Alt Text: A far off photo of a group of around 60 people gathered at the Rio Chixoy. The group is in the foreground with a big tree arching over the group on the left, the river is in the background. The other side of the shore is furthest back, including a sandy bank and many trees. The most visible costume is a painted monarch butterfly sign on someone’s back. Four people are on stilts, one of whom has a pink wig.

The community gathered at the Rio Chixoy as the destination of the march. There are children in costumes and on stilts.

Alt Text: A photo of around 37 people marching. In the foreground is gravely road and grass separating the viewer from the line of people. The photo shows the backs of people, marching from the right side of the photo to the left. Four people at the front of the march are on stilts. There are many trees in the background.

The community marching towards the Rio Chixoy with costumes and signs.

Alt Text: The wall of the Instituto Basic is grey. The main mural shows a group of people crossing a blue river, dressed in green, yellow, orange, and white. There are trees around the river and the ground on which the people in the mural stand is yellow.

Murals on the outside wall of the Instituto Basico. The main mural in the photo shows a group of people holding signs that read: “Water for life, not for death,” “TLC out,” “Copal AA present,” “The people united will never be defeated.”

Alt Text: The poster is blue, hanging on a wall made up of wooden slats above some bricks. The building is covered by a carp across a stick stretching across the top of the building. In the foreground is a vertical stick.

Poster hanging in the salon of events reading: In the good faith community consultation the people of Ixcan said no to dams, no to petrol exploitation. Yes to life and the earth for the people”

Panel of speakers in the event salon. Big poster in front of the panel table reads: Panel: Challenges and struggles of the people against climate change. Speakers are from Festival Solidario, ORCONDECO, Appalachian State University, ACODET, COCDE, and Copal AA.

Alt text: The poster is yellow and the text is in blue, black, and red marker. Some words “drought,” “in first place,” “in second place,” and “in third place” is underlined in orange marker. In the background the salon is visible with big aluminum sloped roofs.

A yellow poster hanging on the fence of the event salon. The handwritten text reads: “I would like to make a reflection to the general public: The reason we are suffering from the drought. First of all, the rainfall is as follows -Secondly: why is Climate change? Because of so much deforestation, there is no longer any mountains for the clouds, all peeled. Because the clouds, it comes from the mountains, the rains come from the mother earth. Third place: the famous pollution. Pollution is highly: toxic, to health to the human being, to the earth, to the whole planet. Chemical use, all kinds of toxic incectisides, Who use these: all the farmers, fumes from the burning of rosaduras- We are adjusting along with the rich, although the smoke is non-toxic but we are heating up the earth. The most toxic fumes of the factories of Industries, armaments factories, nuclear bombs, atomic, highly toxic.

Alt Text: White poster hanging on the fronds of a tree. The text is written in red, black, blue, and green marker. There are the margins of two other handwritten posters that can be seen on either side.

Handwritten text on a poster hanging on a tree. It reads: Hundreds of massacres: massacres in Rio Negro Rabinal, March 13, 1982 more than 107 children, 70 women, among them women and girls. The soldiers & patrols arrived at 6 in the morning in the village Rio violently removing people from their homes. The women were in a meeting, the soldiers said: "The meeting is up there.” -Soldiers and patrolmen took the women and children 3 kilometers away above the community. Arriving at the site on a planado, they began to kill, cutting tree branches, sticks, thorns and thorns, beating them brutally, taking out the girls in the bush to violate. Women, children cut with machetes. Pusilados zogados con lazos robados(??) children by breaking their heads on the stones, leaving the children hanging in the trees. what a barbarism of the soldiers and patrols. Who are the soldiers and patrols? We have chosen sons and daughters of peasants, indigenous people, mayas. Just because they sealed the minds of so many people, the politics of the generals, they acted in such a way that they even turned their hand against their own family. What horror, cruelty On page 92 of Monsignor Gerardi's book 4, they cut the belly of one of the women, they took the creature, the soldiers and patrols played like a ball, they took it and left hanging on a tree like they were drunk with wine.”

Alt Text: Two typed posters hanging on the fence above a handwritten poster. There is also a yellow handwritten poster to the right. The typed posters have titles in big letters and body text in small letters. There are images of factories and smoke on the typed posters. The handwritten poster is in black marker, with a phrase in red marker and “drought” highlighted in orange marker.

Three posters hanging on the fence of the event salon. The titles on the two typed posters read “What happens with the ashes produced by the incinerator?” “What are dioxins?” And “What alternatives do we have?” The handwritten poster reads: “But well, although we are suffering the. Heat, the Drought butWe're going to hold on. We’re already used to consume. We cannot live without buying things from the stores, from the grocery stores. But what we consume most, what has the most problems is water. There is no rain, the summer continues with a lot of heat, we even need two, up to three shirts a day. What are we going to do? Being damage to this weather, change of weather, is deforestation, cutting down trees, mountains. Trees, mountains we are throwing away trees that we need to build houses. The pollution, fumes from the factories, chemicals, burning of rosaduras, although the smoke is not toxic. But we are heating up the ground. But we are heating up the soil, heating up mother earth, the whole planet. Thus speaks yave against the injustice . -I did not send them the rain. When it was three months before the harvest, I made it rain on a city and I maintained in the other the drought.Some fields were rained on but others, lacking rain dried up. -The people of the three cities invaded another city in search of water. Without being able with it to calm their thirst. and you However, they did not return to me. Amos 4.4-12 <

On June 6-7, 2024, the community of Copal AA- a community of returnees from Mexico after the Internal Armed Conflict (IAC) and leader of the fight against a hydroelectric dam- celebrated their tenth Festival on the Environment.

The festival was held by the Instituto Basico, the local school. However, the festival was borne of the hard work and coordination of the entire community including ACODET, a community-run assembly in defense of land and water.

On June 6, the Memorial House was inaugurated- the culmination of decades of planning. The dream for a museum commemorating the community’s history was in the long-term plans for the community from the very beginning. With Copal AA holding such a powerful history of organizing and struggle, the placement of the Memorial House in the local school is significant, as it ensures the struggle is closely tied to the youth’s education and formation.

June 7th began with a march to the Chixoy River led by youth in stilts carrying large banners about the contamination of the earth and water. The Chixoy River was the main source of water for multiple communities at the time of the festival; in 2024, the rain was severely delayed due to climate change, leading to the death of 70% of the cardamom harvest and a grave food and money insecurity. Thus, although the spirit of the festival was full of bright color, youthful energy, and generational wisdom, the reality of the subject of the festival is something that is felt by the community on a daily basis.

As a speaker at the festival said, “We are worried right now about the lack of rain this year. But, what about next year? And the one after?”

In the afternoon, people gathered for speeches by elders of the community. Each speech was interspersed with skits, songs, and dances in which the youth adorned home-made costumes and sung and danced as the Earth, water, the clouds, birds, monkeys, and plants.

Such an event symbolizes the passing of knowledge and spirit from generation to generation. For months, teachers diligently worked with the students to prepare for the festival, culminating in painted signs calling for the protection of the environment and beautiful home-made masks and costumes. These actions carefully instill in the youth the importance of sustainability and the legacy of their community, which has led a powerful local struggle against a massive hydroelectric dam.