CHAPTER SEVEN
TRANSFORMING THE LOCAL CULTURE
Introduction
CODECE's attempts at appropriating the institutionalized cultural capital of the legal structure and its laws, for the most part failed. This pre-existing institutionalized cultural capital, structured around elite and mainstream interests, resulted relatively impervious to its appropriation by popular classes and critical interests. In fact, mainstream actors were able to make use of the institutionalized cultural capital of the law to reproduce class differences, by appropriating the labor invested by CODECE, despite its critical perspective in favor of popular class interests. But if appropriating cultural capital that was clearly linked to elite class interests did not lead to the empowerment CODECE sought, generating its own forms of cultural capital as a means of attracting more adherents to its cause, and thereby empowering them, might be a more appropriate strategy. In this vein, CODECE sought to transform the local culture by generating and disseminating pertinent information, as well as by promoting new ideas that the local community might identify with.
CODECE was initially formed in response to an external threat to the well-being of the local community. I suggested in Chapter 5 that the ability to mobilize members of the community against Father Revilla and his development projects for the Mountains of Escazú was the result of the clarity and immediate nature of the threat. Once CODECE defeated Revilla, it did not disappear, as many grassroots organizations tend to once they resolve the threat that mobilized them (Durning 1989a). Instead, CODECE persisted, becoming what has been called a new social movement. It was able to mobilize people to continue fighting for the sustained environmental, social and economic well-being of the local community.
Among the characteristics which make new social movements revolutionary, despite their move away from seizing state power, are their commitment to "transforming political and economic structures", as well as to "changing culture" (Epstein 1990:37). In the previous chapter, I discussed CODECE's efforts at transforming political and economic structures through attempts at democratizing the legal institutions that sustained these structures. In this chapter, I analyze the efforts of CODECE to transform the local culture towards a more critical perspective of sustainable development.
The labor of changing culture, in terms of ideology and practice, requires the exercise of power. This power is exercised by putting diverse forms of capital to work (Bourdieu 1986). In the case of CODECE, creating and maintaining a collective identity, through the mobilization of diverse forms of cultural capital (especially information), was one of the primary means it employed in reproducing its social capital. In turn, the identification of these people with CODECE's cause achieved social mobilization for the transformation of the lived context. Many analysts of new social movements have already pointed out that the strategic creation of a collective identity is fundamental for collective mobilization (Cohen 1985; Kauffman 1990; Escobar and Alvarez 1992b). Often, the search for a collective identity is based on the "affirmation of difference" (Jelin 1990:5), or even on "conflictual roles and positions" (Escobar and Alvarez 1992a:5). When CODECE confronted Revilla, their positions were clearly in conflict. But once Revilla was defeated, CODECE's affirmation of difference, in great measure lost a central point of reference. Escobar (1995:216) has stated that many new social movements mobilize against development. For CODECE, however, development as such did not become the point of reference against which it constructed and mobilized its collective identity. Without a clearly defined antagonist in either material or ideological terms, CODECE nevertheless, labored to create a collective identity for social mobilization to transform the context towards a critical conception of sustainable development.
In this chapter I review CODECE's efforts to construct a collective identity by appealing to existing collective interests and group differences, and where these did not exist, by changing the local culture to instill these sentiments. To change culture implies changing ideologies and practices. These efforts revolved around CODECE's attempts to establish a communal forest, whose responsibility and management would belong to the local communities, and whose benefits would also be theirs. CODECE's efforts at transforming the culture were geared to consolidate a critical perspective of sustainable development defined by greater community empowerment, greater respect and appreciation of Nature, and greater socioeconomic equity. CODECE's transformation of culture was not only one of the primary goals of its social mobilization, but was also one of its primary means of mobilizing society.
Here I point out, however, that CODECE's efforts at creating and maintaining a collective identity for social mobilization to transform the lived context, were confounded by the appropriation of the products of this labor by mainstream social actors, who in turn, employed them to maintain the status quo. I show how the efforts of differentiation and collective identity that CODECE constructed around a transformed relationship with the Mountains of Escazú, and concretely around the creation of a communal forest, were appropriated by mainstream social actors to maintain a context of inequality with an apparent reconciliation of contradictions. I discuss how this blurring of boundaries between mainstream and critical perspectives affected the momentum of a social movement such as CODECE engaged in "political and cultural contestation" (Alvarez and Escobar 1992:321). But I also show how in the midst of processes of production and appropriation across boundaries that were "saturated with inequality", there was "borrowing and lending" (Rosaldo 1989:217), as well, which at times produced "synergistic relationships" (Evans 1996:1119) that advanced, albeit fitfully, some of the dreams of CODECE's critical perspective of sustainable development.
Strengthening a Relationship with the Mountains
Soon after CODECE was created to stop Revilla and his plans to build a basilica in the Mountains of Escazú, members of the Committee began to learn about numerous other threats to the mountains, including government-approved projects to build large-scale resorts in the mountains where the water that fed much of San Antonio and Escazú originated. But they also began to discover their own faults regarding the protection of the environment. Changing their own views and practices, as well as educating the community became a major goal for CODECE starting early on. Once, while I helped Romano prepare a presentation about CODECE for an encounter of environmentalist groups, he described this early period to me.
"By the time we had stopped Revilla, CODECE had expanded beyond the farmers' cooperative where it was born. Most of the members didn't belong to the cooperative: Paulina, Pito, Luis Chacón, Julio Jiménez. Then during that time we began to discover so many things about the Mountains of Escazú, other projects for large construction, and that there was a Decree that declared the mountains a Protection Zone. It was a matter that went beyond the capacity of the cooperative to handle. CODECE had assumed an environmentalist struggle for the Mountains of Escazú that nobody else was assuming. We held a meeting and the seven of us decided unanimously that CODECE was too important to disappear, that it had to continue. But how? We were like babies in diapers. None of us were really environmentalists at the time. I still liked to kill squirrels whenever I saw them. Rodolfo loaded his fields with pesticides. It was Paulina who began to make me see these contradictions. So we began a slow process of self-learning. We had to change ourselves before beginning to change the community." (Fieldnotes, July 21, 1990).
In response to its growing appreciation of Nature and all its resources, as well as the need for the community to assume the responsibility of its protection, in 1988 CODECE renamed itself the Association for the Protection of Natural Resources, retaining however, its original acronym. During this early period, CODECE began emphasizing environmental education as one of its main pillars of action. It produced a coloring book in which Father and Mother told their son how the Mountains of Escazú were being destroyed by deforestation and contamination, but then they began to plant trees and clean the rivers until finally the mountains were green, the waters pure, and the wildlife abundant. The coloring book ended with the boy himself planting a tree to help protect the mountains. CODECE distributed this book to the third, fourth and fifth grades of the schools in all the counties around the Mountains of Escazú. They held workshops with the teachers and directors of these schools to explain the importance of environmental education. CODECE also held workshops with local farmers, hunters and bird-catchers to discuss the importance of protecting the mountains against deforestation and contamination. To inform the wider community about its work, CODECE organized an Ecological Painting Contest, as well as an Ecological Music Festival (CODECE Monthly Reports 1988, 1989).
When I initially encountered CODECE in 1989, its most visible efforts of involving the community in the protection of the Mountains of Escazú were its reforestation drives. At the first meeting of CODECE which I attended, Romano asked me to deliver the following invitation which called for the organized groups of Escazú to participate in this effort.
"Our group, after numerous efforts and activities, has been able, along with the Committee for Water and Forests and the Municipality of Escazú, to initiate an important forestry project to protect Río Londres and Río Agres. These rivers provide nearly 70 percent of the potable water in our county. On their care and recovery will depend the future of the water that reaches our homes. This water is also indispensable for the agricultural activities that are carried out in San Antonio, activities that provide many of us with work and contribute to the economic development of our area. These agricultural activities are in danger of disappearing unless we take urgent measures to protect our mountains and rivers.
"We must also remember the dangers of massive landslides faced by the communities of Santa Ana and Aserrí, which are the result of deforestation and erosion. For these and other reasons too long to enumerate, we are asking the different organizations of Escazú to reflect on these things and to assume an active role in their responsibility to the present and future generations. We are hereby inviting you to participate in the grand Campaign of Reforestation of our mountains. This campaign, begun the 15th of June in the farm of Sr. Gerardo Gómez with the planting of 200 trees, will continue, starting Sunday the 30th of July on the land of Goicoechea Agricultural Society near Pico Blanco. The departure for this activity will be at 7:00 am from the Rural Guard Post of San Antonio de Escazú. In similar fashion, on every Sunday of August, and on the two first Sundays of September, this campaign will continue to plant a total of 2500 trees. Sincerely, Romano Sancho B., Pres. and Francisco Mejía, Sec. (CODECE, July 18, 1989).
I counted over 40 men, women and children participating that first Sunday. The hike up took about two hours. Along the way we came across several signs placed there by CODECE earlier that year. At a bend in the trail near the Llano San Miguel, there was a sign nailed onto a tree: "Area declared a Protection Zone for its vital importance to the production of potable water. CODECE". Further on up, painted on a large boulder near the river, it read: "The sources of water are everybody's patrimony! It is our duty to protect them!" And painted on yet another boulder was the formula: "Forest + Water = Life".
When we finally reached the property to be reforested, everyone contributed to the planting of trees. After the work was done, we stopped to have lunch and Romano gave a short speech reiterating some of the elements contained in the letter of invitation. He spoke of the importance of protecting the forest cover to maintain the sources of water in the mountains, of the threats of further construction in the mountains, of deforestation caused by the burning of fields and cattle grazing, and of the responsibility we all had to the mountains and to the well-being of the future generations. He also called for all those present to introduce themselves and to say what had brought them to participate in this reforestation drive. "Because in addition to being against the destruction of Nature," Romano explained, "CODECE is also against anonymity. Everyone has something important to say that we all can learn from." Eventually, the significance of this simple phrase took form when in the analysis of my fieldwork social and cultural capital emerged as central to community empowerment and to possibilities of sustainable development.
The farmer Gerardo Gómez, on whose land CODECE had already planted 200 trees, explained his reason for being present.
"In a few years this could be a desert if we don't start to reforest, because the only thing we have known how to do is to cut tress and not to plant them."
Ana Calderón, the mother of several children who were helping, expressed her reason.
"I remember when I was young there were squirrels and those big birds one used to see. Now it's not like it used to be. One would hear yigüirros singing everywhere. One misses the little birds livening up the environment. Maybe with more trees they'll return. But it seems like more and more people want to build houses up in these mountains. I would prefer to conserve the mountains, but I believe that if people don't cooperate, nothing can be done."
Another young woman, Ana Julia Rojas explained why she participated.
"As for me, I live right next to the water tanks, and here is where most of our water is born, and at least in my house we are without water every morning. The water is born up here, and down there we're without water. I think that one should have a little more concern and collaborate. Maybe what is lacking sometimes is a little more information and someone to guide us like with this project to reforest the mountains." (Fieldnotes July 30, 1989).
Most of the adults and even some of the children showed an understanding of the relationship between forest cover and water catchment, between forest cover and the abundance of wildlife, as well as many of the causes of deforestation, such as cattle grazing, farming, and construction, and finally many made reference to the need for community cooperation in protecting the mountains. Maybe many were echoing Romano's words, but in any case, by appropriating this discourse, they revealed a susceptibility to cultural change. The fact that they participated planting trees, was a sign that they were already changing their cultural practices.
CODECE's efforts of changing the local culture through environmental education and fomenting practices geared at assuming responsibility for the protection of the local environment continued to be a hallmark of its work. One year later, when I returned to Escazú, I saw the video CODECE had made about the Mountains of Escazú, which it showed at the workshops in the local schools. Throughout the video, the narrator repeated "We are living a forestry emergency!" To conclude, the narrator said: "Ours is a nation whose primary resource are its forests. But we are lacking a forestry tradition. We must begin by creating a forestry culture in the nation. We must reconstruct the country to guarantee the life of our future generations." Through discourse such as this, CODECE continued to try to change the local culture, and to make the local community identify with its cause, gathering a greater social capital around its efforts.
During that summer, I interviewed Father Orlando García, the priest of San Antonio to see how CODECE was changing the culture of the people.
"The ecological issue is now everybody's problem," the priest said. "CODECE has made it its central focus, but it is a matter of concern for everyone. The people understand this. What CODECE is trying to do is a very noble thing. We have to protect our environment, especially since the government destroys everything, and so do the Capitalist interests. CODECE's efforts in protecting the environment, cleaning the rivers, educating the people, are very important. Our function is one of support and collaboration, because what CODECE wants is also what the Church wants: a healthy land, vibrant and full of life. The effort to establish an equilibrium is pleasing to the eyes of God.
"Having previously been the priest in Hatillo [Alajuelita] where the environment has been ravaged, one recognizes the importance of these mountains here in San Antonio. Unless we protect our mountains, we mortgage everything. The people here understand this. Many of them, without belonging to CODECE are united in the struggle. They come to me and express their concerns. And when certain problems come to me, I take them up in my sermons. I have also publicly acknowledged and congratulated CODECE for their efforts. Even though we don't have a very deep friendship with CODECE, I recognize they are good people. CODECE is doing a good work. If maybe they 'use' the Church, it is because they recognize its value in reaching the people. People of CODECE often come to me to inform me of issues. It is a pity I cannot participate in more of their activities, but we are all very busy. CODECE, however, is constantly keeping me informed, sending documents, notifying me of events, problems, programs, concerns, etc." (Field notes, July 14, 1990).
When I returned to the Mountains of Escazú in 1992, I found signs that a relationship of care for the mountains was taking root, when areas previously over-grazed were now under secondary forest growth. The land that belonged to Goicoechea, for example, which CODECE had begun to reforest in 1989 was now covered with Jaúl (Alnus accuminata), under whose shade other tree species had also begun to grow. On a hike into the mountains that CODECE organized during Holy Week, I found that the trails we had previously taken along grassy hill sides, were now lost among the undergrowth. (Field notes, April 19, 1992).
But I also encountered other signs of this same effort to conserve the forests in the Mountains of Escazú, which were somewhat disturbing. Some fields I had crossed through freely in the past were now fenced off with up to 20 rows of barbed wire. Behind one fence there was an elegantly painted sign which read in both Spanish and English: "La Naturaleza es Bella, Consérvela. Un menasaje de Finca Santa Ana. Nature is beautiful, preserve it. A message from Finca Santa Ana." Indeed, the land behind the forbidding fence was also thick with a secondary forest growth, where it had previously been covered in grass. (Field notes, April 19, 1992).
Finca Santa Ana belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Fennis, a Dutch couple who were buying up local farms at any price. The most prominent mountain in the landscape of Escazú, the Pico Blanco, which formed an indissoluble part of the county's history and lore was now almost completely in the hands of the Fennis family. Much of the land they bought were coffee farms which they were allowing to revert to forest.
Later that same month, walking down the road of La Laja of San Antonio, I met Alexis León (Alexis), whom I had spoken to earlier on my way up, and another worker (Worker) whose name I didn't record. Both wore typical campesino white canvas hats, as they fixed the road, hired by the Municipality. A bystander (Bystander) in city clothes was there too. I (Felipe) greeted them.
Alexis: Are you already returning from Rodolfo's place?
Felipe: Yes, because one can't continue that way. The road ends at the land of the Dutch people. I didn't want to trespass their coffee field for fear of being kicked out by gun shots.
Alexis: Who knows what candies they give away!
Felipe: How big is their land?
Alexis: It goes from the road of La Laja to the road of El Curio.
Worker: I don't know why those people want so much land if they're not planting anything on it.
Alexis: They just want land to be landowners.
Felipe: How were they able to buy so much land?
Worker: They're millionaires. People say that they have a strange business. That they adopt children and then send them to Holland or the United States to sell their organs. I've seen them drive by in vans filled with children.
Bystander: They have stocks worth millions. They own banks. Those people can buy off the government and they have even bought off the Church.
Worker: What there should be is a law that prohibits them from having so much land left in abandon. Because they are shitting on the people. They have abandoned the coffee fields. What they are doing is shitting on the people, because many of us depended on picking coffee to earn our Christmas money. They're shitting in the pot of milk. Because people are like a chain: I produce something, you produce something else, I help you, and that one helps the other, like that. But they are isolating themselves, and there is no longer that chain where everyone helps each other.
Bystander: But also it is the same people who are helping to create this problem. Those Dutch people have not broken any law. They have the money, and we have sold to them. So, that's the way it is. You put a price, and they buy.
Alexis: Imagine what they pay for any piece of land just to enlarge what's theirs. There was a little corner which I wouldn't have bought even for 50,000 and they paid two million. Up there, all they need to own that entire mountain is to buy from Marín, from Arias and from Montoya. After that, all of Pico Blanco is theirs.
Worker: But the same thing is going to happen to them that happened to Vesco. They'll find something twisted and throw them out. Because they have strange businesses. What I say is that every goat to his hill. Why don't they buy land in their own country? Why do they have to come here and buy up everything and shit on the people?
Felipe: But why do people sell?
Alexis: They have a little lot that no longer pays to produce, and so they sell it.
Worker: The thing is that farming no longer pays. The other day, in order to sell all the sweet potato I had, I almost had to give it away to get something out of it. I felt like throwing the whole damn pile into the river!
Bystander: This goes from bad to worse. (Field notes, April 28, 1992).
Later that year, another local farmer, Rafael Valverde, also commented on the Fennis family.
"They bought all this. They bought that farm up there, all of it. Then an old coffee farm there that was very big. They bought this one in front, and that one over there. But those people, who knows what their project is. Nobody knows. Only buying up more and more land like that. Very strange. Imagine that they bought a farm that kept a crew of workers there. For coffee picking it was enormous. And now, now they have it abandoned. And they fired all the workers. Now those people have to find work somewhere else. It was a whole crew of workers, all from San Antonio, and now all that land is abandoned. And what will happen to all the people from here that picked coffee in the summers? Because at least here, many people earned a living picking coffee. And they say that last year the