Episode 05: Sustainability & Spirituality: Building a Garden in Southern Chilé - Raul Quelovren-Martinez
This time around, we’re trying something a little different! Hope you enjoy.
Our interview this week, with Raúl Quelovren-Martinez, is in Spanish! For all fluent Spanish speakers listening in, I apologize in advance for my broken language abilities :). For English speakers, you’ll find a transcription of our conversation below. Regardless, here’s some background on how this conversation came to be…
In January, I had the opportunity to volunteer on an organic farm in Southern Chilé, just outside of a small town called Pucón. After speaking with the owner of the farm, Pamela, through a program called Workaway, she connected me with Raúl Quelovren-Martinez, the mastermind who runs their farm operations. After losing my passport on the first day in Pucón (and recovering it through a stroke of pure luck and a stranger’s goodwill), I was picked up by Raúl in the town center and we drove out to the farm together.
He had a friend in town who produced and sold a natural (non-alcoholic) ginger ale - he picked me up some for the drive!
Over the weeks we spent together, Raúl challenged me to think differently…Building a spiritual connection to the earth around us matters, gift giving should be the backbone of our ‘economic’ system, and developing relationships with Mother Earth can help us rebuild a more just world.
Interestingly, when I returned home, I found myself feeling self-conscious telling people about my time on the farm because it felt ‘corny’ or ‘cheesy’ speaking about the spirituality I experienced there with human and non-human beings. But as I reflected more, I realized that feeling came from a deeply embedded social coding and it was actually my own reality at home that needed to evolve … Our capitalist mentality of wanting more and consuming more was making it really hard to slow down, breathe, and connect on a deeper level with nature, plants, new friends, a new language, vegetables, fruits, birds, dogs, cats, music and painting.
My time in Pucón wasn’t about making money or going faster, but rather about reconnecting with a part of myself that has long been nascent … re-inventing a city boy’s relationship with Mother Earth. I came away with a passion to start a garden in my community, restart restoration work on the street tree outside the NYC building where I grew up, and to look for ways in which I can have my hands in soil as I chart my future chapters of ‘work’. I owe a lot of this to Raúl.
On one of our last days together, we recorded a conversation… My language skill improved immensely over my time there and I tried my best. For those interested in hearing from Raúl, I’ve transcribed the interview and translated it as best as I could for you in English below…
We cover a lot together, including:
His life growing up in Chilé
His passion for the earth, for gardens, bees, and garlic bread.
Indigenous approaches to sustainability and relationships with the earth.
The potential for technology and innovation to combine with indigenous knowledge and Raúl’s optimism for how humanity’s relationship with the earth will evolve for the better.
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Here’s the Interview - my questions in bold, and his answers translated to English in between - hope you enjoy!:
Here we are at Raúl's house! Ten or fifteen minutes outside Pucón in the south of Chile. My first question: Where are you from, what was your life like growing up and how did you get here?
Great! Well, I'm from the north of Chile and since the age of 6 years old, I lived very close to the pure countryside. We had a little place by the riverside playing with animals, cows, open fields, flowers... a very good life. Just playing, enjoying connection with nature. Then I came here, this is where my brother was born, and I met Andres, Pamela's partner. (Pamela is the boss, ha)!. She loves this place and is very passionate about nature, the garden, and sustainability.
It has been amazing working together in the garden and learning from you. What is your favorite thing about a garden?
What I like most about the garden are many things, but I think the main thing is being outside, in the fresh air, in contact with nature. That's what moves me and I feel that the garden polishes you. It teaches you resilience through the cold, heat, rain, and wind. I think that is what I like the most, apart from the colors as well.
What is your favorite garden you have been to and why?
There is a garden built into the forest in Patagonia Park that is definitely my favorite. It was donated by the Chilean State to be a unique park. Usually, you go to a national park, there are always a lot of people. But, this is a very isolated place in Patagonia with only wild animals. And in the middle of the park there is a garden - the best garden, I think.
Every morning, when I worked there, I would walk to the garden and we would see many birds and sometimes even a condor up in the mountains. So, it is already the best place before all the very inspiring people. Environmentalists, photographers, writers, landscape designers. Lots of inspiration and a place of peace.
What is your favorite fruit or vegetable or flower to grow?
I’m not sure I can pick a favorite, but I think I would say the tomato. It is very interesting to work with them, but a lot of work. I love the smell and it takes a different type of handling and cultivation. But when you work hard with them, the harvest is great. And a homegrown tomato is very different from buying a bad supermarket tomato.
Beyond the garden, I learned that you love bread! We had a blast making pizza together and you also make amazing garlic bread! Why this love for bread?
Because the bread that one buys in the supermarket is very bad for my digestion and inflammation - so I finally started making bread for my own wellness. Fermenting your own bread with just flour, water and salt is very different from a bagged bread with 30 ingredients. It's also an interesting process to dedicate time to the cooking - it is like an act of wellness. The wellness comes along with the perfect bread.
And honey!! You brought me some incredible honeycomb from your bees at home and I even saw you sting yourself with a bee for medicine - why do you love bees?
Why do I love the bees? Simply, the bee is like permaculture. They are a perfect, perfect model of a community. Everyone supports each other. Some build, some forage or feed back perfectly. Besides that, they pollinate all our flowers, fruit, food and in their hive are all these different medicines. Everything one needs to be well is in the hive. Not only honey, but propolis, wax, royal jelly. It's like a pharmacy. A perfect model.
Can you tell us a little bit about your relationship with the earth and why it’s important for you? You are always walking around playing music and it seems like you have great respect for the garden but also a lot of fun together!
Well, with my relationship with the Earth, I think it is something much deeper than me and a plant. I feel that there is a spirit behind it but that we are totally blocked from this by our system, by political economy, and we are not perceptible to that.
Also, the garden has helped me a lot, as in my personal path to know who Raúl is. So, I have great respect for the garden as a teacher. I love the vegetable garden, it makes me happy and can you stay alive without the orchard? No.
You told me you really enjoyed studying in university but also you told me that that experience was very different than experiencing work in a garden and volunteering - what did you study, why did you like it, and why was it different than working?
Yes, of course it was different.. I studied agricultural techniques, mostly plant-based, not animal-based. And why was that? Because I suffered a lot of injuries, especially in sports. And I thought, my injuries, maybe they came from bad nutrition… So what can I do to be in nature and seek better food?
And then it started, as you said. A lot of theory, theory, theory, theory, theory, theory, which is very good, very good because one understands how a root, a leaf, a plant, the sun, the air works. Energy is very interesting.
But there was no practice and a lot of theory without practice is useless. Both are very complementary, but practice is needed. So that's when I decided that after University, I would start a two-year career of volunteering hands on, practicing, messing up and finally learning from more people. Learning is every day. It's always different, the garden is always different every day, that's for sure.
You told me about an amazing experience with a community of permaculture. What is permaculture and what was that experience like? You’re certified in permaculture now too, correct?
Yes! Well, my certification came from a month-long permaculture design course. Permaculture is a movement that was born in Australia by the desire of a person, Bill Mollison. He saw the devastation that exists in the relationship between the environment, human beings, society, economy, political relations - everything is in constant degradation. Then, he wanted to find a regenerative solution, a better way of living that encompasses all food, materials and relationships between people and their environment. And that’s what became permaculture, a permanent culture that is sustainable over time.
And for me permaculture was a change, a total change in my life, a paradigm shift in how I see life. We learned about human relationships, agriculture, construction, but in the end it is an inner change. It starts there. Becoming aware of who I am. Coherence between my thinking, feeling, speaking. That is a path of personal regeneration, not just the environment. In the end, though, this is the same thing.
When we talk, you are always excited about medicines that come from our earth. Medicinas naturales. What is your experience like with them - can you tell us about one or two?
Yes, well, the enthusiasm and connection with natural medicine has been amazing, because in my life I have endured much, much abuse of my body - extreme sports, foods, alcohol, and partying led to many injuries and illnesses. When I was in college, there was a period when my body rejected everything I ate. I couldn't eat, my stomach was bloating, bad irritation, very bad. I spent Six months in the hospital and no one could find a Solution… no medication worked, nothing.
Then a friend told me about one type of Field Jungle Medicine, a poison secretion of a frog. For me it was a transcendental change not just physically, but also in my way of life. It was a very, very, very impressive change of consciousness, which simply showed me the damage that I was doing to myself. In less than a month, I had been healed in more ways than one.
There are many more stories, but still I believe it has been the most transcendental experience in my life and the first deeper approach to medicines among many.
That’s very interesting because the medical system in America is totally different… I think we can learn a lot from the jungle and many different types of natural medicines.
The indigenous knowledge of medicine is valuable. They have a unique connection with the Earth, really and a much deeper spiritual connection across generations. It is very spiritual, very spiritual. Each plant is given the same respect as a person in how to talk to her, feel, and connect … there is more to be discovered.
A great example, Maki! For the indigenous Chileans, Mapuche, this is a super medicine and a super food. It has the greatest concentration of antioxidants in the world and is used for a lot of medicine. It also paints your mouth purple, of course.
We talked about the intersection of indigenous knowledge and innovation and technology - can you tell us a little about your thoughts on that and how the two can work together?
Well, both sides are very positive. I feel like the indigenous have a very different way of seeing the earth, not as something to provide production, but as something normal for them on a daily basis, for eating, breathing, tranquility. So it is something that they take with them day by day to survive. By living constantly in the open air, in the environment, they know very well each crop, each tree, what it is used for. They have a lot of knowledge and understand good management of the environment.
But also in this present era there is much, much, much, much, much, much, much to do. Climate change, no water, desertification. So, in many places communities have no water left. So technology in this model can be put together in a very good way. There is non-invasive technology that can be very efficient along with that ancestral knowledge. I feel technology and the indigenous can go very well together.
In the book I am reading, ‘Braiding Sweetgrass’ by Robin Wall Kimmerer, she suggests that if anyone can do one thing to build a better relationship with the world, they should grow a garden. In a world with much extractivism, how do you think humans can better coexist with the world?
Big question, what a difficult question. There are many ways to coexist better with the world. But I think cultivating a garden is a very good start. This would help us reconnect with ourselves again. Nowadays people fight among themselves. There is no love, no time. So in the garden you plant a seed, you need to dedicate time to it, you need to form a relationship, you need a connection. If you don’t dedicate time and form a relationship, the seed will die, and that's what is happening with our species. There is no connection between us anymore, or between us and the natural. So it feels that the garden is a very good way to start learning about thousands of different factors. There is nothing better than being well with oneself. And what better to start with good food.
What advice do you have for people who are starting a garden? How do you start? What resources would you suggest?
First, understand that it will be hard! There are always things that will go wrong, but if you don't start you will never know. Each one of us has that natural instinct to cultivate, it comes from generation to generation.
As a recommendation, get informed before starting. Where do I live? What is the climate? What crops will grow best at this date? That is very key to start a vegetable garden. We are not going to grow a tomato here that needs 30 degrees (celsius) in winter. How does each plant work? Read a little bit, research and understand, then dare to begin.
I will put together a list of books as a guide for anyone looking for resources!
Looking into the future, Do you believe that Homo sapiens can live with the future Earth?
Totally. I think you have to have a very positive outlook. There are people, many people, doing very interesting things. And there we go again with the mix between indigenous, non-indigenous, gringo, Chilean technology. There are many people doing positive things,
Some people are not positive - ‘We did climate change, nothing can be done. We are not going to get anywhere.’ On the other hand, we can do great things with small actions. I think we can. It's also part of evolution. At some point we will disappear and another species will take our place.
Thank you for teaching me so much, being very patient with my Spanish, and for helping me reconnect with something I used to love as a child.
Thanks to you, Thomas.
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References:
Videos on Permacultures: One and Two
Suggested Reading:
User Guide for new gardeners coming soon!
