Playa Ventanilla is a Zapotec Indian village on the coast of Oaxaca. The people and land are beautiful and captivating. This beach was a pit stop for Guatemalan immigrants traveling to the US, and it is currently at the collision point between ancient ways of life and modern influences.
This page describes portions of a privately funded ecological design program carried on by Ecosolar (currently), and by César López Negrete (1998-2001).
The goals of the project are:
- Safeguard the existing ecology and culture, including traditional systems appropriate for low population density
- Encourage the development of sustainable, low-entropy systems for areas of higher population density
- Fortify the villager’s resolve to resist loss of land, culture, and incursion of inappropriate development—something they have done remarkably well so far
The parts of the program where Proyecto Pacífico and Cesar Lopez Negrete have been involved include
- development of sanitary local sources for drinking water
- improvement in the management of feces
- greywater reuse for home gardens
- fruit trees to improve nutrition
- enhancing local business
- economic self-reliance
Other parts of the program include the construction of a health clinic and a restaurant, owned and operated by a women’s cooperative.
The cooperative continues to function, and has achieved international recognition and awards for their wetlands and turtle conservation work.