My interest in serving as a Student Representative for ISEE stems from my understanding that epistemological and ontological pluralism, or diverse ways of being, knowing, and doing, are essential to creating ecological economies. As a young woman in diaspora and as a mestiza, whose ancestors were both colonizers and colonized, my diverse experiences and multifaceted identity have been fundamental in my development as a critical thinker and as an applied scientist.

I was born and raised in Colombia and migrated to the U.S. with my mother at age twelve. Learning a new language and set of social norms to fully participate in my new society, while at the same time embracing my home culture, instilled in me the importance of diversity to problem-solving.  

My research in agroecology and my collaborations with the Embera Tribal Government to revitalize embodied cultural practices and kinship relations with stingless honeybees was sparked from observing the impacts of a globalized industrial food economy. While living in the U.S., I noticed the omnipresence of fast-food restaurants, a rarity for me growing up in Colombia.

After many years, I have visited family back in Colombia and have noticed that these same fast-food restaurants are appearing one after the other, alongside an industrialized mode of food production. It became apparent to me that this homogenization of our global food system is not only changing the face of the earth, impacting our relationship to food, but also resulting in the loss of biocultural diversity and important land-based knowledges. 

My personal and academic experiences contribute to ISEE’s goal to better understand the relationships among ecological, social, and economic systems for a shared goal of global sustainability.