My Mexican Heritage

Both of my parents were born in Mexico. My dad was born in Fresnillo, Zacatecas, my mom raised on a ranch called Ojo De Agua near a town called Villa Guerrero in Jalisco. I have had the honor of being able to visit my parents hometowns multiple times in my life and it has been interesting to get to understand what their childhood was like. It was through accumulation of natural resources that their hometowns were first formed. Fresnillo was first formed as a city through the prospect of the minerals from the mountains and it has developed into an interesting city. My mom’s hometown however, appears to be stuck in history whenever I visit. It is a mostly agricultural town, with little attempts to expand onto the land to the sides of the town

More explicitly, they lived low-impact, not changing their homeland much through their lifestyles. They did so in different ways, one example fact is they often moved around, taking advantage of the bountiful land, often having possessions that were easily mobile so that they would be able to migrate once the seasons changed. They lived in different areas when necessary, lowlands for crop season and highlands during hunting seasons, and would go without making the land drastically different than it was. Once the Europeans came to the Americas, they brought mostly destruction and change with both their foreign diseases and manners of life. They saw the seemingly untouched land and thought it theirs to profit off of. The native people lived by a need basis, a lifestyle based on sustenance and mimicked the natural order of the land by allowing multiple years for their horticultural efforts to fallow so that they could lead a sustainable life. However the European immigrants stood to build business and trade, a mindset that would change the ecology of the land for centuries to come. I find this similar story with the origins of my parent’s towns. Fresnillo was first noted by the Spanish colonizers and grew by their want to extract from the mine the most resources they could. As mentioned, these mines are still in operation, contributing to the city’s economy which allows for modernization of the city. My

My hometown Oakland and Berkeley were created because of groups of people deciding to capitalize on the natural resources particularly the bay and access to the ocean. Natural resources have shaped my life, and continue to shape my decisions. The conquest and shaping of California and it’s natural resources lead it to be one of the top economies in the world. I took an introductory environmental science class here at Berkeley and it has made me look at natural resources such as air, water, our earth, and all the ecosystems on this planet in a new light. Before, crops were just food and water was just something I drank, not understanding the amount of management it takes to provide these resources to the 39 million people who live here. I think the low-impact life of the Native Americans is something beautiful, but unrealistic for the situation we are left with today. I think the division of our everyday life and our natural resources needs to be reconnected in the American eye. To reconnect the metabolic rift we have created, especially with natural resources such as water might help us reinforce efforts of reducing waste and providing for our future. I talk about water because it is in my mind the natural resource that we have the most “control” over. I’ve discussed with my own family what they think about water waste. My sisters tend to be nervous for the future and have emergency earthquake kits, but