Raízhambre

Matlalcuéyetl is a dormant volcano in the state of Tlaxcala, Mexico, located within Nahua and Yuhmu territories. At its base lies a coniferous forest that has been devastated by illegal logging for decades. The ecosystem’s imbalance and rising temperatures have led to an increase in the population of the bark beetle (“Dendroctonus mexicanus”), which causes trees to die. The Ministry of the Environment estimates that the forest’s extent has been reduced by half over the past century.

The desecration of this ecosystem mirrors a global pattern in rural and indigenous territories, where lands are systematically destroyed by negligence and corruption. In this forest, logging is carried out at night by some native inhabitants of the surrounding communities, a symptom of the lack of job opportunities in the region. However, those allowing the infestation to spread unchecked – causing further tree loss while profiting from their removal – are private companies and government officials from different institutions working in collusion with sawmills.

For Nahua culture, Matlalcuéyetl and its forest are the setting in which its myths unfold; the volcano is associated with notions of wisdom, prosperity, beauty, and power. It is a ritual space where offerings are made to ask for good harvests, and from where graniceros (weather shamans) were believed to bring the rain. Along its trails are sacred springs and chapels dedicated to female entities; the mountain also serves as a vantage point from which the body can be brought closer to the cosmos.

“Raízhambre”, a compound word combining ‘raíz’ (Spanish for ‘root’) and ‘hambre’ (hunger), evoking an origin being devoured while echoing ‘raigambre’, the Spanish term for a mass of plant roots tightly intertwined, is a photographic series that asks: What is lost when land is destroyed?

Hidden within this forest, infamy and the divine, death and hope, coexist. My perspective originates from San Francisco Tetlanohcan, a Nahua community on the slopes of the volcano where my family is from, the memory of my blood is saved within this forest.

Sara Meneses Cuapio was selected as an inspiration for our current open call “Braiding Indigeneity".