Jenny Baca

Maiquillahue Bay.

"The photos I included in this postcard are of two of my favorite research sites; the first, because of its unbelievable beauty (in real life I felt like I was walking around in a oil painting, thick with tangible, wet color) the second two, because having read so much about the seemingly inexorable spread of pine plantations in Southern Chile, it had been my dream to be lost in the sea of green. The first of the two shows me extremely happy at my dream’s realization and the second, the limit of a family farm surrounded on all sides by monocultural pine.

Pine plantation near Traiguen.

I spent June, July, and a little bit of August in Chile conducting pre-dissertation research on the Chilean forest and pulp industry and the various social movements which aim to pressure the forestry companies and the government to change the industry’s standard mode of operation. The first half I devoted mainly to historical questions of the parallel changes the development of the forest and pulp industry provoked in the landscape and use of land and in the lifestyles and livelihoods of the rural population in 7th-10th regions of southern Chile. I stayed in Santiago using most of my time to track down different sources in bookstores, the National Library, and the libraries of various universities and organizations.

The second half was so much more wonderful and exciting. To get at the question of how the above mentioned historical processes have boiled over into various contemporary social movements I took an eleven-hour bus ride south from Santiago to Valdivia. Valdivia marks the southern reach of the forestry and pulp industry and is the site of the formation of Acción por los Cisnes, the citizens’ movement which brought the hazards of the forest and pulp industry to the nation’s attention in 2004. I used Valdivia as my home base for meeting up with participants of various social movements involved in conflicts with the forest and pulp industry from Acción por los Cisnes and forestry worker unions to the fishermen and women of Maiquillahue Bay and an indigenous community near Traiguén.

Echoing numerous other Tinker recipients, I recommend getting out of Santiago. This cannot be overemphasized. I like Santiago. I lived there for a year and it’s an interesting city with lots to do, but the south of Chile is phenomenal. Leaving Santiago for Valdivia is like trading a world of grey tones for one of Technicolor. There is a quality of light and air in the south that makes greens brilliant and blues heavy with moisture."