Esperanza: Bilingual, transcontinental media adventure

Ecovillages in Mexico, transportation activists in Guadalajara, green rooftops and urban agriculture in Cuba, ecotheater in Brazil and reforestation projects throughout the Americas - the Green Movement is thriving in colorful and exciting ways in Latin America, but how much do you read about it in our media?

The Esperanza Project, TheEsperanzaProject.org, is a new, nonprofit, multimedia and multilingual green web portal giving sustainability leaders in the Global South the voice they deserve in the global narrative on the environment.

The Project began when I was laid off from my job as travel editor of the Houston Chronicle. After a 23-year career in the newspaper industry, I sought to weave together the various threads of my career writing about the environment, Latino immigrant affairs and travel, and teaching and mentoring journalists and writers at the university and community levels.

I decided to make an epic journey for the entire year of 2010, beginning in Mexico in January and ending in Patagonia in December. The idea is to visit and document creative and resourceful sustainability projects throughout the Americas, sharing ideas and gleaning inspiration from those I meet along the way, and recruiting and training an ongoing web of contributors.

At the same time, I hope to raise the visibility of these unsung heroes while sharing multimedia and social media networking skills and a forum on which to share their work and their ideas. And most importantly, as the word “Esperanza” implies, this is a search for hope in dangerous times.

I invite Ode readers to join me as I document this voyage. I'll be looking for readers and writers and translators and promoters on all levels. If you're interested in a constructive, inclusive dialog on the global environmental threats that face us all, if you're looking for inspiration and fresh ideas from beyond our borders, please sign up now for your free subscription and help us spread the word. Here are more details on how you can help: www.TheEsperanzaProject.org/get-involved. Here is more background on The Esperanza Project: www.TheEsperanzaProject.org/about. And here is the Spanish-language version; we seek volunteers to help us establish a new page in Portuguese, as well. TheEsperanzaProject.org/es.

Like our symbol, the monarch butterfly whose annual migration connects North and South, we cross political boundaries, which are no barrier to the air we breathe, the water we drink and the climate that sustains us all. Please join us today in this transcontinental conversation of hope as we make the transition to a society that will sustain us all.