Earth Care has curated the January edition of the Green Fire Times since Donald Trump was elected for his first term. Since then, our Green Fire Times January edition has focused on the political battles we are fighting: resistance to extractive systems, resilience in the face of oppression, and the hard work of holding onto what matters most.
In this year's edition of the Green Fire Times, we felt a pull to approach things differently. We invited elders to share their wisdom on navigating rupture, youth to share their fears and dreams, and community members to illuminate the ways they are sitting with fear and the unknown.
Earth Care Staff write, "This year's edition of the Green Fire Times acknowledges the moment we find ourselves in—a moment of profound uncertainty and rupture. The world as we’ve known it is shifting, and the foundations of our systems, our relationships and even our sense of identity are being challenged. On the horizon, Project 2025 looms, threatening to undo any civil and environmental progress we’ve won and deepen the existential crises we already face. The air feels thick with fear, division and the weight of what is to come."
"At the same time, there is a quiet, persistent call for and movement toward something different—for a deeper reckoning, a transformative way forward. This moment, as painful as it is, offers an invitation to pause, reflect and reimagine. It asks us to hold both the grief of what is breaking and the possibility of what could emerge."
"We turn to the concept of Nepantla to guide us through this threshold. Drawn from the Nahuatl language/mind, and expanded by Chicana scholar and writer Gloria Anzaldúa, Nepantla describes a liminal space of in-betweenness, where the old is crumbling and the new has yet to take shape. It is a space of disorientation and discomfort, but also one of profound potential. As Anzaldúa writes, 'Nepantla is a lens through which to reinterpret the past, question the present, and envision a self and society in transition."
Rafael Jesús Gonzalez - Us and The River | P. 5
"Where then is the eye of the storm? As ever, we must find it in ourselves. What, where is the ground of our power? What fuels our struggle for the Earth, life, justice, peace? I hold unequivocally that the ground of our power is love, ground, and tap-root of our will, our joy, our power. And these we must hold sacred, nurture, cultivate and protect at all cost."
Miguel Angel Acosta Muñoz - Letter to My Grandchildren | P. 8
"Come closer, acerquence, les quiero contar algo. I want to share some stories about my life—maybe not stories but memories or thoughts about those memories. You see, that’s what stories are, memorias que hemos ajustado or reflected on once we have some distance from them. A veces lo que pensamos y sentimos in the moment is unclear or incomplete, and it’s worth taking a second look at it later. Así es como aprendamos y crecemos. So let’s see what I’ve learned."
Zoey Craft - No One is Coming to Save Us | P. 9
"Gen-Z is no stranger to uncertainty. Our generation’s lived experiences have been shaped by raging wildfires and historic drought, tragic school shootings that take the lives of our classmates, a global pandemic that compounded the inequities we face, genocide, and a tumultuous political landscape dominated by fear and division."
Paula García - Centering Heart, Community and Justice in a Time of Transition | P. 10
"It is not a time to get overwhelmed with layers of injustice. During history, there has always been a heartbeat of collective action to resist and build a better future. We have deep roots in these ancient lands of the first peoples and centuries of land-based culture in New Mexico that can inform our visions and plans for the years to come. There is also a history and ongoing undercurrents of political action in our state that we can build upon."
New Mexico Acequia Association Congreso | P. 12
"New Mexico’s acequias gathered in mid-November at New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, N.M. for the Congreso de las Acequias, the membership meeting of the New Mexico Acequia Association. The annual congreso is the only statewide gathering of acequia leaders, parciantes and supporters. NMAA’s mission is to protect water and the beloved acequias, grow healthy food for families and communities and honor cultural heritage."
Selinda Guerrero - An Act of Revolutionary Love | P. 15
"In critical moments of reckoning, the most important grounding is that we remember the lessons of the warriors, survivors, mothers and grandmothers. These lessons are etched into the cellular level of our bodies, spirit and minds. We are made from the same matter as stars and are deeply connected to all that is life in this universe."
Glenna Belin - Birth is a Metaphor for What We're Going Through Collectively | P. 16
"I am the clinical director at Breath of My Heart Birthplace in Española, New Mexico. I’ve been walking this path for many years, always listening, learning and relearning what it means to be human, what it means to heal and hold space for others. These past few years have brought profound changes, particularly since I contracted long Covid. The illness took many pieces of myself, and the work since has been about reclaiming those pieces—physically, emotionally, spiritually—and finding wholeness again."
Bianca Sopoci-Belknap - Belonging, Believing, Becoming: A New Organizing Framework | P. 17
"The results of the recent presidential election reveal a stark truth: Fear has taken hold in the absence of hope. Many people, faced with worsening material conditions, eroding community ties and a lack of meaningful options have allowed their fear to shape their outlook—blaming those who are impacted and accepting dominance and violence as necessary ways to get ahead."
Chili Yazzie - Prophecy is Unfolding | P. 19
"Prophecies that foretold the shifting of the world to a new reality are happening. It will be humankind self-destructing or life rebirth to rebalance and return to the original design."
"A life of balance, keeping the original design, is lived by peoples who maintain the Original Instructions of the Creator. The Indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere lived this idyllic life before the imperialist intrusion. A requisite of the Original Instructions for a lifeway of balance is to understand that all of creation is intrinsically related, and to regard all as relatives. The other requisite is compassion. We were instructed to be kind, to take care of each other and the Earth."
Douglas Belknap & Rory Sopoci-Belknap - Through The Darkness: Navigating Decline with Myth and Imagination | P. 22
"We find ourselves suspended in a moment of profound crisis. The world we knew is crumbling under the combined weight of ecological collapse, the resurgence of authoritarianism and the relentless advance of hyper-capitalism. At such a time, it becomes imperative to shift our gaze inward, not merely to survive, but to understand the deeper, archetypal forces at play."
Anita Rodríguez - Seeing Each Other's Cultures Through Each Other's Eyes or An Experiment in Communication Across Cultural Divides | P. 24
"One of the most intense experiences of an in-between space, of Nepantla, exists in the modern psyches of the descendants of old historical enemies. I’m talking about the subjective experience of carrying stranger-enemy genes in your blood. Epigenetics has shown us that we hold the traumas of our ancestors in our minds and bodies. The descendants of trauma survivors, even if they know nothing about their ancestor’s trauma, show symptoms of PTSD and stress diseases such as heart conditions, diabetes and depression. Our blood, bones and brains are literally made from the bodies of our ancestors."
Maria Peréz - Holding Onto The Promise | P. 28
"As the incoming administration prepares to take power again, we have to admit we failed to avoid the grave danger we have been facing for some time. It pains me to say that we have clearly careened off the cliff and are now falling into dark, uncharted territory. Some say we know what we face because this administration has been in power before, but it is not so easy to predict what is coming to America and its people."
Dr. Lyla June Johnston - Three Thousand Year Old Solutions | P. 29
"I’m here today to share a message of hope. This hope comes from what I’ve come across in my doctoral research. This hope comes from what Native people have proven is possible. For tens of thousands of years, Native people of this land constructed beautiful gardens all around them. Contrary to the myth of the primitive Indian, we were not passive observers of nature, nor were we wandering bands of nomads looking for a berry to eat or deer to hunt. No, by and large, we were active agents in shaping the land to produce prolific abundance."
Danger K. Veroz - Go Light, Stay Together, Defend the Water | P. 30
"Stay together. Learn the flowers. Go light. Stay together. Learn the Water. Go Light. These simple yet profound words from Gary Snyder remind us of the delicate balance we must strive for in our relationship with the natural world. They urge us to walk gently on this Earth, to live in harmony with nature, rather than forcing it to bend to our will. Yet, here in New Mexico, we stand at a critical juncture, where decisions are being made that could irrevocably poison our water—the very essence of life—and deepen our disconnection from the natural world."
NMELC Staff - Issues to Watch in 2025 from the NM Environmental Law Center | P. 34
"The New Mexico Environmental Law Center is honored once again to be invited by Green Fire Times to share what we consider to be the Top Ten Environmental Justice Issues for the coming year. We find ourselves at a critical moment in the history of our species. The window to address the climate crisis has shrunk to six years. And the recent election in the United States has put us all in even more jeopardy with 'drill baby drill' threats looming amidst the blatant denial of climate change."
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