The Battle of Coexisting

When I came to study here at The University of Central Florida I was excited to meet new people but specifically, I couldn’t wait to learn all about the different cultures that I was going to encounter throughout this journey. I met my Participant here at UCF Global, his name is Juan Pablo Montagut and he is 19 years old. Although he is from Colombia and I am from Ecuador, two countries that are supposed to be the same, I learned a lot of new things through the different images that he has shown me in the last year and a half. We have become close and we are even in the same group of friends, therefore I see him very often and each day I learn something new about Colombian culture. Juan Pablo is also a film major, hence he has a passion for photography and I decided to choose him since having a passion for something completely changes the outcome. I believe that these photographs truly show what he was feeling at the moment.

Photo # 1: Hill in the city of Bogota

This image was taken in the city of Bogota, on top of a hill that is close to my house. It is very common to find hills such as this all around my city but I don’t think that many people appreciate the beauty that a simple place like this can give. This image represents the division between what is man-made and what nature has to offer, though if you look closely, this hill is starting to be invaded by man-made things such as the electrical posts that are needed to light the city. You can see the wire strings going across the hill and into the city. Although it is beautiful to have an aerial view of the city itself is it ever going to stop becoming a city? Nature will never stop being beneficial for us and this image shows how slowly we are starting to be surrounded by visual pollution. Our views will someday only be buildings or structures and very little of flora and fauna. This image shows how humans aren’t perfect and perhaps choosing to invade a perfect site isn’t the best for our environment even though it is the best solution to sustain a city.

There are two different sides to this story. You can either choose between what’s beneficial for humans or what is beneficial for our nature. We live to survive so we are capable of doing anything as long as we are still standing here. Humans don’t put into perspective how something as insignificant as a hill gives life to a city like Bogota. What humans have created or built throughout the years is surely something that we intended for humanity to like, and although we admire how our world is slowly developing, until what point should we be proud of what we are changing in our environment? but what if there is a way to choose both sides? In an article by the University of Bern, they state that “Increasing agricultural productivity (output per hectare) has the potential to reduce pressure on remaining forests, sparing land for nature while continuing to meet global food demands.” People are slowly realizing that there are ways to have both, the beauty of nature and the basic needs of the human race.

Photo # 2: Botanical garden in the city of Bogota

This photo was taken in a botanical garden in Bogota Colombia and for me, it resembles the roots we have embedded in this world. For as long as humans have populated the earth we have heavily impacted it, bringing good and bad attributes to it, though in this case, it shows how humans have positively treated the environment, keeping alive a tree as old as this one. Not only this, but I can see this photo as a metaphor for the way we treat the world and the environment. In this state its branches look the same as its roots, the roots that we have kept alive. Its bare branches demonstrate the ability of possibilities. For this tree, this could mean a new season, new leaves for us that could provide us with fruit, a change of scenery, new memories and so much more. That is the beauty of simple things. Sometimes we are too distracted to realize that. For that reason, we might not fully witness our own evolution and development.

Although we can say that this picture is just a tree, it has a lot of meaning behind it. First of all a botanical garden is a place whose purpose is to conserve nature. This tree is situated in a place where nature was left alone, with no interference from any humans. Humans in this case have made the effort to leave nature to evolve by itself. Looking at a picture as simple as this gives us space to create our own meaning behind it and we slowly start to realize that there is more to it. A tree is a living thing and throughout the years we have slowly started to realize how nature is very similar to a human being. For instance, if we follow the path of a tree from its roots to the top of its branches there are endless possibilities, just like humans have. Each one of us follows a different path in our lives with different endings. If we are comparing this tree to a person the less we allow others to influence us the more we grow as a person just as this tree. My participant expresses how we might be living our lives with too much going on and this picture is just an example that we should slow down and live in the moment.

Photo # 3:  Santa Marta a city in Colombia

Every time I see this image I am left speechless. I am just hit with a huge wave of harmony.  This was taken in a city in Colombia called Santa Marta during a typical day at the beach. Everything in our environment, on our planet works in perfect harmony and symphony without any human influence, as it should. Here without mankind, without our destructive presence, we can feel the residual harmony of the original song, earth’s symphony.  However, I truly believe that we may have ruined this melody that our world used to perfectly play because we preferred to play our own tune. We have melted the glaciers, burned down forests, and demolished ecosystems to the ground for our benefit and convenience and in this picture, the boats in the background are an example of this.

We as humans completely rely on the nature that surrounds us, we have adapted in a way where we see nature as our main resource to survive, but the way that we have evolved alongside nature has mainly done no good to our environment. What would be the world without humans, would there still be life? We only know the world with humans on it and we are scared to experience the decline of humanity. Putting us first is not bad. Perhaps the image is prettier with the boat in front of the sun but maybe we are so used to seeing something like this that it has become a new landscape standard for us. It is now pretty for us to take a picture of a boat in the sea and we don’t really see how a boat on the sea impacts the beach’s original harmony. After all, humans have always put our race first, so is it that bad to see a boat transporting our daily needs, people fishing for food, or people enjoying a mesmerizing view with the help of a man-made object like a boat? We have adapted to see our world like this since for example a relaxing day on a boat surely positively impacts our health. This picture shows how we have created a place where humans and nature work together. Therefore I disagree with what my participant had to say since without these man-made objects it  “will deprive” us “of an opportunity for contact with nature” (Deutsch, 1993). Nature is a synonym for peace but how are we able to experience it without even trying to have a close interaction with it?

Recurring theme

Humans’ interaction with nature keeps increasing each day, though we mostly see it done negatively. These images show how perhaps nature a humanity should be separated from each other. Nature is beautiful by itself and that is how we are supposed to enjoy it. Throughout these pictures, I was able to observe two distinct viewpoints. The first and last photographs clearly show the interference of mankind, the electrical wires, and the boat just in front of the sunset, while the second photograph illustrates the untouched side of nature where we can truly appreciate the meaning behind it. My participant expressed the fear that he has as humans develop our society more and more since he will not be able to enjoy something as insignificant as a small hill. Also, he questions himself as to how our environment is supposed to be without the interference of humans, he imagines it as a harmonious setting. Although there is also the idea of how humans rely on nature and perhaps we do need it to survive maybe we are blinded by the selfishness of humans as we are all involved in the decline of nature.

After reading “The Garden and the Sea: U.S. Latino Environmental Discourses and Mainstream Environmentalism” I was also able to have a different point of view from my participant. I learned that after all humans do need to live and not only stand there and observe. Our definition of living is to experience it all, to find ways in which we can succeed by using what the world has given to us. Maybe humans and nature are compatible. The article said how planting crops made a city like New York stop the construction of buildings in green areas. After all, we do rely on nature, it affects our health, and our mental state so we should treat it, and treat it in a way that benefits both sides.