I completed my Leadership in Action project in Oaxaca, Mexico, working alongside a local organization called Tejiendo Alianzas. This group develops partnerships with rural artisans and families in order to provide resources and strategies that maintain the culture and tradition of Oaxacan communities, while providing sustainable economic independence. The group’s mission towards cultural and economic sovereignty for rural Oaxacan communities stemmed from environmental degradation in the arid environment of the Oaxacan central valley, where many agricultural communities have struggled to make ends meet, and therefore resorted to forced migration to the US to avoid poverty. In response to the rapid desertification of the Oaxacan central valley, I worked with Tejiendo Alianzas to develop a scientifically-backed proposal for a regenerative agriculture project. Based on the model of a local environmental leader in Oaxaca named Pablo la Valle, Tejiendo Alianzas hopes to apply his regenerative agriculture work to the growing mezcal industry that plays a crucial role in local economies throughout Oaxaca.
As I reflect on my time in Oaxaca, I see my summer in three distinct parts. Being alone in a new country, speaking a new language, and exploring a new city, I learned the importance of exploration. These first few days, in reality, were really just a gap in my research schedule: my fieldwork couldn’t begin until Sunday, and the flights to Oaxaca were cheapest on Wednesdays, but I found that this awkward gap in timing was the most valuable portion of my work in Oaxaca. When I was planning my Leadership in Action project, I knew the most important thing for me was to have a project rooted in empathy. What these first few days taught me was that empathy begins with curiosity. Tejiendo Alianzas, my partner organization for this summer, truly embodied this mindset. Their work centered around the assumption that the communities they partnered with knew best how to approach their own challenges, and Tejiendo Alianzas had the responsibility to learn from them first and foremost, and then provide their own new perspective on what potential solutions could look like.
I think it was important for me to feel out of my depth and out of place those first few days, because this discomfort brought new questions and a new curiosity to learn about Oaxaca and its people.I learned to trust myself and my ability to participate and observe in a new place without having to provide answers or insights. These questions quickly turned into an understanding of my place in this community and in this country, and therefore allowed me to truly embody Laidlaw’s principle of truly working alongside new communities.
My time at Tierra del Sol emboldened me to take on a leadership role even when I knew I wasn’t an expert. My focus on curiosity and exploration my first two weeks allowed me to accept a position of leadership and proactive problem solving rooted in adaptability: because I had accepted my discomfort and unfamiliarity with this new place, I could better understand what I had to offer from my own perspective, knowledge, and experience. While working on the farm was the most mentally and physically challenging part of my Leadership in Action project, it was where I gained the most confidence in leading my project. I learned that leading with humility doesn’t have to be passive. In fact, leading with humility and acknowledging what I do not know or what I cannot do can bring more assurance to my leadership, because it encourages me to trust in the communities I work with.
My final three weeks spent in the city and completing community visits around rural Oaxaca helped me develop my global mindset, with an emphasis and appreciation for the complexity and indefinability of global communities. While every pueblo we visited welcomed us with unique food, traditions, and beliefs about their work and family, they were able to simultaneously hold onto a communal Oaxacan identity and a shared responsibility for taking care of Oaxacan land. This tension between a shared home and a shared duty to protect the land and the livelihood of agricultural communities, and a desire to maintain distinct cultural identities rooted in individual histories and traditions, was a common theme in my work in Oaxaca, and I hope to continue to explore it in my future work and global leadership.
As I look towards the end of my time with Laidlaw and my approaching graduation from Georgetown University, I know my time in Oaxaca will continue to inform my work in sustainability, indigenous sovereignty, and international development. I will always view myself as a student of these communities first, and center this humility in my leadership.