UC Santa Cruz, Guatemala Study Abroad Final Video Project - 2022

Summary

Alcides Fuentes presents his senior exit project for the Latin American and Latino Studies major at UC Santa Cruz. A first-generation transfer student born in El Salvador, he describes his interests in climate justice, Latin American history and culture, and digital media. He created the video to document a study-abroad agroecology practicum in Guatemala and to develop video-production and journalism skills he had not formally studied.

The project explores how agroecology connects land care, food sovereignty, Indigenous knowledge, community well-being, and cultural and spiritual practices. Through visits to farms and community organizations, students learned how families and educators grow food, restore soil, share agricultural knowledge, and sustain communities despite poverty, earthquakes, and civil war.

Project Approach

Fuentes recorded experiences during the study-abroad trip and interviewed people who taught the group about agroecology. He edited the footage into his senior exit project despite having little prior video-editing experience, relying largely on intuition and YouTube tutorials.

The project also gave him opportunities to practice interviewing, video journalism, translation between Spanish and English, and activity planning.

Study-Abroad Journey

Kaoba Farms, near Antigua

The group toured a sustainable farm and learned about decades of community development centered on Indigenous land care and food sovereignty. Kru Kungkun, an Indigenous agroecology educator and former extensionista, described his work teaching rural communities and shared experiences of poverty, the 1980s earthquake, and the civil war.

He also shared “ten commandments” for extensionistas concerning relationships with oneself, other people, and the natural world. The video does not enumerate the commandments.

Volcán Acatenango

The students met Haime, an Indigenous farmer, and learned to plant corn, fava beans, and peas. He discussed planting practices and his family’s history on the land.

El Mirador, in San Martín Jilotepeque

Moises, Brihida, and their family shared the history of their farm. Students learned how the family restored hard clay soil using agricultural knowledge and community support, and how the earthquake and civil war disrupted their lives and forced them to flee.

They also learned about a farmers’ cooperative formed to secure better prices and interviewed people at a local market for a rapid food-systems assessment. On the farm, students planted avocado and citrus trees and heard about a sacred place used for prayer and offerings.

Granja El Triunfo

Juanita and her family demonstrated how cows support several parts of the farm’s nutrient cycle, including through their manure, and showed the group how to make cheese. Students also learned about Maya spirituality, the significance of the four directions, and the meanings associated with candle colors.

Moises’s work teaching agroecology to children at an orphanage illustrated how these skills can be passed on.

IMAP, in San Lucas Tolimán

The group learned about sustainable practices such as composting toilets and seed banks, as well as Maya spirituality and the calendar. Lessons connected food sovereignty with social justice, US–Latin America relationships, capitalism, and extractivism.

Students cooked with cacao and amaranth, visited a forest and an edible forest, learned about Maya textile weaving and dyeing in San Juan La Laguna, and visited a sustainable fishery focused on watercress, fish, and medicinal honey.

Key Lessons and Reflections

Fuentes concludes that it matters to know where food comes from and to eat locally. Growing healthy, sustainable food—and teaching others to do so—can support a community’s well-being, spiritual life, and economic prospects.

The trip also deepened his understanding of Indigenous peoples’ connections to their lands, foods, and ways of life. Personally, it broadened his sense of possible work and travel in social- and environmental-justice fields and helped him develop practical communication and planning skills.

Speakers and Sources Featured

• Alcides Fuentes — Narrator and student filmmaker.
• Kru Kungkun — Indigenous agroecology educator and extensionista at Kaoba Farms; shared his life experiences and extensionista principles.
• Haime — Indigenous farmer near Acatenango; taught planting techniques and spoke about his family’s land.
• Brihida — Member of the El Mirador farming family; discussed the family’s history and the land.
• Moises — Member of the El Mirador family; discussed the farm and taught agroecology to children at an orphanage.
• Juanita — Introduced her family’s farm, Granja El Triunfo.
• Luis — Trip guide who demonstrated a Maya spiritual ceremony.
• Alex Kronic — Identified as a leader at Kaoba Farms, though no direct remarks from him are included in the subtitles.

Other sources and learning sites included Kaoba Farms, El Mirador, Granja El Triunfo, IMAP, local farmers at the San Martín market, and Maya textile practitioners in San Juan La Laguna. Damian Park is mentioned as the course instructor but is not identified as a speaker in the video.