Born from the land’s cradle: books on women, community, and the global climate crisis

A review collection from Zo Navarro

A climate crisis is becoming more apparent as the year goes on. Multiple reports worldwide
showcase increasing heat temperatures, rising water levels for our seas and oceans, or melting
ice caps and glaciers at the North and South regions of the Earth. Carbon emissions, pollution,
smog, less green spaces, endangerment of flora and fauna species are also some of the other
effects of abusing natural resources. As reported by the United Nations Chronicle (2007), these
concerns were raised as early as the 1940s during the Industrial Revolution. In 1988, it was
observed that global warming demanded more attention and resolution as its effects became
more prominent in society.

Grassroots and administrative efforts, local or international, have since been made to minimize,
and therefore eventually resolve, the environmental crisis. It bears to make individuals think to
care for their surroundings more, to be mindful of their actions and consumption, and that
Earth’s resources, despite being vast, are not limitless. Resolving the climate crisis requires joint
effort and inspires community among people. It also centers women as the protagonist inspired
to take charge of changing their lives and of others.

Here are three books about community, the environment, and women who voice their
advocacies.

1. “All Over Creation,” by Ruth Ozeki

A story of environmental activism centers on aging farmers and their community visited by their
estranged daughter, Yumi Fuller, who has to fulfill her parents’ business. Fuller, with a different
life, work, and family since she ran away in her teens, now must understand the sentiments of
her parents regarding their farm, and how it connects to a controversy about genetically
modified food. Told through interchanging characters, events and viewpoints, it nurtures readers
the way crops are planted: with patience and trust.

2. “When the Hibiscus Falls,” by M. Evelina Galang

A collection connected through various narrators, their generations past and present, and the
echoes of their family ties, it confronts an ever-changing picture of blood relations and their
history, extending beyond that from ancestral houses, summer vacations in provinces, and an
intimate exploration of Filipino culture and the diaspora. The daughters, mothers, aunts, grandmothers and cousins come to a unison about their hurricanes and typhoons, their roots, and the trauma that shaped its growth, and leaving lessons for future generations to bear fruit and be blessed with.

3. “Olga Dies Dreaming” by Xochitl Gonzalez

A story of gentrified neighborhoods, marginalized identities, the weight of family versus the fight
for a greater environmental and community cause. These are seen through the eyes of Olga
Acevedo, an in-demand wedding planner, and her politician brother, Prieto Acevedo. As a
devastated past with hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico barrels along with their mother’s returning
presence, they learn to find their true calling, identities, truths, and a genuineness to recognize
their history while ensuring futures, families and communities are not erased. The narration
goes back-and-forth between past, present, future, through the utilization of letters. With a
contemporary understanding of a changing world, it finds itself grounded in what it means to
protect and defend what lies close to one’s heart.