Congratulations to the winners of our 2021 Latino Conservation Week Photo Contest. We received over 80 submissions and nearly 750 voter responses this year. Many thanks to everyone who submitted a photo. Your contributions help redefine what it means to be involved with the natural environment.
Grand Prize Winner
Jesús Antonio Moo Yam
Conservation Cultura is the commitment to recognize and defend the function of all the organisms that surround us, to find proposals for solutions that help our environment and preserve our cultural and natural identity. For me, as a member of the indigenous Mayan community of Pomuch, to conserve the wildlife that my ancestors revered for their function at a level of placing them as gods, it is an obligation to defend it. I like it, and it makes me feel proud to continue working through photography because this tool helps show the beauty that people do not always know.
“Conservation means seed saving, both literally and metaphorically. We save the seeds of our production for a better future. These seeds we plant in the next generation.”
Second Place
Amanda Greó
Enjoying the outdoors helps us to be in contact with what surrounds us, receiving in return great benefits that help us to be and feel healthy, both physically and mentally. With this photo, I want to remember that one of the benefits we can receive is learning about our own culture. When we decide to go out and discover new places and enjoy them, we can come across places that today have become ruins, but that in the past played an important role in the development of the municipality, country or nation. Enjoying the outdoors can become a way of awakening the desire to know and enrich ourselves much more about our roots and embrace our culture. Conservation for me means preservation, love, enrichment. Preserve, love and learn from everything that surrounds us. The pleasure and satisfaction of caring for, respecting and valuing what gave us life and allows us to live. Conservation is understanding that we can enjoy and take advantage of the wonders that the universe offers us without harming other beings, keeping the environmental balance of the ecosystem in harmony.
Third Place
Monika Aldarondo
To me, Conversation Cultura means cultivating a love and respect for the outdoors in our child. My own upbringing had less opportunity to enjoy nature. Making conservation an obvious choice for the next generation means giving them ample opportunities to explore as many aspects of the outdoors and in a variety of weather and conditions. I want him to see himself as part of nature, not something he goes only when it’s ideal or as something abstract. I want him to feel a range of emotions in the outdoors and that he knows intrinsically that it must be conserved and fought for.
Rethink Outside
First Place
Jesús Antonio Moo Yam
Conservation Cultura is the commitment to recognize and defend the function of all the organisms that surround us, to find proposals for solutions that help our environment and preserve our cultural and natural identity. For me, as a member of the indigenous Mayan community of Pomuch, to conserve the wildlife that my ancestors revered for their function at a level of placing them as gods, it is an obligation to defend it. I like it, and it makes me feel proud to continue working through photography because this tool helps show the beauty that people do not always know.
Second Place
Vanessa Velazquez
Conservation means experiencing the spaces we are working to preserve.
Third Place
Andy Galván
It is impossible to conserve what you do not know. It is a radical act when we reclaim joy in the outdoors.
The Latinx Experience
First Place
Antonio Varela
Conservation of Mi Cultura is important to me because it is where I am from, who I am, and what I want my kids to experience so that one day they can be proud enough to conserve what they experienced and pass it along to their kids.
Second Place
Monika Aldarondo
To me, Conservation Cultura means incorporating outdoor spaces in our family rituals, such as visiting the ocean on New Year’s Eve. Being at the edge of the vastness of the ocean reminds me of connection to all lands, possibility, renewal, the rhymes of our natural world, and all that we can not see that lives between me and the next shore. When I reflect on my year at the edge of the ocean I am reminded of the vastness of life and the earth and the preciousness of our time here as I step into the unknown of another year. The peace that spaces like this bring for moments of reflection and celebration makes it obvious to protect and preserve these spaces through personal actions and supporting public policy and organizations that keep public spaces accessible for so many.
Third Place
Amanda Greó Rivera
This photo was taken in his workshop while he was working on his latest project. It will be finished and exposed in a few weeks at the Yabucoa Catholic Church. May we learn more about the history of our municipality, country, or nation through art, always remembering that behind that monument there was someone who put his talent, effort, and dedication to make it possible. With this photo, I want to exhort people to go out and enjoy and appreciate the monuments and sculptures that we have around us. Enjoying the outdoors helps us to be in contact with what surrounds us, receiving us great benefits that help us to be and feel healthy, both physically and mentally. This is why on many occasions it can become a way of awakening the desire to know and enrich ourselves much more about our roots and embrace our culture. Conservation for me means preservation, love, enrichment. Preserve, love, and learn from everything that surrounds us. The pleasure and satisfaction of caring for, respecting, and valuing what gave us life and allows us to live. Conservation is understanding that we can enjoy and take advantage of the wonders that the universe offers us without harming other beings, keeping the environmental balance of the ecosystem in harmony.
