Paola Tásai
Introduction
The historical conception of Western society is based on linear time. The original peoples of Abya Yala conceive of time and space in many different ways. In this sense, thinking about past, present and future time as something that is in a constant spiral is something that is repeated in the worldviews of many of them. This creative writing is based on and felt from that notion. These are small thoughts about how I imagine the future in three significant places at different moments in my life: Ignacio Zaragoza, Chihuahua in México, the town where I grew up, where I locate my roots, the city of Chihuahua, México where I spent my adolescence and early years of professional life, and the city of Granada, Spain where I am currently studying a doctorate in History and Arts. These three places are connected by something more than my personal history, they are places that speak of the rural and the urban, the periphery and the center, but they are also places that reflect in their daily symbolism the colonial history that, from many places we are working on from a decolonial approach. To heal that historical wound. This is a contribution to it.
Ignacio Zaragoza, Chihuahua, Mexico
The town where I grew up. In northern Mexico. It is the year 2200 and Hortensia, a 10-year-old girl rides a bicycle in the streets of the town center. Her family works in the collective garden that provides the population with food, as well as in the vegetable proteins factory. That day at school her homework was to explore the town doing her favorite activity, which is riding a bicycle. Hortensia’s classroom, nestled under the shade of ancient trees, was a sanctuary of shared wisdom. The stories of the bear day had been passed down through generations, a reminder of the strength that lay within each individual when united by a common goal. The tale was etched in the minds of young and old alike, a beacon of hope and inspiration. In the heart of the town, a statue of a bear reaching for the sky served as a perpetual reminder of their capacity to overcome adversity.
That day she even rode until the house for her grandmother, with whom she spent hours talking and she told her that in the first decades of the 21st century the town went through a very complicated situation where groups of armed people, drug traffickers and hit men almost destroyed the town. Many people suffered then, but around the year 2030 there was a great awakening among the population that intelligently put a stop to the situation and managed to rebuild the peace they had before this violent process began. It got dark, Hortensia realized that she had a lot to tell the next day at school, she looked at the starry night sky and felt at peace. What a fortune to have a place to breathe fresh air, drink clean water, ride a bike safely.
The year 2200 found Ignacio Zaragoza bathed in the warm embrace of transformation. Streets once marred by violence now teemed with life and purpose. With each harvest, the townspeople remembered the lessons of their ancestors, fostering a bond with the land that sustained them.
Chihuahua, Mexico
The capital city of the northern province of Mexico. The Sister of Hortensia lives in the City of Chihuahua, although learning is no longer limited to attending universities, because in Ignacio Zaragoza there are, since the people managed to be reborn from the tragedy, places of common study, where the ancestral knowledge of the region is transmitted. There, people build their identity and discover how they can gradually improve their relationship with each other, but above all, how to keep the town in harmony with the environment. Teresa is 20 years old and wakes up in her student apartment with a beautiful view of the self-sustaining park that is located in the complex. Her first class of the day is on the history of the early 20th century. She´s interested on Intercultural humanities studies of the 21st century. Since she was little, speaks 5 languages: Rarámuri, ódami, Pima, Warijó and Spanish and is learning English and French. To get to her class she transports herself in an individual capsule that works with solar energy. Teresa grew up in Ignacio Zaragoza and wanted to move to Chihuahua for study in the free University where she could have free access to a big complex of digital and physical papers of knowledge. As Hortensia realized that day, Teresa learned about the process of revolution of 2030 in Ignacio Zaragoza. The people in 2200 called “the bear day”, because everything started with a bear in the center of the town trying to go high in a three, a lot of people arrive to know the animal, and then, naturally, they started to talk about the scary situation about the town. The “bear day” was celebrated annually, not just in Ignacio Zaragoza, but throughout the region. Festivals brought people together, reinforcing the values of unity and resilience. Folklore and history intertwined, creating a tapestry of identity that honored both the past and the present. Teresa’s fascination with this tale led her to study the interplay between history and collective memory, a subject that resonated far beyond her classroom.
The forests surrounding Ignacio Zaragoza contain ancestral wisdom that was then hidden from people who lived under constant siege by violent groups. Many lives were lost due to the chaos caused by the struggle between criminal groups to control the illegal sale of narcotics. The peasants were weakened because their ability to produce food was reduced at the end of the twentieth century when bad governments led to the decline of the economy of the region this combined with international treaties that only benefited the neighboring country to the north. Faced with such a scenario, that day, that bear as a carrier of ancestral energy transmitted the strength that people needed to defend themselves. Five people traveled to Chihuahua city from that time and they got some training in human rights, they got strong knowledge for defend themselves and also created a new way to kick out the criminal from the town. It was not an easy struggle, but with the passage of time they managed to build what was thought impossible, a quiet place to live in harmony and peace with nature. Thanks to that day the intercultural teaching started, and she can talk 5 languages.
Granada, Spain
Far away from México, crossing the transatlantic ocean, the capital city of the province where the Catholic kings signed the capitulations with Christopher Columbus that would give way to what is known as the colonization of America has an anticolonial museum in the center of the city where all the symbols that remained from that past were placed. The intercultural city is connected by green spaces where you can walk car-free and there is a plant and animal integration system that allows a biocentred coexistence. Adela, Hortensia and Teresa’s aunt lives in Granada. Part of his life interest was to know what was on the other side of the sea and understand a little more of the history, understand how people in Europe in 2030 managed to overcome green neo-fascisms, these currents that sought to make energy “sustainable” by filling peasant lands with solar cells and extracting lithium from Latin America as well as Africa for electric power batteries. People in Europe were also very brave when they had to face the colonizing project that at that time had been just over 500 years old. Power groups consumed natural resources under the pretext of economic growth that was leading the planet to self-destruction. Adela deeply admired how the people of Chihuahua and Granada faced racism and the annihilation of migrants. Adela was proud to speak the ancestral native languages that they managed to rescue at that time and also speak the Andalusian language, a mixture between Spanish and Andalusian Arabic.
In Granada, Adela’s journey of self-discovery paralleled the city’s commitment to healing and reconciliation. The anticolonial museum stood as a tribute to the pain of the past, a space for reflection and transformation. Adela’s research delved deep into the annals of history, uncovering stories of resistance and revival. She marveled at the parallels between Ignacio Zaragoza’s journey and that of communities across the world, their struggles and victories interconnected by a common thread.
The interconnectedness of these three places went beyond their narratives. It was a philosophy, a way of life that transcended borders. They had embraced a resource-based economy, recognizing the fragility of Earth’s resources and the urgency of stewardship. Communities flourished by valuing quality over quantity, forging connections that transcended material wealth.
The people in this three places has something in common: they live in peace with nature and they can adapt to the needs of the movement and cycles of the earth. They don´t want to reach other planets but respect the local spaces. The monetary system doesn’t exist anymore. They changed for an economy based on resources where every community use only what they need and spend quality time with the people they care. Nobody knows if this will stay like that always, but at least in this beyond utopic thinking (because this actually can happen), it is a reality, like the spiral time where the past and the future are here.
As the years marched on, the spiral of time continued its dance, bringing the past forward and propelling the future into the present. Ignacio Zaragoza, Chihuahua, and Granada had become more than physical places; they were embodiments of humanity’s potential for growth and renewal. The generations that followed, inspired by the stories of these places, carried their spirit forward, weaving new chapters into the tapestry of existence. And as the sun dipped below the horizon, casting a golden glow upon these lands, the promise of a harmonious future seemed more attainable than ever before.