LOS Esqualos...
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After Los Escualos students participated in an exchange program organized by the Colorado Rocky Mountain School in 2013, Roberto was delighted when founder Sean Bierle approached him about working with the Alzar School. Today, Los Escualos students regularly join Alzar students on Patagonian expeditions, paddling down the Rio Baker and backpacking in Patagonia National Park.
Traveling together allows students to not only develop friendships and learn from one another, but also to share lessons about the importance of preserving the region’s unique cultural and environmental heritage.
This is a major part of Roberto and Claudia’s mission: to educate youth who value and defend Patagonia’s environment. This particular aspect of Los Escualos’ mission has become more and more important in recent years. A few years ago, proposals to build five major hydro-dams on the Rio Baker and Rio Pascua were introduced in the region. Roberto wanted his students to decide whether Los Escualos, as an organization, would be for or against the construction of the dams. He is passionate about empowering students as community members and decision makers, and this was a perfect opportunity for Los Escualos to act on its mission. “We asked all of the students, one by one. Everyone voted, from the youngest to oldest.” When all the votes were tallied, the decision was announced: Los Escualos was against the dams.
Today, Los Escualos is a member of Patagonia Sin Represas, an anti-dam advocacy organization that ultimately succeeded in securing a rejection of the dam proposals. But Roberto insists that whatever the students’ had decided, for or against the dams, he and Claudia would have followed. “What’s important is that they have an opinion,” he says, reflecting on the experience. He and Claudia are driven by the idea that when young people have the opportunity to intimately get to know their environment, hiking its mountains and paddling its rivers, they will value it more.
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"As long as there is water, we'll keep paddling." - Claudia Contreras