aguamiel: secrets of the agave is a documentary film/digital humanities project about what everyday ‘experts’—especially Mexican and Mexican-origin households and women’s cooperatives—are doing to re-imagine
and redress the practices that have entrenched inequalities and environmental injustices. In collaboration with borderlands scholar, Dr. Adela C. Licona (UA Associate Professor Emeritus), I turned my video camera to the space between two nations where the US/Mexico border might be considered a microcosm of globalization; in 2006 and 2007, we documented perspectives and practices that emerged from people living along the Juárez, Chihuahua/El Paso, Texas/Anthony, New Mexico borders where two countries and three states converge along the river with more than two names. Currently, aguamiel encompasses the Arizona/Sonora borderlands where are partnering with BorderLinks to focus on the intersectional perspectives of Climate Justice. We ask what everyday people are doing in their communities to address climate change, community health, food and water scarcity, immigration, and community sustainability. Licona and I presented on this early work at the 2008 Women’s World Congress in Madrid, Spain; at the 2015 Transformative Digital Humanities Conference; and at the Institute for the Environment’s fall 2015 Cinematic Lunch.
