Defending the Nixticuil Forest

Polyphonic Story of a Foreclosure

Abstract

In 2005, in the city of Zapopan, Jalisco; cracks opened up that put the inhabitants of the region at risk. To relocate these people, the municipality decided to cut down hundreds of mature oak trees in a native forest, El Nixticuil, which led to a citizen mobilization to defend the territory. Protection of the area was achieved, but this did not stop the devastation of the forest. An analysis is made of the accounts of different people who acted in the defense, to understand how they understand the defense of the territory, showing tensions and alliances that take center stage and displace the forest. In the resulting polyphony, the verbs that each character uses in relation to the struggle are analyzed to show the place of the forest in their actions. The analysis is complemented by Berque's theoretical proposal of landscape thinking that ‘closes the door’ to the medial quality of humans and is congruent with the metapsychology of psychosis. It thus outlines a possible response to understand the widespread apathy in the face of the ecosocial crisis.