Team:GenetiX Tec CCM/TodosporXochimilco
“More than just a place: it’s our culture, history, and our people. It’s life what we are saving”
As scientists we sometimes forget that everything we do has a purpose, a reason behind it. This comes to an end when we recall that the important thing is not the discovery we made, but the purpose we give to it, how we impact on people’s life with it. With this in mind, we visited Xochimilco. We were hoping to talk to people who actually live and work there; find out whether they had an idea of what is happening to our lake.
We started the day visiting the people who work there. We talked to them about who we are and what we do. Later, they answered for us some questions, sharing their feelings about their beloved area and what pollution has done with it. We were surprised that even they were there every day (and had worked there for a long time), most of them had little or no idea about the phenomena that were destroying their home.
Our next step was to talk with tourists. Unfortunately, even though tourism is the main economic drive of the area, it is also the most damaging activity. People who visit are unconscious of the harm they cause when they throw dispose in the lake, for example. By asking some questions, we came to realize that this people was even less informed about the situation of the lake.
Throughout the day, further than just getting information for our research, we aimed to spread a message of awareness. We prepared some posters with striking data with the objective of catching people’s attention on what is happening and what they can contribute to improve the condition. We made them open their eyes to the importance of protecting a zone that is home to our History, culture, and unique wildlife.
We closed the day with a lecture that was held on the traditional “trajineras”. Then, we talked to our visitors more thoroughly about the situation of the area (the ecological and social problems attempting to destroy it), our project, and most important: the relevance of preserving our cultural and ecological heritage and what they can do to achieve it.
The day was rather a gratifying experience. We got to connect with the people who are directly affected by our project. Surprisingly, we surpassed barriers and met people from the government who are interested in promoting our research and the implementation of the project once we have finished all the trials. The objective was accomplished: we had the impact we were aiming to over the community of Xochimilco… They even asked us to come back!