"“La Tierra es vida” (The land is life) is a popular dicho (folk saying) used by the Mexican-origin people of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado to describe the belief that humans must respect the land because it is the source of life. This land ethic instructs people to act as caretakers of the earth. It also requires of them a sense of political responsibility because the community must actively confront greed before it leads to abuse of the land. This aspect of the Mexican American land ethic is retold in folktales like that of the Forest Spirit. The “Forest Spirit drove the man out of the forests for cutting down too many trees, for he was greedy and without shame.” Folktales like this relate the folly of greedy people who act out of balance with nature and community because they suffer from sinvergüenzas - a shameless indifference to the harm that others suffer as a consequence of their actions, which are designed solely for individual gain."
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Original Language: English
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Devon Gerardo Peña, Mexican Americans and the Environment: Tierra Y Vida, University of Arizona Press, (2005), p. xix.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mexican_Americans
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Mexican Americans
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