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Feminists Around the World: Xiye Bastida · Stuff Mom Never Told You

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  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Sanny and Samantha and welcome to stuff
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  Speaker 1: I never told your prediction of I heart radio.
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  Speaker 2: And today for Feminist around the World, we are jumping
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  Speaker 2: in with a young activist who has been dedicating her
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  Speaker 2: life to climate activism for almost her half her life.
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  Speaker 2: And I say this as she's like twenty two, so
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  Speaker 2: already so full into it, and she's involving a lot
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  Speaker 2: of other young activists as well, coming together for the cause.
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  Speaker 2: And we are actually talking about Gia Bastida. So. Bastida
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  Speaker 2: is a twenty two year old Mexican indigenous woman who
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  Speaker 2: was born in San Pedro, Tultepec, Mexico and is a
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  Speaker 2: part of the Automi Tutec community. And with her upbringing,
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  Speaker 2: it isn't surprising that she has become such a powerful
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  Speaker 2: voice in regards to the climate crisis. So her parents
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  Speaker 2: have been a part of the environmental activism as well
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  Speaker 2: and have taught her all of these values with their
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  Speaker 2: own works and obviously in their everyday life. So in
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  Speaker 2: an L magazine article, they talk a bit about her parents'
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  Speaker 2: future plans, about how a devastating flood helped cultivate Bastida's future.
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  Speaker 2: They write her parents' longtime environmental activists had lined up
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  Speaker 2: year long appointments at New York City's Center for Earth Ethics,
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  Speaker 2: but the day before their flight, rainfall flooded their drought
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  Speaker 2: weary town, including spillover from heavily polluted lagoons and rivers.
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  Speaker 2: On my last day, I was with my best friend, Bastida, says.
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  Speaker 2: We were driving her to meet her mom, but we
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  Speaker 2: couldn't get out because all of downtown was flooded. Eventually
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  Speaker 2: they escaped, but the experience stayed with her. I remember
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  Speaker 2: the pain of leaving without knowing what happened. Is a
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  Speaker 2: town of ten thousand people with little to no government assistance, she.
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  Speaker 1: Explains, and though the town has since recovered, the incident
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  Speaker 1: left a lasting impression, along with her own family's deep
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  Speaker 1: love and ties to the environment. In a Levi's campaign,
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  Speaker 1: she explains some of her philosophies that were influenced by
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  Speaker 1: her family. She says, quote as my grandma told me,
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  Speaker 1: leave everything better than you found it, and that's something
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  Speaker 1: that could be applied to anything, you know, to a
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  Speaker 1: room when you visit someone's house, but that also applies
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  Speaker 1: to our world. My dad also taught me that when
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  Speaker 1: we think about our actions. We have to think about
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  Speaker 1: the past seven generations to learn from their wisdom, and
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  Speaker 1: the future seven generations to think about their stability. Along
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  Speaker 1: with that, I am always reminded about a very important
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  Speaker 1: Indigenous saying, which is we don't inherit the land from
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  Speaker 1: our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.
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  Speaker 2: Right with that, she has also grown to understand as
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  Speaker 2: much as it is environmental protection, but this type of
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  Speaker 2: work is also about gender equity and protection. In an
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  Speaker 2: interview with the podcast Time and Sensitive, she says, well,
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  Speaker 2: for me, some of the statistics say, for example, in
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  Speaker 2: countries where there's drought, women are at higher risk for
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  Speaker 2: being violated because they have to walk further to get water.
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  Speaker 2: That's the main example. We always get, how unsafe the
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  Speaker 2: conditions get with the climate crisis exacerbating basically access to savitation,
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  Speaker 2: access to safe drinking water. But for me, it goes
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  Speaker 2: deeper than that, because when you are exploiting mother Earth,
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  Speaker 2: it's exploiting femininity, it's exploiting women. Women are threatened and
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  Speaker 2: attacked just for being women. There's no other reason, and
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  Speaker 2: it's just because they're women. That is what's happening to
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  Speaker 2: Mother Earth. The body that gives us everything that we
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  Speaker 2: need to survive and thrive and take care of us.
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  Speaker 2: We're not taking care back the state.
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  Speaker 1: It continues. I come from culturally, from an indigenous community,
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  Speaker 1: from the Ottomitotec peoples, and we practice this reciprocity. If
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  Speaker 1: I take, I must give back. It's what moms do,
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  Speaker 1: it's what women do. What has happened to our international
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  Speaker 1: relations is that our framework for how to have negotiations
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  Speaker 1: among countries is emotions have to be taken out of
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  Speaker 1: negotiations because they don't work. That's realism, which is older.
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  Speaker 1: We don't really use it anymore, but that's the fact
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  Speaker 1: of our world. There's feminist critiques to this worldview, and
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  Speaker 1: the critique says, we are emotional as humans. If you
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  Speaker 1: take emotion out of decision making, you're creating a world
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  Speaker 1: where you are giving path to violence. So for me,
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  Speaker 1: when you realize that we have to protect women's rights,
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  Speaker 1: it has to come together with the fact that we
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  Speaker 1: have to protect mother earth because women are more closely
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  Speaker 1: tied with that instinct of protection. So whatever policy you
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  Speaker 1: put forward, you're going to do it in both fronts. So, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it's a more interconnected way of looking at.
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  Speaker 2: It, So it's obvious that she has been using her
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  Speaker 2: knowledge and passion to fight for justice without slowing down
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  Speaker 2: at all, and she's been doing it again for most
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  Speaker 2: of her life. From OnEarth dot org. Besthela's leadership skills
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  Speaker 2: took flight at fifteen after she moved to New York
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  Speaker 2: City and joined a high school environmental club. She helped
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  Speaker 2: steer club activities from watching movies about recycling plastic to
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  Speaker 2: writing politicians. Jia started speaking publicly about climate justice and
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  Speaker 2: indigenous rights and mobilize six hundreds to it Is from
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  Speaker 2: her school to participate in the first climate strike in
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  Speaker 2: March of twenty nineteen.
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  Speaker 1: And here's what she told Elle magazine about that climate
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  Speaker 1: strike quote, I still cannot believe that Friday's for Future
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  Speaker 1: New York City was able to organize three hundred thousand
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  Speaker 1: people in twenty nineteen to come out to the streets.
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  Speaker 1: That has been the most amazing thing I've ever been
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  Speaker 1: part of. I hope the movement grows to a point
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  Speaker 1: where we are able to work on different fronts, striking
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  Speaker 1: for public pressure but then also mobilizing from the inside.
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  Speaker 1: When I started organizing, I was fifteen, but I'm twenty now.
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  Speaker 1: We're all growing up and entering the workplace and getting
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  Speaker 1: jobs in policy, the agriculture sector, the energy sector, and
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  Speaker 1: we're going to start changing all of these industries. I
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  Speaker 1: think we have to keep that same mindset of organization,
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  Speaker 1: but within industries and institutions.
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  Speaker 2: And she's not only a part of these types of movements,
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  Speaker 2: but she's been facilitating and leading many of them. Again
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  Speaker 2: from one Earth dot org, but Stila is one of
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  Speaker 2: the lead organizers of Friday's for Future Youth Climate Strike movement,
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  Speaker 2: organizes climate strikes and speaks about climate justice issues in
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  Speaker 2: town halls. She sits on an administration committee of the
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  Speaker 2: People's Climate Movement, where she brings the voice of her
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  Speaker 2: generation that understands the climate crisis is getting worse every day,
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  Speaker 2: but chooses hope and action over despair. But Cilia is
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  Speaker 2: stubbornly optimistic that we will all find a way to
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  Speaker 2: come together to protect the Earth's resources for the mutual
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  Speaker 2: benefit of all.
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  Speaker 1: And that term stubbornly optimistic is something she ascribes to
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  Speaker 1: in her activism. Here's some more from that podcast interview
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  Speaker 1: from Time Sensitive quote. Stubborn optimism was a term coined
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  Speaker 1: by Christiana Figueres, who is one of the architects of
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  Speaker 1: the Paris Agreement, meaning that she basically convinced all of
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  Speaker 1: the countries to sign the Paris Agreement, which I don't
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  Speaker 1: know how she did that, but it's that passion that
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  Speaker 1: she has to make this planet a better place. And
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  Speaker 1: stubborn optimism really means to not give up. I can
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  Speaker 1: tell you that I will never give up because there's
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  Speaker 1: always something to fight for. Optimism It's not like for
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  Speaker 1: me some people say optimism is binding you to what
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  Speaker 1: realism are like the reality of things. It's not that
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  Speaker 1: I don't know the reality of things. It's because I
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  Speaker 1: know the reality of things that I know how urgent
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  Speaker 1: change is. That is what I hope more people embrace
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  Speaker 1: the fact that our reality is telling us that naiveness
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  Speaker 1: is actually not doing anything, that naiveness is actually ignoring it.
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  Speaker 1: Naiveness is thinking that the problem will go away without
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  Speaker 1: doing anything about it. Optimism is about believing in ourselves
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  Speaker 1: and knowing that the things that we do all matter
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  Speaker 1: to build this better world.
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  Speaker 2: Right, And in that interview, she goes to speak of
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  Speaker 2: having hope that things can change and wanting to move
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  Speaker 2: forward with that type of attitude instead of an attitude
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  Speaker 2: of saying, imagine what the world can look like if
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  Speaker 2: a lot of hopeful, optimistic, open minded people are building it,
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  Speaker 2: You see, it's a different world. So that's why I
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  Speaker 2: have this principle, because I want this good energy to
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  Speaker 2: be reflected out there. And if you all have time,
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  Speaker 2: you should go listen to it. I think it's like
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  Speaker 2: an hour a little over an hour long interview. They
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  Speaker 2: have an amazing conversation, the host and she about what
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  Speaker 2: they see for the future and what she really really
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  Speaker 2: wants throughout her activism and through her advocacy, as well
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  Speaker 2: as the fact that I didn't also want to mention
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  Speaker 2: that when that climate strike happened her own school, she
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  Speaker 2: was able to get six hundred people, but then they
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  Speaker 2: a all came together with other schools and it grew
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  Speaker 2: hundreds of thousands of people.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, And in her Elle interview she spoke about
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  Speaker 1: what continues to inspire her quote, somebody said this to
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  Speaker 1: me once, and it's so obvious, but it really did
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  Speaker 1: fill me with so much purpose. If we want to
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  Speaker 1: see the future, we just have to look at the
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  Speaker 1: decisions we make today. It's simple cause and effect, but
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  Speaker 1: it showed me that every single thing I do is
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  Speaker 1: going to impact what the future is going to look like.
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  Speaker 1: Everything we do collectively is a little window into the future.
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  Speaker 1: So what inspires me is seeing that future looking at
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  Speaker 1: that window.
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  Speaker 2: And of course she spoke on what she hopes her
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  Speaker 2: biggest impact will be in that interview, and she said, quote,
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  Speaker 2: I want to be a role model for young women
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  Speaker 2: and girls who want to change the world. If my
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  Speaker 2: parents hadn't told me they supported me in doing anything
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  Speaker 2: I wanted to do with my life, I don't think
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  Speaker 2: I would be in the position where I am today.
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  Speaker 2: If we want to inspire people, we need to tell
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  Speaker 2: them that we believe in them. That does not happen
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  Speaker 2: nearly enough with young girls. And I want to be
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  Speaker 2: an example that it's possible to choose a path in
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  Speaker 2: life that is for the betterment of the world. I
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  Speaker 2: also want to make the climate space focus more on
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  Speaker 2: intersectionality and justice. In the past, the climate movement focused
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  Speaker 2: on protecting parks or areas that cage nature. We can't
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  Speaker 2: keep separating ourselves from nature. We need to protect frontline
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  Speaker 2: communities from pollution. Yeah, so, of course she has already
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  Speaker 2: gotten a lot of recognition for her work, including being
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  Speaker 2: named in Time Magazines Time one hundred and twenty twenty three,
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  Speaker 2: awarded the Spirit of the u Win Award in twenty eighteen,
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  Speaker 2: and has Alfie also been featured in two different documentaries
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  Speaker 2: that we may need to put on our list, and
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  Speaker 2: I have no doubt we will be seeing and hearing
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  Speaker 2: from her and her work in the future.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, well as always listeners. If you have any
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  Speaker 1: thoughts about this, any suggestions for people we should highlight,
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  Speaker 1: please let us know. You can email us at Stephanie
• 10:33
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• 10:36
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• 10:47
  Speaker 1: as always to our super producer Christina, our executive producer Maya,
• 10:49
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• 10:52
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  Speaker 2: Y