Dr. Jessica Hernandez (Binnizá & Maya Ch’orti’) is a transnational Indigenous scholar, scientist, and community advocate based in the Pacific Northwest. She has an interdisciplinary academic background ranging from marine sciences to environmental physics. She advocates for climate, energy, and environmental justice through her scientific and community work. Her book Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes through Indigenous Science breaks down why western conservationism isn’t working–and offers Indigenous models informed by case studies, personal stories, and family histories that center the voices of Latin American women and land protectors. In 2022, she was named by Forbes as one of the 100 most powerful women of Central America. She holds appointments at Sustainable Seattle, City of Seattle's Urban Forestry Commission, and the International Mayan League. Fresh Banana Leaves received the Bruce Piasecki and Andrea Masters Award on Business and Society Writing (2022).

JESSICA HERNANDEZ

I live my life in the embodying the teaching my grandmother instilled in me – that no matter which lens I walked on, I had to learn how to build relationships with the land and the indigenous peoples whose land I reside on to become a welcome to guest. As a displaced indigenous woman, my love me to return to my ancestral homeland will always be there, and this is why I continue to support my communities in the diaspora. However, my relationships are not only with my community, but also the indigenous communities whose land is I am displaced on, and this is the foundation of my work while residing in the Pacific Northwest. I strongly believe that in order to start healing indigenous landscapes, everyone must understand oppositionality as either settlers, unwanted guests, or welcome to guests, and that is ultimately determined by the indigenous communities land you currently reside on or occupy.

This teaching has also helped me envision my goals in life. Every day I get closer to becoming an ancestor because life is not guaranteed but rather a gift who are now in the spiritual world.

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I think my vision for land stewardship is realistic, right? It's not going to go back to the way it was before climate change was a crisis, as it is now. It's not going to go back to before colonialism actually impacted many Indigenous lands. But I think with land stewardship, my vision is that the youth are also empowered to do that intergenerational learning and teaching because we often learn best from our elders, but oftentimes in school settings, we are only learning from the teachers, so we don't get that intergenerational approaches or relationships that are essential as we move forward.

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I think that for us who embody those spiritual relationships with our grandmothers, it's something that's cannot be explained, especially in English terms. But I come from a matriarchal society, and it's one of the only Indigenous communities that continues to follow a matriarchal society, which is different than matrilineal. It's like where women hold the hierarchies, where women also hold the political and economic powers or leadership roles in our communities.

So with that, our women are known to have this more powerful intuition, especially as it relates to our landscapes, our lands, and also our spiritual components and beings. So I think that it kind of manifests in the teachings that my grandmother instills in me and many other matriarchs instill in our communities.

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So oftentimes, when we talk about genocide, especially in the United States, it's something that happened in the past, but for many communities, especially outside of the United States, genocide is something that can be traced to our parents', to our grandparents' generations, so it's not necessarily that long ago. So for my father, he was a child soldier during the Central American Civil War that has been coined a genocide by the United Nations because it targeted Indigenous peoples, especially in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. So during that time, he was 11 years old when he was forced to either join the military or join the opposition, which was community-led to reclaim our land. It was like a Land Back movement because a lot of our land was being sold to international corporations that introduced these monocultural, agricultural entities, and plantations. So we have these introductions of bananas and coffees into our lands.

This interview was conducted by Mia Funk and Bruce Piasecki. Associate Interviews Producer on this podcast was Amy Highsmith. Digital Media Coordinator was Doug Evans.