are ethnic laws that protect them, and they have been fighting for their property rights. The presence and “invasion” of the whole native community was declared illegal till 2015 when the territory was finally recognized as a collective ethnic territory.

The native inhabitants were empowered through an environmental discourse, and they started to think about themselves as crucial actors for the conservation of the islands. Their community council became the central authority for developing environmental projects, particularly those related to ecotourism services.

Native’s eco hotels, which compete with tourism enterprises and resorts, do not have the infrastructure for accommodating more than 15 hosts per night. But they can offer the tourists a unique perspective of the island. (Durán Bernal, C. A “Local Environmental Governance in Islas del Rosario”)

The economy of the island depends purely on tourism and fishing. The island way of life has remained untouched for hundreds of years, there’s no running water nor electrical power lines.