Bryce Courtenay’s best-selling novel The Power of One is a riveting coming-of-age tale about a boy in South Africa who transforms his life through boxing. Speaking about the book years later, Mr. Courtenay said that people generally misconstrued the meaning of the book’s title, thinking it referred to an individual discovering substantial inner strength, when in fact “…the title comes from and is about the power of one teacher. It is about how one teacher can lift a child out of an…environment and allow him or her… to change their life.”
“I am so grateful to all the volunteers and sponsors who have donated their time and money to make the Todos Santos Box program possible. It wouldn’t be possible without their help.”–Ramiro Reducindo Radilla
And we can see that power on full display on any given night in the auditorio of Todos Santos when Mexican boxing champ Ramiro Reducindo Radilla comes to town to train the local kids. Ramiro won the gold medal at the Pan American games in Santo Domingo in 2003, represented Mexico at the Olympics in Athens in 2004 and turned pro in 2005. When he started coaching the kids in Todos Santos not one of them had ever been in a boxing ring before. Yet now, not even 18 months later, two of his students have progressed all the way to the national championships. The power of one indeed. Says 17-year old contender Carlos Orozco, “I’d never been an athlete – let alone a boxer – before November 2011 when a friend brought me to a practice session with Ramiro. It never occurred to me then that I would make it this far, and certainly not this fast. It’s been amazing.” Fellow contender 17-year-old Cuahtemoc Aviles agrees. “I’d never boxed before I met Ramiro last year. I had very little discipline, ate a lot of junk food, I just wasn’t in good shape. Now we’ve been winning matches with kids who have several more years of experience than us. Ramiro has really changed everything for us.”
Says Ramiro, “These kids didn’t have much in the way of skill or discipline when I first started working with them, but I believed in them from the very beginning because they always had heart. When we first started we had hardly any equipment but the kids showed up anyway. Many times my car would break down on the drive from La Paz and the kids would wait for me for two to three hours, then still do a full training session starting at nine or ten o’clock at night. I’ve never doubted that these kids are champions and I fully expect to see at least one become successful on the global boxing stage.” Ramiro is so committed to helping the Todos Santos boxing students realize their potential that he coaches them at least twice a week for nothing more than a little gas money.
And with wages like that the support of the local community is critical. When Ramiro’s car engine gave up the ghost just a few weeks before the national championships, neighbors pitched right in to help get it replaced. “Engine Angels” included Michael & Pat Cope at Galeria de Todos Santos, John Stoltzfus & Todd Schaefer at the Todos Santos Inn, Ezio & Paula Colombo at Café Santa Fe, Mario Becerril at Mario Surf School, Sergio Rivera at La Casita Tapas & Wine Bar, Richard Rutowski at AmeriMex, Norm Weill – Volunteer at Large, and our own Baja Surf Camp for Women graduate, Diane Arstein!
“It’s exciting to watch the kids’ progress and see the pride of accomplishment on their faces. They’re learning so much more than boxing. It means a lot to us to be able to offer our time and support.” Cheriy Myers & Steve Stockton
And the community hasn’t been there just as a stop-gap in times of emergency. As Ramiro is eager to point out, it’s been contributing time, money and equipment all along. Moises Barraza Morales, the General Manager of Bodega Lizarraga, got the ball rolling by donating the initial equipment and practice area. When executives from Caracol and Quaker State read the first JDP article about Todos Santos Box they immediately made much-needed cash donations. When Betsy Wall, the mother of Todos Santos resident Janine Wall learned that the kids had only one red and one blue outfit to share among the whole team at competitions, she stuffed her suitcase full of blue and red t-shirts and shorts and brought them to town with her. When Todos Santos residents Cheri Myers and Steve Stockton learned that there were just a couple of sets of gloves and head gear to share among the more than 40 kids who show up to most practices, they donated the resources to get enough protective gear for all the kids. When Adolfo Blanco of the Hotel California saw all the amazing work that coaching volunteers like Mauricio Duran, Arturo Millan and Hector Alberto Agundez Martinez “El Pampa” were doing, he was inspired to donate sharp-looking warm-up suits for the coaches and students to wear to competitions. Todos Santos visitor Doug Newcomb was inspired by the inclusive nature of the program. “I wanted to support Todos Santos Box since they allowed my son Phineas to train with them while we were in town. Even though they knew he wouldn’t be there for more than a month or so, they treated him like part of the club and made him feel included. And the best part was he came home so stoked! If Ramiro can make it all the way from La Paz several times a week, the least I can do is help out by bringing equipment from the US.”
Contenders Cuauhtémoc Avilés y Carlos Orozco
“First with your head and then with your heart” is the life-changing advice dispensed by the boxing champ to an eager young student in The Power of One. The Todos Santos boxing students started out with only heart, but under Ramiro’s coaching they’ve acquired the skills and discipline to lead with their heads. As for the Todos Santos community, they’ve made the well-reasoned decision to support this program with plenty of heart.
If you would like to join Todos Santos Eco Adventures as a sponsor or volunteer with Todos Santos Box please contact Mauricio Duran for specifics: Cell: 612-13-44478 or email: .
La exitosa novela El Poder de Uno, de Bryce Courtenay, es una fascinante historia juvenil acerca de un joven en Sudáfrica quien transforma su vida a través del boxeo. Hablando sobre el libro unos años más tarde, el Sr. Courtenay dijo que la gente por lo general malinterpretó el significado del título del libro, pensando que se refería a un individuo descubriendo sustancial fuerza interior, cuando de hecho “…el título viene del poder de un maestro y es acerca del mismo. Es sobre cómo un maestro puede sacar a un muchacho o muchacha de un…ambiente y permitirle cambiar su vida.”
“I am so grateful to all the volunteers and sponsors who have donated their time and money to make the Todos Santos Box program possible. It wouldn’t be possible without their help.”–Ramiro Reducindo Radilla
Y podemos ver ese poder en pleno cualquier noche en el auditorio de Todos Santos, cuando el campeón mexicano de boxeo Ramiro Reducindo Radilla viene al pueblo a entrenar a los chicos de la localidad. Ramiro ganó la medalla de oro en los juegos panamericanos de Santo Domingo en el 2003, representó a México en las olimpiadas de Atenas en 2004 y se volvió profesional en el 2005. Cuando comenzó a entrenar a los chicos de Todos Santos, ni uno de ellos había antes estado en un ring de boxeo. Sin embargo ahora, ni siquiera dieciocho meses después, dos de sus estudiantes han progresado hasta los campeonatos nacionales. El poder de uno, de verdad. El participante Carlos Orozco, de 17 años dice: “Nunca había sido atleta, mucho menos boxeador antes de noviembre del 2011, cuando un amigo me trajo a una sesión de práctica con Ramiro. Nunca se me ocurrió entonces que llegaría tan lejos como he llegado hasta ahora, y ciertamente no tan rápido. Ha sido increíble.” Cuauhtémoc Avilés, de 17 años y también contendiente está de acuerdo. “Nunca había boxeado antes de conocer a Ramiro el año pasado. Tenía muy poca disciplina, comía mucho producto chatarra, simplemente no estaba en forma. Ahora hemos estado ganando peleas con muchachos que tienen muchos más años de experiencia que nosotros. Ramiro de verdad ha cambiado todo para nosotros.”
“It’s exciting to watch the kids’ progress and see the pride of accomplishment on their faces. They’re learning so much more than boxing. It means a lot to us to be able to offer our time and support.” Cheriy Myers & Steve Stockton
Ramiro dice: “Estos muchachos no tenían gran cosa a manera de habilidad o disciplina cuando empecé a trabajar con ellos, pero creí en ellos desde el principio porque siempre tuvieron corazón. Cuando primero comenzamos, no teníamos casi nada de equipo pero los chamacos se presentaban de todos modos. Muchas veces se me descomponía el carro en el trayecto de La Paz y los muchachos me esperaban durante dos o tres horas y todavía hacían una sesión completa de entrenamiento empezando a las nueve o diez de la noche. Nunca he dudado que estos muchachos son campeones y tengo la expectativa total de ver a por lo menos uno de ellos convertirse en un éxito del escenario global del boxeo.” Ramiro está tan comprometido con ayudar a los estudiantes de boxeo en Todos Santos a alcanzar todo su potencial, que les ayuda por lo menos dos veces a la semana a cambio de nada más que un poco de dinero para la gasolina.
Y con una paga tal, el apoyo de la comunidad es crítico. Cuando el motor de su carro dejó de funcionar justo unas cuantas semanas antes del campeonato nacional, los vecinos cooperaron de inmediato para ayudarle a reemplazarlo. Los “Ángeles del Motor” incluyeron a Michael y Pat Cope de la Galería de Todos Santos, a John Stoltzfus y Todd Schaefer del Todos Santos Inn, Ezio y Paula Colombo del Café Santa Fé, Mario Becerril de la Escuela de Surf, Sergio Rivera de La Casita Bar de Tapas y Vino, Richard Rutowski de AmeriMex, Norm Weill–voluntario a gran escala–¡y a nuestra propia graduada del Campamento de Surf Baja, Diane Arstein!
Y la comunidad no ha estado ahí sólo como un parche en momentos de emergencia. Tal como Ramiro está deseoso de señalar, la comunidad ha
Contenders Cuauhtémoc Avilés y Carlos Orozco
estado contribuyendo horas, dinero y equipo todo este tiempo. Moisés Barraza Morales, gerente general de Bodegas Lizárraga, puso las cosas en movimiento al donar el equipo inicial y el área de prácticas. Cuando los ejecutivos de Leche Caracol y de Quaker State leyeron el primer artículo en el “Journal del Pacifico” sobre el boxeo en Todos Santos, inmediatamente hicieron donaciones en efectivo que se necesitaba de verdad. Cuando Betsy Wall, la madre de Janine Wall, residente de Todos Santos, se enteró de que los muchachos tenían solamente un uniforme azul y uno rojo para compartir entre el equipo entero durante competencias, llenó a tope su maleta con camisetas rojas y azules y con shorts para traerlos al pueblo. Cuando los residentes de Todos Santos Cheri Myers y Steve Stockton se enteraron de que sólo había un par de juegos de guantes y equipo para compartir entre los más de cuarenta muchachos que se aparecen a casi todas las prácticas, donaron los fondos para adquirir suficiente equipo de protección para todos los muchachos. Cuando Adolfo Blanco del Hotel California vio todo el maravilloso trabajo que los entrenadores voluntarios como Mauricio Durán, Arturo Millan y Hector Alberto Agundez Martinez “El Pampa” estaban realizando, se sintió inspirado para donar trajes de calentamiento de muy buen ver para que los entrenadores y los estudiantes usen durante las competencias. El visitante de Todos Santos, Doug Newcomb se inspiró por la naturaleza inclusiva del programa. “Quise apoyar al Box de Todos Santos desde que le permitieron a mi hijo Pheneas entrenar con ellos mientras estábamos en el pueblo. Aunque sabían bien que no estaría él ahí por más de un mes o algo así, lo trataron como parte del club y lo hicieron sentirse incluido. ¡Y la mejor parte fue que volvió a casa tan emocionado! Si Ramiro puede llegar desde La Paz varias veces a la semana, lo menos que puedo yo hacer es apoyar trayendo equipo de los Estados Unidos.”
“Primero con la cabeza y luego con el corazón” es el consejo con el poder de cambiar vidas que el campeón de boxeo le dispensa a un joven estudiante en El Poder de Uno.
Los estudiantes de boxeo de Todos Santos comenzaron sólo con corazón, pero bajo el entrenamiento de Ramiro han adquirido las habilidades y la disciplina para dirigir con sus cabezas. Y con lo que respecta a la comunidad de Todos Santos, han tomado la decisión bien razonada de apoyar a este programa con mucho corazón.
¡Muchachos del pueblo mostrando sus cosas!
Si te gustaría unirte a Todos Santos Eco Aventuras como patrocinador o voluntario en El Box de Todos Santos, por favor contacta a Mauricio Duran para los detalles: Cel: 612-13-44478 o correo electrónico:
In 1972 when the Pioneer 11 spacecraft was sent to explore the outer solar system, it was outfitted with a pair of gold-anodized aluminum plaques featuring pictographs designed to explain to any intercepting extraterrestrials about humans, hydrogen and the earthly origins of the spacecraft. The human figures are clear enough but seriously, to the uninitiated eye everything else in the picture looks like nothing more than a bunch of circles and lines.
So when you take a walk in southern Baja with anthropologist Aníbal López to view some of the pictographs he’s documented for his forthcoming book, Reminders of a Forgotten Past: Rock Art of the Cape Region, and in amongst the deer, rabbits and fish you see a series of circles and lines left there maybe 1000 years ago by the now-extinct Guaycura or Pericú Indians, you can’t help but wonder who these people really were, and what their images would say to an informed observer.
Searching for clues to these mysteries has been Aníbal’s quest since he was 7 years old. “My family had the concession to farm scallops in Bahia Concepcion near Loreto, and I would often accompany my dad on long road trips to different villages. I hated it. But my dad loved natural history and one day he took me to a canyon filled with petroglyphs made by the Guaycura Indians. It changed everything for me. From then on the long road trips became my dreamscape, and I would spend them imagining Indian life and what it must have been like to be a part of these semi-nomadic communities in such inhospitable terrain. I’m still doing essentially the same thing, only now I’m the one walking the tough terrain.”
Most of the sites that Aníbal has documented – there are 11 in the book but he’s documented nearly 300 in the Cape Region of Baja California Sur (BCS) so far – are found in or around mountain ranges near Rancherias, or temporary Indian settlements that were visited on a seasonal or ceremonial schedule. In modern times this means that they are mainly located on private ranches, so Aníbal has spent countless hours cultivating relationships with area ranchers, most of whom are keen to help but maybe a little fuzzy on the logistical details; it is not unusual for Aníbal to spend three to six days on a ranch hunting for a single site that a rancher remembers seeing as a boy.
Photo by Anibal Lopez
But when he finds the site often what the Indians recorded about their lives on large granite boulders can send his imagination straight back into childhood overdrive. “Being deep in the mountains and coming across ochre paintings of fish and sea turtles is really incredible. Clearly these pre-Hispanic peoples were adept at living in both coastal and mountainous environments. They must have had strong skill sets for both places.” Hamuri Fujita, head of the Institute for Anthropology and History (INAH) in BCS adds “The lack of housing sites and archaeological materials at these sites leads us to think that the people who made these rock art paintings moved easily between the Sierras and the coast, often or seasonally, depending on the ceremonies or festivities planned.”
The first people to discover the pictographs were the Jesuit missionaries, who took a decidedly dim view of the locals. “Stupid, awkward, rude, unclean, insolent, ungrateful, mendacious, thievish, abominably lazy….” were the attributes recorded by Jesuit Johann Baegert.
Maybe. But they sure knew how to sail. Unlike their counterparts in the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and the southern Pacific coasts of North America, the Baja California Sur Indians were skilled raft makers and sailors, and traveled easily between the mainland and the islands, carrying people and information. Their great fishing and turtle hunting prowess was well-documented by observers throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. But how long ago did they develop these skills? New archaeological evidence indicates that Pericú skulls strongly resemble those of aborigines native to Polynesia and Asia, and many researchers now believe that the Pericú reached Baja California Sur by navigating from island to island in their canoes.
Photo by Anibal Lopez
So if the circles and lines on the Pioneer 11 pictographs were used to represent the hyperfine transition of hydrogen, the binary digit 1 and the solar system, then perhaps the circles and lines in the pictographs of the pre-missionary, pre-Hispanic Indians of BCS were depictions of their original home and its relationship to Baja, or maybe navigational charts to find their way back, or perhaps just the best way to cook dorado over a mesquite fire. These things may be forever unknowable, but thanks to Aníbal’s 6 long years of self-funded work in finding and documenting these sites, we can now be like the extraterrestrials envisioned by the Pioneer 11 pictograph crew: aware now of another race of beings, and free to let our imaginations soar about what their messages might mean.
Todos Santos Eco Adventures has teamed up with Aníbal to take visitors to one of the Guaycura rock art sites documented in his book that is still not open to the general public. Located on a lovely old working ranch along the former Camino de las Misiones, this walk features not only rock art, but other evidence of the Guaycura civilization including grinders, mortars and even some arrowheads. There is about 90 minutes of moderate walking over uneven, rocky terrain that features gentle up and downhill gradients. While at the site you’ll be helping Aníbal collect vital information for the federal registration process to promote future preservation of these unique sites. Funds go directly to supporting the Aníbal’s work. Aníbal’s book is scheduled to be published in September 2013.
Imagine a fellow mammal with a body so magnificent, so enormous, so dominant that it takes a heart the size of a Mini Cooper to power it.
Imagine a fellow creature with a voice so commanding, so forceful, so potent that it can be heard up to 1,000 miles away.
Click to compare the size of a blue whale to the space shuttle, dinosaurs and more.
Imagine the bone structure of a fellow vertebrate so long an NBA basketball court can’t hold it, that weighs so much 8 DC-9 aircrafts can’t lift it, and that is so loud it drowns out the noise of a jet engine.
Imagine arteries so large that an adult human can swim through them; imagine a heart beat so powerful it can be heard two miles away; imagine a tongue as large as an elephant!
If you can do all that then you’re able to conceive of the largest animal ever to inhabit the earth, the blue whale. And as so often happens here in Baja, you don’t have to visit your imagination to encounter some of the planet’s most remarkable beings – you can see them right here. Please enjoy this video of our blue whale encounter on a recent outing in the Sea of Cortez, video courtesy of our guests the Moffats: [youtube=http://youtu.be/DxdFOCTCM5A]
With this enormous size you can well imagine that blue whales have few predators, but it doesn’t mean that they’re not under attack. To learn more about how ship strikes are harming blue whales and what you can do about it, please click here and visit the Great Whale Conservancy website.
The blue whale fun facts in this article are all part of National Geographic Channel’s Kingdom of the Blue Whale video program. They have a great interactive piece comparing the size of the blue whale to various animate and inanimate objects that you can reach by clicking on the blue whale image above.
Niparajá is the god of the now-extinct Pericu Indians of Baja California Sur whose mandate is to care for the oceans and the land. It is also the name of the dynamic conservation organization that, since 1990, has been engaged in the same tasks, working hard to protect the oceans and lands of southern Baja for a vibrant and sustainable economy. The organization has been successful on a variety of projects over the years, and two recent achievements in particular demonstrate how powerful previously disenfranchised local voices can be.
The Battle for Balandra Bay
Balandra Bay is, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful beach areas to be found anywhere in the world. The waters are fantastically blue, the beaches stunningly white, the mangroves thrillingly vibrant and the iconic mushroom rock formation that sits at the mouth of the bay an instantly recognizable symbol of the city of La Paz. For generations of La Paz citizens Balandra Bay has simply been the town beach. It is where everyone in La Paz learned how to swim and it is where everyone in La Paz goes on a free summer afternoon. But very few people in the city realized that their beloved “town beach” was in fact privately owned, and had been for decades.
Balandra Bay
That all changed abruptly in 2005 when the owners began soliciting designs from architectural firms throughout Mexico for a major development at Balandra Bay, a project that would include a hotel, golf course, beach club and vacation homes. The potential for a world-class resort is undeniable, and many of the firms responded with thrilling designs. But a partner in one of the solicited firms sits on the board of Niparajá, and the owners got quite a different design concept from that organization – namely, how to build a social movement.
At that point in time little had been done to protect the public spaces that people come to La Paz to enjoy. A few years before a resort complex had been built in El Mogote, a sand bar in the Bay of La Paz. Despite strong local opposition the owners were issued permits to build, and the citizens of La Paz were bitter. While ultimately the owners were forced to abandon the project for environmental noncompliance, they had already created a large group of buildings that are no longer maintained (some of them actually occupied), a tough daily visual reminder of what can go wrong with some development efforts.
Mushroom Rock at Balandra Bay
So when the owners of Balandra Bay announced their intentions to create a large resort complex, citizens and city government alike were galvanized to prevent a repeat of El Mogote. Niparajá helped direct that strong social discontent into a strong collective action through the creation of Colectivo Balandra. It involved thousands of citizens, scientists, researchers and NGOs, all committed to preserving Balandra Bay in a pristine way for public enjoyment. They organized a huge media campaign – “A mi me importa Balandra (I do care about Balandra)” – creating TV spots featuring everyone from the lady everyone took piano lessons from as a kid, to a popular local ranchero band, to favorite local luchadores, to the local water polo team (although that spot was later deemed too racy and wasn’t aired). Local bands gave free concerts in the streets and raised tons of money for the effort, while volunteers worked the crowds relentlessly to collect over 30,000 signatures on a petition to save Balandra.
That the public wanted to protect Balandra from development became very clear to all involved, but the federal government believed the area was too small for it to focus on and suggested a more local solution. The state, however, does not have the authority to declare places like Balandra protected as the water and beaches to 20 meters above the high tide line are under federal jurisdiction. The municipal government of La Paz therefore took matters into its own hands and declared the area around Balandra a protected area. But the action was easily annulled as the municipal government had no authority to create a protected zone. That is, they had no authority until Colectivo Balandra stepped in, got the law changed and gave them the authority. 6 years into the battle to save Balandra Bay, the municipal government of La Paz declared it a protected area.
It was an exciting, but short-lived victory. During a period of electoral transition in the municipal government, the owners of Balandra pressed their case and won back 80% of the land that the city had declared protected. It was then that all parties involved realized that if Balandra was going to be shielded from development in any meaningful, long-term way, the federal government would have to take action.
It was now November 2012. The citizens and government of La Paz had been battling for Balandra for 7 years. For 6 of those years Felípe Calderón had been president of Mexico and his government was fully apprised of the situation. It was now the final days of his presidency and Colectivo Balandra was desperate to obtain federal protection from him; there was no way to know when or if the new government of Peña Nieto would focus on such a relatively small local issue. But the papers sent to Calderón for his signature simply lay on his desk. The clock ticked. Soon it was November 30, 2012, the last day of Calderón’s presidency. The party faithful were gathered for a last dinner with no actionable items on the agenda. But Carlos Mendoza Davis, a senator from BCS, stood up in the middle of the meal and made an impassioned plea for the federal protection of Balandra Bay. He recounted how he had learned to swim there then how his children had learned to swim there and how Balandra was an integral part of the public life of La Paz, the capital of BCS. He made those gathered feel what a deep loss it would be to the community to give the land over to development. He made Calderón feel what a great thrill it would be to end his presidency with a declaration of Balandra’s protection. This feeling carried Calderón back to his office where, in one of his very last acts as president of Mexico, he signed the paperwork that made Balandra Bay a federal Area of Flora and Fauna Protection. One crucial voice, at one critical moment, channeling thousands of voices united over millions of hours to preserve a pristine location central to the identity of a city. The god Niparajá was certainly smiling.
Cabo Pulmo: Who Gets the Money?
In many cases local communities embrace development. When the Spanish developer Hansa Urbana announced plans to build Cabo Cortés, a massive development with over 30,000 hotel rooms on the shores of the Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park, many of the residents of Cabo Pulmo initially loved the idea. They had overseen the effort to have Cabo Pulmo declared a protected National Marine Park – it is home to the Sea of Cortez’s only living coral reef and a UN World Heritage Site – and benefited from the
Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park. Photo by Carlos Aguilera
subsequent revival of the area’s fisheries and ecotourism industry. They saw the Hansa Urbana project as an exciting extension of what they had been doing and a great way to move their tourism industry into high gear. They loved the vision of jobs, infrastructure and prosperity that Cabo Cortés appeared to offer. In a town of meager resources, limited electricity and often impassable roads, it was a wildly appealing prospect. To some.
But there were those in the community who believed that the development would essentially destroy the very resources that the local citizens had fought so hard to protect in the first place, namely the Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park. (To get a sense of scale, the Hansa project envisioned 30,000 hotel rooms while all of Los Cabos today has only 17,000. In addition to the development itself, they would have to build a city for roughly 30,000 people to staff the development. The water needs alone for a project this size are staggering.) They also believed that most of the economic benefits of the project would flow to outside interests and do very little for the livelihood of the town. These citizens reached out to Niparajá and a coalition of like-minded organizations , who began working to develop a large community sustainable development process in Cabo Pulmo.
In the meantime the legal and media teams were scoring big points and Hansa sold the development rights for Cabo Cortés to a Spanish bank. In response, Greenpeace in Spain went out and met with individual Spanish retirees whose pension plans were being invested in Cabo Cortés via the bank to inform them of the risky nature of the investment and thereby bring more pressure to bear on the project. Actions such as these combined with the unraveling Spanish economy, Hansa’s poorly constructed environmental impact assessment, and the collective outrage of global environmental groups ultimately bankrupted the project in late 2012.
But they’ll be back. So Niparajá is working with the local Cabo Pulmo community on alternatives to combine social and economic development with the health of the Park. Not only is the continued resurgence and well-being of Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park important in and of itself, but a healthy marine park that attracts visitors is also one of the best ways for local businesses to prosper and have the means for controlling the destiny of their community. As Tim Means, one of the founding board members of Niparajá puts it, “The most practical reason for local communities to preserve their natural resources is that they can make more money that way. Visitors will pay to enjoy the pristine natural beauty of Baja. If that is destroyed, what reason would they have to come here?” Adds Amy Hudson Weaver, Director of Niparajá’s Marine Conservation Program, “Beautiful colonial cities, colorful traditional handicrafts, indigenous peoples living a unique way of life – none of these are found in Baja. People go to mainland Mexico for these things. People come to Baja first and foremost to enjoy our unspoiled nature. If that is destroyed, by accident or design, then the whole economy of BCS is at risk.”
Moving Forward
Theodore Roosevelt once famously quipped, “If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.” Development will happen in BCS and groups like Niparajá and communities like Cabo Pulmo see that it can be positive for local residents. But to ensure that it is, Amy Hudson Weaver believes that the citizens of BCS need to take hold of their development destiny by embracing the legal tools at their disposal, namely municipal planning and zoning. There are 17 major approved development projects on the East Cape alone, and no organization has the resources to ensure that they are all implemented with the least environmental impact and greatest financial benefit to local residents. Municipal zoning plans and regulations have been created for Los Cabos and La Paz, but never implemented. Few of the other municipalities or districts in BCS have developed any sort of plan at all. If BCS is to be successful in preserving its resources for future generations, Niparajá believes the communities should decide now what they want developed and how, before outside forces decide it for them. Otherwise, in a few years time we’ll all be kicking ourselves in the pants and not able to sit for a very long time.
Theodore Roosevelt once famously quipped, “If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.” Development will happen in BCS and groups like Niparajá and communities like Cabo Pulmo see that it can be positive for local residents. But to ensure that it is, Amy Hudson Weaver believes that the citizens of BCS need to take hold of their development destiny by embracing the legal tools at their disposal, namely municipal planning and zoning. There are 17 major approved development projects on the East Cape alone, and no organization has the resources to ensure that they are all implemented with the least environmental impact and greatest financial benefit to local residents. Municipal zoning plans and regulations have been created for Los Cabos and La Paz, but never implemented. Few of the other municipalities or districts in BCS have developed any sort of plan at all. If BCS is to be successful in preserving its resources for future generations, Niparajá believes the communities should decide now what they want developed and how, before outside forces decide it for them. Otherwise, in a few years time we’ll all be kicking ourselves in the pants and not able to sit for a very long time.