Doing Hope... in Mexico
This is the story of the Micelias

These are the 25 women who participated in our first Learning Circle last month as part of the Amos Climate Fellowship. This programme supports and funds women activists and land defenders in Mexico and Central America.

During one of the sessions, the participants chose to name themselves Micelias, derived from the Spanish Micelio — the word for the underground network known as the ‘Wood Wide Web’ that connects plants and trees, allowing them to share water, nutrients and life. A quiet, powerful underground web of cooperation.

From the start, we chose to call this gathering a ‘Learning Circle’ to move away from traditional models where an external expert comes in to teach. We shared knowledge like the mycelium does — without hierarchies, with deep listening and by creating connections.

The gathering took place in Isla Arena, Campeche, Mexico — a small fishing community of around 700 people that has developed sustainable, community-based tourism projects. The first and second cohorts of the Amos Climate Fellowship travelled from across Mexico and Central America to join us. Emily Reyes, from CEPAD in Nicaragua, also joined for the week’s sessions.

Before the Learning Circle, participants sent proposals for workshops and activities they wished to share or lead. We grouped these under four key goals. Below are just some of the goals we had for the week, and some of the experiences we shared.

1. Healing as part of justice

Restoring Life: Valiana Aguilar — an Amos Trust Climate Fellow and member of the collective Suumil Móokt’aan — showed us how they are restoring life to the land.
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We understood healing as a fundamental part of our struggles. A particularly powerful experience was visiting the project led by Valiana Aguilar — an Amos Trust Climate Fellow — in Sinanché, Yucatán.

Valiana and Ángel Ku, her life partner, manage the collective Suumil Móokt’aan, which means “the rope with which words are woven” in Maya.

Together, they’ve brought life back to the land through syntropic agroforestry — a farming method that allows the soil to recover by increasing canopy cover and using the leaves and bark of cover plants as natural fertilisers. As Valiana explained, this is done by using different types of plants, each with a specific role.

Another powerful experience was a medicinal plants workshop from Guatemala, facilitated by current Climate Fellow Fabiola Monzón. She showed us that ancestral plant knowledge remains alive — though often forgotten because of consumerism ...

Some, like the moringa tree — known as the “miracle tree” — take in large amounts of carbon. When they’re pruned — “with our hands, because we are people of the land and our skill lies in our hands,” said Valiana — their branches are ploughed back into the soil, increasing its organic content and nutrients. Step by step, this creates a healthy, living ecosystem that also gives back food and hope.

Valiana continued, “The monoculture declared war on the land and the people who care for it. We are the grandchildren of the hacienda, and we want to heal history.”

Their project reminded us that healing is not just about the land — we also need to heal our memories and our bodies.

Another powerful experience was a medicinal plants workshop from Guatemala, facilitated by current Climate Fellow Fabiola Monzón. She showed us that ancestral plant knowledge remains alive — though often forgotten because of consumerism — and that we need to remember our grandmothers’ remedies and the wisdom rooted in the earth.

2. Pursuing joy as a form of resistance

Working The Land: “They told us that working the land was ugly, that being under the sun was horrible,” shared Frida Rocha, a Climate Fellow from Mexico City.
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We reflected deeply on joy.
We discussed how working the land is often associated with suffering. “They told us that working the land was ugly, that being under the sun was horrible,” shared Frida Rocha, a Climate Fellow from Mexico City.

We talked about how to reframe that narrative — how to make working with the land a source of joy, communicate that joy and use it as a tool of resistance. Returning to the land and caring for life is not only a struggle for survival — it can also be a source of joy. And of course, there was lots of dancing, laughing and sharing playful moments.

3. Forging authentic and meaningful connections

Creating Space: Amos Trust Climate Fellows Mitzy Cortes (Oaxaca), Thania Marreros (Puebla), and Tsitsiki (Michoacán) sharing lunch and conversation.
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Throughout the gathering, we created space to share stories and struggles and to hear how each other’s projects were developing. We watched videos from Tía Ayala, a participant from Tepoztlán, Mexico, about her ancestral struggle against a golf course and tourist projects that would deforest her local mountain.

As part of her Climate Fellowship project, she is forming a women-led brigade to prevent wildfires — many of which are intentionally started by groups seeking to develop the land for their own interests.

We also heard from Belinda Camarena, a lawyer and land defender, who spoke about the conflict over La Pona — the last forest in Aguascalientes, Mexico, endangered by real estate development. Belinda’s Fellowship project focuses on creating a safe, supportive space for women who have faced gender-based violence within social movements — from men who are meant to be allies.

As part of her Climate Fellowship project, she is forming a women-led brigade to prevent wildfires — many of which are intentionally started by groups seeking to develop the land for their own interests.

Emily Reyes, Director of CEPAD, spoke about the current challenges women face in Nicaragua due to systemic machismo — from husbands preventing them from taking part in programmes to government restrictions that limit their access to certain territories.

These stories resonated deeply and helped shape a loving, respectful space where we could share experiences openly. A genuine desire emerged to keep learning together, acknowledging shared challenges across the region like monoculture, gentrification and struggles against real estate cartels.

Ideas also arose for future workshops — ones that some want to lead, and others hope to attend.

What now?

A World of Possibilities: Xananine Calvillo, a Climate Fellow from Tehuacán, Mexico.
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“A world of possibilities — that’s what we need. To open worlds of possibilities,” said Xananine Calvillo, a Climate Fellow from Tehuacán, Mexico. And this is what we want to do: continue expanding this web and keep being Micelias.

This Learning Circle reminded us that climate justice is not only about protecting ecosystems — it’s about transforming the systems that harm both people and planet.

The second generation of the Climate Fellowship will continue planning their projects, which begin in July. In the meantime, we’ll keep exploring ways to sustain ourselves as a community — through listening, sharing and walking alongside one another.

This Learning Circle reminded us that climate justice is not only about protecting ecosystems — it’s about transforming the systems that harm both people and planet. It means recognising the historical and ongoing inequalities that determine who is most affected by environmental collapse, and who gets to speak and be heard.

For the Micelias, climate justice looks like women reclaiming space, healing ancestral wounds, supporting one another and defending land joyfully. In doing so, they resist destruction and cultivate futures rooted in care, equity and collective strength.

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