Natalia M. Toscano
April 30, 2023
El Bosque, Southern Tabasco. A community established in the 1980’s as an autonomous fishing community, with its populations made of families from various places in the region, is facing some of the most extreme repercussions of climate change. The Gulf of Mexico, over the last few years, has devoured the shoreline, making homes and buildings unlivable.
We were welcomed by various individuals who are still living in El Bosque, waiting to be relocated to new homes. The ocean waves crashed against the shore, in agitation against the graying sky and emerging rain clouds. Dilapidated buildings sat a few meters past the shore, homes, an elementary school, and eating halls, broken down to their bare-bones as the water and salt washed any remnants of life. Trash littered the shores with clothes, plastics, and sea life carcasses across the terrain. It was the nightmare of paradise come alive. A beautiful sea based community turned into an oceanic wasteland.
As the compas took us across the community they pointed out their lost homes and businesses. A few national guards stood watch as we witnessed the compas testimonies. Their heartbreak evident as we walked the perimeter of the community. Reaching the edge of the Bosque, along what once stood a thriving pier, the water erosion and impending oceanic take over was palpable. Although we walked on the coast, it felt as the center of the ocean would swallow us whole.
Despite the community of El Bosque still waiting to be relocated, with about 60 families waiting to receive news of their homes, the community sits in a lull of abandonment. They, like many peoples living in and on the coasts and on islands, will become what inevitably will be understood as environmental refugees. Their ancestral homelands are no longer viable for the form of life they once had.
The earth is readjusting itself. Attempting to soothe its own aches for its survival. The rising oceanic tides is nature’s response to the damage created by overproduction, over consumption, and the hyper extraction needed to sustain mega-industries. The dynamics of life on earth are changing. El Bosque only proves this reality.
The experience at El Bosque was shocking. Leaving an ache in the spirit that cannot be explained. To be surrounded by such beauty and only witness the anger of the sea, as it lashes out against the community and the life of El Bosque. Climate change is real, its impact is destructive. What’s happening here is part of the beginning of larger climate shifts. The land, the water, the air as we know it will no longer be familiar to us as nature continues to retaliate against the violence enacted upon it. El Bosque is only one instance of this reality.
The community of El Bosque wants the world to hear their struggle, to know their despair, and support their cause. Yet, this drastic reality of climate change is virtually unknown. Leaving us to wonder what other communities are facing similar conditions? What will happen to El Bosque and other communities whose homes are destroyed by natural disasters and climate change? Will they be supported or left to figure out their futures on their own? Or will treat communities like El Bosque as disposable following the history of treatment towards undesirable refugees?
El Bosque is a heavy reminder that the natural world around us is changing, and transforming drastically. It is a reminder that those in the periphery are and will continue to be the first impacted by these changes.
