The Desert teaches us:
Life, Memory, and Resilience
Janette Terrazas Islas, EHC CTC
Of all the ecosystems I know, the desert has been my home and one of my greatest teachers. For those of us who inhabit this territory —human and nonhuman— living conditions can be deeply challenging. Today, the climate grows increasingly extreme: summers burn with greater intensity, and drought deepens, placing the delicate web of life we depend on at risk.
Questions arise:
When did our grandmother mountains stop recharging?
On what day did the water stop flowing in the Rio Grande?
Why has it become so much harder to plant and harvest food in the desert?
Is the border wall a threat only to the human family, or to the entire ecosystem?
In the mountains our relatives live : coyotes, deer, mesquite, nopales, ocelots, snakes, squirrels, ocotillos, rabbits, lizards, tarantulas, agaves, roadrunners—among thousands of species that coexist in this landscape of sand, which in its silence brings us closer to stillness and calm. With every drop of rain, the prayers of our ancestors sow hope.
“Flowers grow from concrete”. This image evokes the memory of a river that no longer carries water. And yet, each year, migratory birds return to rest in its bed, as if reclaiming the land that once held them for generations. The plants, remembering the river’s former flow, make space for bees to dance among the mesquite.
Is memory what gives us the resilience to remain alive?
Water is our mother, and she is also our memory.
Here in the desert, life, food, and medicine grow—sometimes with very little water. It is possible to survive in the desert if one comes to know it. The desert teaches humility: to take only what is necessary, to care for life, and to sustain one another in community so that we may continue to exist.
Janette lives in the Chihuahuan Desert, where she cultivates the land with joy, hope, creativity, and perseverance, just as her ancestors did with justice and dignity. She is currently enjoying a fellowship program at La Semilla Community Farm.
