Author: Sergio Cahueque

Sergio Cahueque joined the team after graduating from College of the Atlantic in the spring of 2017, where he focused his studies on Environmental Sciences and Social Studies. At college Sergio had the opportunity to engage with Earth in Brackets, a student-led organization that explores the overlaps between environmental justice and social justice. During this time Sergio attended meetings under the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change, where he collaborated with grassroots and policy-led organizations working under the climate justice movement. After his experience with international environmental policy and inspired by the grassroots and popular movements in Latin America, Sergio decided to go back to Guatemala (his home country) and conduct ethnographic research for his undergraduate thesis. Sergio spent three months conducting research in La Puya, a peaceful resistance movement made by communities in San Jose del Golfo and San Pedro Ayampuc. These communities are in resistance against a U.S.-sponsored gold mine that poses a threat to their health by poisoning with arsenic the already scarce water. As an organizer Sergio is committed to creating spaces and providing tools for people to speak up and take action against social and environmental injustices. Sergio believes that to foster a healthy environment and a healthy and honest democracy we need to work from the bottom-up.