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Xiuhtezcatl Martinez

  • USA
  • Boulder, Colorado

19 at the time of filming

21 at film release

The good thing about this whole mess we’re in is that we created it. Therefore, we can reverse it, we can change it. We can shift humanity like this is our tipping point. What we face is the possibility and the opportunity to evolve from here. Because right now, we are just super wrack like greedy, like lame species that is benefitting off of the exploitation and destruction of all the human natural resources. The world and the economies that are thriving right now all because of how they have destroyed and exploited other people and other people’s land, resources and cultures, you know. And so fuck that. We don’t have to be that.

His action

Since the age of 6, Xiu has banned pesticides in his city’s children’s parks, imposed a moratorium on shale gas development in Colorado. He also sued the state of Colorado and then the U.S. government for not protecting future generations. He uses his art, rap, to defend environmental justice and his heritage: indegenous wisdom.

Turning point

« At 3, 4, 5 or 6 years old, side by side in learning how to speak and how to write, how to spell my name, I was in ceremony every single day. I was learning about the genocide in the colonization that has led to the loss of our culture and the importance to reclamation with what’s been taken from us. And now I strive for that. I want to be a representative voice for my people. »

His fight

Environmental
Justice

His drive

« That ideology that the environment is separated from humans and therefore climate is an environmental issue that does not affect humans is completely broken. It needs to be replaced with something that presents the climate crisis as something that connects every issue that we care about. That puts us in a position of strength and power to be able to move forward so that our solutions are acknowledging the deep intersectionality of this crisis. »

Nowadays

« I use music to share these stories and to spread this message to connect young people. Music literally makes you move. You feel something deeper than just what the knowledge and the statistics can ever instigate and inspire. I’ve spend the last 2 years really seriously involved in this music. And like working my ass off at touring and with 28 team we played 70 shows all over the world, toured 3 different tours across the country with different artists. I want to make music that hits really hard and that people feel and that can go really far. I want to enter the mainstream. »

The Film

« I’ve seen so many environmental documentaries that are powerful and compelling, but they have no follow up and have no way for people to take what they just viewed. Yet the whole question is where do we go from here? What happens now? That’s what I see missing. With this film, we have the potential to make this about something more than just a piece of entertainment like how is this going to be a part of shifting culture? How is this piece of media going to play a role in waking people up, in connecting them and giving them the tools they need to plug in? We cannot just make another documentary about inspiring youth and big issues, no more time for that at all and I’m not trying to be part of that. That’s why I believe in this project because I know it’s different and it’s bigger than us. »

Follow the training

To understand everything about environmental justice