Geronimo Barrera de la Torre

GERONIMO BARRERRA de la TORRE, University of Texas, Austin, Texas, was awarded a Fejos Fellowship in Ethnographic Film to aid filmmaking on “Xa-Lyu K’yaq:” Un Mundo de Cerros (World of Mountains).” This film follows the story of a Chatino indigenous community located in the cloud forest of San Juan Lachao, Oaxaca, which is home to the first international, voluntary carbon credit program between Mexico and the United States at a community level. Carbon credits have become a widespread mitigation measure for climate change. They are touted as one of the simplest ways for consumers, corporations, and governments to mitigate the damage caused to the environment by CO2 emissions. Xa-lyu K’yaq explores the contradictions generated by these programs and the community’s concerns about their effectiveness. We follow Gaspar Salinas, San Juan Lachao’s community leader and the head of the carbon credit program, as he navigates these paradoxes on both a personal and community level. Internally, he has a debate about whether the program can accomplish everything it aims to do: protect the forest, provide resources to the community, and offset emissions from U.S. companies. The film questions the inequalities that underpin such measures and explores community responses to the commodification of forests. It reflects the way in which carbon offsetting is interpreted by the community and the complex and contradictory discourses through which such programs are taking place.