Before starting, it is necessary to state that there is no text that can express our gratitude to all the people and the organizations from the Global TapestryThe weaving of networks of Alternatives of AlternativesAre activities and initiatives, concepts, worldviews, or action proposals by collectives, groups, organizations, communities, or social movements challenging and replacing the dominant system that perpetuates inequality, exploitation, and unsustainabiity. In the GTA we focus primarily on what we call "radical or transformative alternatives", which we define as initiatives that are attempting to break with the dominant system and take paths towards direct and radical forms of political and economic democracy, localised self-reliance, social justice and equity, cultural and knowledge diversity, and ecological resilience. Their locus is neither the State nor the capitalist economy. They are advancing in the process of dismantling most forms of hierarchies, assuming the principles of sufficiency, autonomy, non-violence, justice and equality, solidarity, and the caring of life and the Earth. They do this in an integral way, not limited to a single aspect of life. Although such initiatives may have some kind of link with capitalist markets and the State, they prioritize their autonomy to avoid significant dependency on them and tend to reduce, as much as possible, any relationship with them. (GTAGlobal Tapestry of Alternatives), who invited us, to SALT (Sociedad para la Transformación de Aprendizaje Alternativo) the local organisations that welcomed us, to the members of the Kikuyu, Tharaka, Maasai and Pokot peoples, and to all the activists who, from many corners of the world, opened their hearts, feelings, thoughts, spiritualities, affections, their foods, music and their dances to make our experience magical.

Dear comrades, compas, dear all, we greet you with the vehement desire that our greeting reaches each one of your hearts. We are grateful that we were able to meet each one of you in Kenya, to have been brought together by the Great Spirit and the Great Cosmic Energy to strengthen our everyday struggles from our respective territories.

In general, everything we experienced in Kenya was a reminder and a confirmation of the verbs that sit at the core of GTA, and therefore of Crianza Mutua Mexico: eat, learn, heal, inhabit, defend (life), communicate, thinking-feeling. Every day we witness and experience these verbs as a guide and path forward.

It all began with a long journey, some of us traveled from Oaxaca, Chiapas, Hidalgo and others from the semi-desertic state of Zacatecas to Nanyuky, Kenya, Africa. Where we joined more than 60 representatives from different countries, mostly from the Global South, coinciding in our struggles against oppressive and corrupt governments aligned with the interests of capitalism. Through these struggles, we are creating and inhabiting alternatives that help us live in an independent, autonomous and organized way.

We recognize that what happened at the GTA assembly was not at all minor: we came together to continue creating and nurturing the many local alternatives resisting the multiple ways in which the ongoing civilizatory crises pierces through our bodies, minds, spirits, territories, struggles, movements and the networks that we have been weaving for a long time with others from many parts of the world.

How many hearts, emotions, synchronicities, stories, sharings, struggles and weavings were spun during the assembly. As the days and moments passed, we exchanged more and more experiences that mirrored our own and we understood that the common thread was “THE CARE OF LIFE”. We wish to highlight the importance that this event took place in a land marked by being the place of origin of the human species, which for us was no coincidence. This knowledge allowed us to recognize each other and to share the word, the challenges and the experiences of the organization that each of us has in our territories, as well as to live our everyday lives linked to the defense of the territory, food, culture, learning among many other aspects.

Beyond the dialogues among the attendees, visiting the communities of Nanyuki, Tharaka, Ngwesi and Chapeperia represented an important part of the trip that allowed us to feel and experience, at least for a few moments, the everyday life of the people who inhabit these territories, through their stories, dances, music, rituals, their forms of healing, their words and their food.

In the following sections, we would like to present some of our reflections crossed with the verbs that drive our struggles:

It is important to highlight the link between food and the spirit that intersects all the peasant and indigenous communities that make up Crianza Mutua Mexico. Eating intertwines the land and the milpa²⁾ with culture, which resonated with the care of the seeds that must be planted in healthy soil, that is, in soil that is not “dead” due to the amount of agrochemicals that transnational corporations, in complicity with government public policies, have distributed throughout the planet.

There were points in which we felt naturally woven with others based on what we ate, for example, when we shared the preparation of nixtamal, pouring tortillas, making tamales and whipping-up mole. The same happened when we drank chocolate and mezcal. These simple but profound moments allowed us to glimpse a glimmer of hope which, in our discouraging panorama, entails a hope that is planted through our daily actions. In this meeting, these were reflected by the weaving of many lives that will continue to walk together henceforth.

We were able to reaffirm that learning is found in doing and sharing knowledge on an everyday basis, much more than by going to a school or reading countless books. Listening to the elders speak about their ways of healing, eating and transmitting this knowledge to the younger generations, makes it clear that ancestral memory transcends the written form and is only inherited in and through action. It is this knowledges that guides our daily journey and have allowed us to resist and continue to live with dignity.

During our experiences visiting the SALT community and West Pokot, it was possible to hear how the elders continue to make use of the roots and leaves of the plants and trees for healing, and how these remedies are combined with the regeneration of native seeds to nourish their bodies through the use of endemic grains such as sorghum, which is consumed in drinks, foods and ferments. We also saw that other elements such as songs, music and dance are part of the way that people revitalize their soul. All these aspects converge together resulting in a long-living and healthy population.

All of this is in stark contrast to what happens in most cities, where inhabitants often fall ill at an early age of body and mind without finding solutions in hospitals. Paradoxically, they distrust traditional remedies because of the unshakable belief that only “science” can solve their problems, despite all the evidence against this belief. This is a tangible reminder that we must redirect our gaze from modernity to the resilient practices of communities that preserve their own ways of healing, eating and learning.

From the living of healing we shared through a shared altar elements of the rituals that are part of the everyday lives of our territories in Mexico. During the ritual, we thanked the four directions and there were also moments of healing according to our ways.

In the assembly we realized that we human beings have an enormous power to connect in positive ways, but at the same time, it is not easy to find and understand ourselves in the enormous diversity that we represent. It is not easy to weave ourselves together: it requires a lot of listening, a lot of willingness to unlearn and to start again as many times as necessary. It requires a willingness to take nothing for granted, to not want to impose in order to truly tune in with the others, harmonize and flourish together.

In closing we wish to express the following: they say that when a sacred place is lit, the world flourishes. Likewise, when many good people gather, wisdom increases and that is how we harbor in our souls the hope for a better world in which we are all one, defending life and the right to live according to our customs. This is how we say hasta luego (until later) from the territories of each one of us, from the classrooms of universities and academic spaces, from the indigenous territories in struggle, from the Oaxacan communities and from the cities.

We returned from Kenya to Mexico with many gifts in our hearts and with the commitment to receive in the same warm way those people who visit our territories on future occasions. In the hope of continuing weaving affection, hope and the energy required to build new possible worlds.

Once again, we wish to thank each person who made it possible for each one of us to attend this meeting, especially to the GTA facilitating team and SALT, who gave us in every conversation, every visit, every meal, every look and every feeling, the conviction and the gift of knowing that the collective path among those who weave other ways of living, learning, healing, eating, living and thinking-feeling from many belows is the answer to resist and struggle against the systemic crisis.

Dear brothers and sisters, we ask the Heart of Heaven and the Heart of the Earth, to continue filling our hearts with strength and hope so that we can continue to work for a world where we everyone has what they need to live in dignity. To this end, let us continue caring for defending life, the Earth and the territory. Thank you, thank you, thank you.