Abused and broken up for the last 100 years, the land was reclaimed by the students and community of Berkeley and surrounding areas on Earth Day 2012.
Now it is a highly militarized zone, reminiscent of peoples park in the 1960s
Monday, May 14, 2012
Monday, May 7, 2012
Connecting the dots
This post is something of a last chapter, or at least the mark of the end of a chapter and the beginning of a new one. This year, and this semester have been quite a ride. We have been through Argentina, deep into the uncharted realms of the Pampa, of distant stares, and hands worn deep with lines of work and wisdom. While we were there, my heart clung to the Patagonian mountains that border this mysterious marsh land. Even when we travelled to Russia, I stayed with these radiant creatures. They seemed to fit well with the mysterious personalities of our Russian unit just as well as they did with the Argentine gauchos. These mountains, that capture all the moisture of the Pacific and keep the Pampa so dry, also captured a lot my attention- my eyes and work are drawn towards familiar horizons. I see strength and movement in the towering peaks, a movement that is so slow that it is barely perceptible. But the inhabitants there are deeply shaped by this movement, whether or not they know it. It shows its face in Maté circles around small, long fires, and in the stares of the older folk. You can see a special kind of mountain wisdom that exists in very few places.
We talked in class about how people are shaped by the land, especially people who have been there for many generations. Harris said that is what we lack here, and probably why our music sucks so bad these days (or something to that effect) and I think he has a lot of truth in that statement.
Human culture is shaped by the environment, but this takes time- hundreds if not thousands of years- to happen. Like the carving of a spoon, the finest details that bring out the life of the artist (the mountains in this case) come out in the last, and longest stretch of time. The thing that draws me back to places like Patagonia and Bolivia, and to new places like Nepal and India- is these details of culture. Details that are so reflective and so a part of that place. Its the geographer in me coming alive.
On the other side of the coin, as a geographer, I cant ignore how deeply humans have shaped their landscape, even in remote places like Patagonia. The tiny Gaucho shacks, a few of which are still standing, that they stayed in while out on the roam with their flock, are markers in the vast landscape. Now, as the world grows smaller and smaller thanks to things like Twitter, Coke, Facebook, and all things under the flag of globalization, there are new markers that threaten the landscape. There are billboards that dot the patagonia in favor, or opposing the proposed dams on the Baker and Pasucua rivers. If the plan goes through, the landscape will be forever altered, in a horrible, unrecoverable way. It would be a social, cultural, and democratic heresy.
The people of Aysen are fighting back, both inside and outside the democratic process. This parallels much of what is happening in my life. With the Gill Tract occupation, the May Day strike, and everything else, the world feels like it is being fueled and radically changed by words like radical, autonomous action.
Autonomous action in a lot of way describes my relationship to this class. I always draw inspiration from the amazing characters and voices we have heard, from Atahualpa to Svetlana and songs of Old Russia, all of these characters embody a sense of independence. Whether that is independence from capitalism (in the case of the red guard, etc.) or independence from the control of the Yankee (Atahualpa), the characters have always seem to run from the creeping prison of cooperate culture. As am I.
In the name of autonomy, of strength and independence, the characteristics that so inspired me from the class (in both form and content) I offer un gran salud a Tony, y sus gauchos.
with these themes as my guide, I plunge into a year of unknown adventures, challenges, and travels in South America. Talk to me at the Fiesta for more....
We talked in class about how people are shaped by the land, especially people who have been there for many generations. Harris said that is what we lack here, and probably why our music sucks so bad these days (or something to that effect) and I think he has a lot of truth in that statement.
Human culture is shaped by the environment, but this takes time- hundreds if not thousands of years- to happen. Like the carving of a spoon, the finest details that bring out the life of the artist (the mountains in this case) come out in the last, and longest stretch of time. The thing that draws me back to places like Patagonia and Bolivia, and to new places like Nepal and India- is these details of culture. Details that are so reflective and so a part of that place. Its the geographer in me coming alive.
On the other side of the coin, as a geographer, I cant ignore how deeply humans have shaped their landscape, even in remote places like Patagonia. The tiny Gaucho shacks, a few of which are still standing, that they stayed in while out on the roam with their flock, are markers in the vast landscape. Now, as the world grows smaller and smaller thanks to things like Twitter, Coke, Facebook, and all things under the flag of globalization, there are new markers that threaten the landscape. There are billboards that dot the patagonia in favor, or opposing the proposed dams on the Baker and Pasucua rivers. If the plan goes through, the landscape will be forever altered, in a horrible, unrecoverable way. It would be a social, cultural, and democratic heresy.
The people of Aysen are fighting back, both inside and outside the democratic process. This parallels much of what is happening in my life. With the Gill Tract occupation, the May Day strike, and everything else, the world feels like it is being fueled and radically changed by words like radical, autonomous action.
Autonomous action in a lot of way describes my relationship to this class. I always draw inspiration from the amazing characters and voices we have heard, from Atahualpa to Svetlana and songs of Old Russia, all of these characters embody a sense of independence. Whether that is independence from capitalism (in the case of the red guard, etc.) or independence from the control of the Yankee (Atahualpa), the characters have always seem to run from the creeping prison of cooperate culture. As am I.
In the name of autonomy, of strength and independence, the characteristics that so inspired me from the class (in both form and content) I offer un gran salud a Tony, y sus gauchos.
with these themes as my guide, I plunge into a year of unknown adventures, challenges, and travels in South America. Talk to me at the Fiesta for more....
The Eucalyptus and I
The eucalyptus
tree is a non-native member of the ecology, but so is everything else if you go
back far enough.
It
was brought to California to be used and exploited as a resource. The idea was
to use it for lumber, for the thousands of railroad ties that were needed to
build a railroad across this wide continent. But the eucalyptus refused to be
used and exploited in this way, so in California it decided to grow with a
twisted grain instead of the straight grain they expected it to have.
This
meant the railroad ties would bend and warp after just a few years, making it
impossible for trains to pass. So they had to give up on trying to force the
eucalyptus to be something it wasn't- a railroad tie, and leave it as a
tree. So the eucalyptus (using Sir Bacon as its steward) tricked them. And
now it is a huge part of the CA landscape... you can't look in anyone direction
with out seeing a eucalyptus.
There
is a parallel between this story and the story of student occupations. We are
brought to the university to be shaped into resources, to be processed and
milled, and shipped out to be railroad ties for companies and corporations all
over the world. But some of us discover that, like the Eucalyptus, we have a
twisted grain inside of us, and no matter how hard they try to keep us straight,
we just can't lie flat like the other railroad ties. So we bend and warp, pulling
the railroad apart as we do, stopping business as usual. Declaring,
I will
not be made into a resource. I will not be exploited, used or employed in
anyway I don’t see fit.
I couldn't
even if tried.
Like
the eucalyptus, I am of a twisted grain.
by charlie
dubbe
Thursday, April 26, 2012
the farm
people chatting over a potluck dinner, the bandanas flapping in the wind. a few stragglers still planting starts, as the day winds down into evening.
16,000 starts at the Gill Tract. Here are a few
some of the 15 thousand starts that made it to the gill tract
Take back the tract
occupy the farm!
save the tract!
this is what a public education could and should look like.
open spaces, where the community and the students can learn and help each other.
spaces to grow food, not profits.
spaces to grow our worth, not commoditize our work.
spaces to make connections, not compete with each other.
save the tract!
this is what a public education could and should look like.
open spaces, where the community and the students can learn and help each other.
spaces to grow food, not profits.
spaces to grow our worth, not commoditize our work.
spaces to make connections, not compete with each other.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Songs and places
a window into a broken land.
the land has been stomped on, and broken like glass. watch how the people put it back together, piece by piece.
these photos are of friends and comrades in Aysen, fighting back against state repression and a centralized economy. This fight has not been a pretty one. People have been shot, blinded by buckshot, and beaten nearly to death. but as true patagonians, they never give up. in fact that word isn't even in their vocabulary. ni un paso atras. not one step back.
Kitten, meet the world!
it was really amazing being part of the birth, seeing all the instinct that takes over- our Mishka (who is less than a year old her self) is a super-mama and has been affectionately nurturing these little ones.
this connects up with the theme (in class and in life) of constant birth, death, and rebirth all around us. As the seasons change, the plants in the yard wilt, dry, drop their seeds, and let fresh life abound.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Snow
I went to Tahoe two weeks ago, and the snow was amazing. 2 feet of fresh snow over night. a winter wonderland.
iFrankenstien
This is the frankenstien machine. i didn't make it, my hands just assembled the pieces, that wanted to come together in the way that they did. I very much was just the outlet for the expression of the iFrankenstien. In other words, as harris would put it, this was a stream-of-coniousness work. No planning of any kind. I am very pleased with how it came out, although it was super heavy. Its not really related to the readings, except for the fact that I was playing atallualpa while I was building it. So it is subconsciously influenced by Argentina.
THings fall apart, the center cannot hold.
"Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"
-W.B. Yeats
This poem is powerful. I like the first paragraph best. It reminds me of now, and here.
Things fall apart, the center cannot hold. Thats our society. Our world. Right now. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. A revolution is born every second, another dies every second. and the world spins on.
Monday, March 12, 2012
The most powerful force I have gotten to know
would be the ocean. and right behind that, would be the wind of the Patagonia. This clip does some (not complete) justice to the intensity of this wind, and the beauty of Coyhaique, and the Cerro Castillo area.
I have explored some of this terrain, and I want to explore much more of it.
I have explored some of this terrain, and I want to explore much more of it.
#resisteaysen
"Tu Problema es mi problema" is the official title of the Movimiento Social de Aysen, which is a group of students, union organizers, and pescadores that have come together to defend Aysen's right to live affordably. They are demanding a drop in the cost of fuel, fire wood, food, and a public university of quality within the region. This art piece supports this cause. This relates to what we have talked about in class... harking all the way back to the first day when Tony asked "what is pride?" pride is standing up for what you believe in, and know is right, even if you are standing alone. This is what Aysen has had the courage to do. This is what inspires me, and draws me back to this land where I have my most distant roots. I love Aysen like my mother. She raised me for just a half a year, but I will never loose what she taught me, and ingrained in my soul.
Public education is our right.
despite what those with power and money want us to believe, education is not a commodity to be bought and sold on the open market to whoever is the highest bidder (recently out of state and out of country students have been in this role). It is in fact our right. The UN even has declared it so.
So don't forget it. Rise up. Rebel.
And most of all: Don't let them scare you.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Words to fill in the images.
The people of Aysén have risen up and demanded economic justice, much like people here in the US are beginning to do, and as citizens will be so many times, were met with violent police repression. A middle aged mechanic lost his eye to rubber bullets shot at protestors by the automatic shotguns of Carbineros, o pacos. Two other teenagers were also blinded. El Pueblo de Aysén es fuerte, como las montañas that surround them.
We talked in class about the rough edges of Gauchos. How the wild landscape of the Patagnoia and the Pampa have created a many layered onion in Gaucho culture, frozen on the outside by howling winds, and blazing hot on the inside, like the coals que hierve la agua para el mate.
While I lived in Aysén I learned about these layers. I continue to learn about them. Solidaridad con mis companeros en aysen y su lucha contra la gobierno corportista de Piñera....
We talked in class about the rough edges of Gauchos. How the wild landscape of the Patagnoia and the Pampa have created a many layered onion in Gaucho culture, frozen on the outside by howling winds, and blazing hot on the inside, like the coals que hierve la agua para el mate.
While I lived in Aysén I learned about these layers. I continue to learn about them. Solidaridad con mis companeros en aysen y su lucha contra la gobierno corportista de Piñera....
Monday, February 27, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Friday, February 24, 2012
#fuerzaaysen #aysenlibre #patagoniasinrepresas
Fuerza a mis companeros en Aysen, Luchando para una causa justa siempre es difÃcil en un mundo de burocracia y mentiras.
This is not a bike helmet
eso no es un bike helmet.
Influences on this piece include a dotted gecko from brazil that I own, and the colors from a ojaxan bus.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
February
This piece expresses the turbulence I have been swimming in recently. It should be viewed while listening "Latino America" By Calle 13, to fully understand the quote, and where that is coming from... I feel that call 13, and that song in particular, are like this generation's versions of Neruda and Violetta Parra- poets that express the immense pain, pride, and overcoming which the Latin American countries contain in their history and their present moment.
Tony dubo
got this shot of tony the other night.. hope thats ok with you mr. dubo... i think it really conveys a lot about tony, one hand on the heart and one hand offering gentle guidance
It has begun
shot from greece. the way the guy jumps into the air is refreshing. the youth, athletic, creative, and intelligent- can and will take down oppressive state regimes if these regimes go to far. In the US, we still have an overwhelming apathy that has been bred into us by 20 years of MTV, reality TV, and the superbowl. however in some parts of the world, like in greece, this project of dismantling state structured and supported violence - from the police and the criminal justice system.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Hannah Harris and I made a paint
a collaberative piece by Hannah, Harris and I. On going into the interior. Insired by Atahualpa
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Hola Tony
Aqui esta mi blog para songs y places, en la universidad de california en Berkley.
Charlie Dubbe, el gringo de Coyhaique
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