Roots & Routes IC

Roots & Routes IC Join a worldwide intercultural movement to visibilize the threatened Chocó forests, ancestral lands, & waters.

04/07/2026

🌳✊🏾💧🌴🍌 ¡Chachilla lala' tusha kumuinchi ura' chusaii!
[Que todos los Chachis vivamos bien en nuestra tierra]

Habitantes de las comunidades Chachi de La Tranca, Corriente Grande y Calle Mansa,
pertenecientes a la parroquia Telembí, cantón Eloy Alfaro, provincia Esmeraldas, se han
visto obligados a abandonar sus territorios ancestrales debido a hechos de violencia
registrados recientemente en la zona provocados por ciudadanos ajenos a la comunidad.

Hoy alzamos la voz por la Nacionalidad Chachi y por la defensa de su territorio ancestral.

Lo que atraviesan no es casualidad: es violencia, despojo y desplazamiento forzado. Frente al miedo y a la amenaza, exigimos justicia, protección inmediata y respeto pleno a sus derechos colectivos.

Desde Roots & Routes, seguimos caminando junto al pueblo Chachi y defendiendo su derecho a permanecer en su territorio sin violencia.
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🌳✊🏾💧🌴🍌 ¡Chachilla lala' tusha kumuinchi ura' chusaii!
[May all us Chachi people live well on our land!]

Residents of the Chachi communities of La Tranca, Corriente Grande, and Calle Mansa,
located in the parish of Telembí, Eloy Alfaro canton, Esmeraldas province, have been
forced to flee their ancestral lands due to recent acts of violence in the area perpetrated by outsiders.

Today we raise our voices for the Chachi people and in defense of their ancestral territory.

What they are going through is no coincidence: it is violence, dispossession, and forced displacement. In the face of fear and threats, we demand justice, immediate protection, and full respect for their collective rights.

At Roots & Routes, we continue to walk alongside the Chachi people and defend their right to remain on their territory free from violence.

On World Water Day, the people of Ecuador's Afro-descendant and Indigenous communities in the Chocó Biogeographic Region...
03/22/2026

On World Water Day, the people of Ecuador's Afro-descendant and Indigenous communities in the Chocó Biogeographic Region continue fighting against contamination from mining and oil palm plantations.

In our documentary, Together For Water, youth from La Chiquita and Guadualito, women river guardians, and elders narrate without filters about their battle against their invisibilization and for Rights of Nature and human right to clean water that restores health, culture, and dignity to their families.

We are all water people, and from Roots & Routes we honor their resistance by amplifying their united cry: We want our water! 💧✊ To take direct action to the cause, donate: https://www.rootsroutes.org/donate

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En el Día Mundial del Agua, los habitantes de las comunidades afrodescendientes e indígenas de la Región Biogeográfica del Chocó en Ecuador siguen luchando contra la contaminación de la minería y las plantaciones de palma aceitera.

En nuestro documental, Queremos Nuestra Agua, jóvenes de La Chiquita y Guadualito, mujeres guardianas de ríos y ancianos narran sin filtros su batalla contra la invisibilización, por los Derechos de la Naturaleza y el derecho humano al agua limpia que devuelve salud, cultura y dignidad a sus familias.

Todos somos gente de agua, y desde Raices y Rutas honramos su resistencia amplificando un grito unido: ¡Queremos nuestra agua! 💧✊

03/10/2026

R&R’s woven our roots into Stanford University’s Career Fair—a vibrant harvest of connections! 🌍✨

Gauri Kathula, former Youth Visionary Collective (YVC) Coordinator is now in her first year at Stanford! She opened these doors to this extraordinary fair for R&R to continue dreaming of possible paths. Three young visionaries from UC Santa Cruz joined Gauri to represent the YVC at the Do Good Now fair at Stanford’s campus. Many thanks to them all!

Drawn by the call to join a movement to visibilize Chocó's threatened forests, lands & waters, film makers, cartographers, biochem alchemists, and computer scientists signed up to join the YVC, learn more about R&R summer programs, and to get informed about Roots & Routes’ work in general. 18 Stanford students joined in three hours! 🌱

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R&R ha echado raíces en la feria de empleo de la Universidad de Stanford, ¡una vibrante cosecha de conexiones! 🌍✨

¡Gauri Kathula, ex-coordinadora del Colectivo de Jóvenes Visionarios (YVC), está ahora en su primer año en Stanford! Ella abrió las puertas de esta extraordinaria feria para que R&R siguiera soñando con posibles caminos. Tres jóvenes visionarios de la Universidad de California en Santa Cruz se unieron a Gauri para representar al YVC en la feria Do Good Now en el campus de Stanford. ¡Muchas gracias a todos ellos!

Atraídos por la llamada a unirse a un movimiento para visibilizar los bosques, las tierras y las aguas amenazadas del Chocó, cineastas, cartógrafos, bioquímicos alquimistas e informáticos se inscribieron para unirse al YVC, aprender más sobre los programas de verano de R&R e informarse sobre el trabajo de Roots & Routes en general. ¡18 estudiantes de Stanford se unieron en tres horas! 🌱





🎬✨ We are thrilled to announce that Together for Water was nominated for an award at the Barcelona Indie Festival! 🌟🏆We ...
03/07/2026

🎬✨ We are thrilled to announce that Together for Water was nominated for an award at the Barcelona Indie Festival! 🌟🏆

We are honored and grateful to for the nomination 🙏🌍 and hope our film continues to reach wider audience in our mission to defend the Chocó Rainforest 🌿💧🌳🗺️.

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🎬✨ ¡Estamos emocionados de anunciar que nuestra película Queremos Nuestra Agua fue nominada en el Barcelona Indie Festival en España! 🌟🏆

�Estamos honrados y agradecidos con por la nominación 🙏🌍 y esperamos que nuestra película siga llegando a una audiencia más amplia en el cumplimiento de nuestra misión: defender la selva del Chocó 🌿💧🌳🗺️.






Tropical forests in Ecuador’s Chocó are being replaced by oil palm monocultures.Our film, Together for Water💦, created b...
03/04/2026

Tropical forests in Ecuador’s Chocó are being replaced by oil palm monocultures.

Our film, Together for Water💦, created by an intercultural collective, shows that these extractive biofuel economies threaten forests, rivers, livelihoods, and territorial rights. Roots & Routes stands with frontline Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities in Esmeraldas to defend life, land, and the living world 🌿.

🌎 Another future in the Chocó is possible — rooted in community and care.

🌿✨ We’re thrilled to introduce the YVC Winter ’26 team! 💪🎬These talented interns will be putting R&R’s organizational go...
03/03/2026

🌿✨ We’re thrilled to introduce the YVC Winter ’26 team! 💪🎬
These talented interns will be putting R&R’s organizational goals into action, helping to distribute and spread the word about our latest film .choco 🌎 with the world, research and visibilize the Chocó Biogeographic Region, and interweave intercultural relations among one another 🤝.

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🌿✨ ¡Estamos muy emocionados de presentar al equipo de pasantes de invierno 2026 de YVC! 💪🎬
Este talentoso grupo estará poniendo en acción los objetivos organizacionales de R&R, ayudando a distribuir y difundir nuestra más reciente película .choco 🌎, investigando y visibilizando la región biogeográfica del Chocó 🌱, y entretejiendo relaciones interculturales 🤝.





Roots & Routes IC is excited to invite youth to apply for our remote internship program, the Youth Visionary Collective....
01/26/2026

Roots & Routes IC is excited to invite youth to apply for our remote internship program, the Youth Visionary Collective. We still have a few open spots for our 10-week ❄️ winter season (February 2–April 10) and would love to welcome students from around the world to become new interns. Students can also inquire about upcoming seasons!

✨ 6 hours/week
🌍 Fully remote
🗣️ English required | Spanish a plus (and required for some roles)

Roots & Routes IC strengthens ancestral roots of wisdom, builds solidarity between people of diverse cultures, and interweaves shared routes towards environmental justice. Our keystone project at the moment is our film Together for Water. By the way, please let me know if you are interested in showing the film to your classes.

Youth can learn more and apply by clicking on this Indeed link or by following the links/QR code on the attached poster.
Please share this opportunity with your student networks!! Thanks! Juli Hazlewood

01/21/2026

From music to movement…🎶🌎

I’m Juli Hazlewood. The Grateful Dead didn’t just shape my soundtrack—they shaped my life.

The music of Bobby Weir & the Grateful Dead taught me to listen to the Earth, to plant myself with purpose, and to give love back to the world. 🌎💫

That journey led me to establish Roots & Routes—and to standing with Indigenous and ancestral Black communities of the Chocó Rainforest in dignity, justice, and hope.

Forever grateful to the Furthur Foundation and the Weir family for believing in our work and helping our documentary grow even furthur.

Wheel to the storm and fly, Bobby. Your legacy continues through love, music, and action. 🌿🎶

Not fade away 🎸⚡️❤️.





I tried to get Instagram to share this post to Facebook but alas… I can only share the link with you… it’s a good one th...
12/10/2025

I tried to get Instagram to share this post to Facebook but alas… I can only share the link with you… it’s a good one though. So, check it out if you’d like if you didn’t already see it over there 😉

👁️ See English Below¡Estamos encantados de anunciar que nuestro documental «💦Queremos Nuestra Agua💦» ha sido calificada ...
11/05/2025

👁️ See English Below
¡Estamos encantados de anunciar que nuestro documental «💦Queremos Nuestra Agua💦» ha sido calificada como UNA SELECCIÓN OFICIAL y está SIENDO PROYECTADO 🎥 en el XIV Festival de Cine Ecuatoriano Kunturñawi!
¿Cuándo y dónde se puede ver «💦Queremos Nuestra Agua💦»?

Miércoles, 5 de noviembre,
a las 19:00 h en Salinas de Guaranda - Fábrica de Chocolate.

Viernes, 7 de noviembre,
a las 8:00 h en
Puyo - Unidad Educativa Francisco de Orellana.

Miércoles, 26 de noviembre,
a las 15:00 h en
Universidad Estatal Amazónica Km 2 1/2, carretera Puyo-Tena.

¡Esperamos verte allí! 🩵
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We are ecstatic to announce that our documentary, “Together for Water,” is an OFFICIAL SELECTION & IS SCREENING 🎥 at the XIV Festival de Cine Ecuatoriano Kunturñawi! WHEN and WHERE can you watch “Together for Water”?

Wednesday, November 5,
7:00 PM at Salinas de Guaranda - Chocolate Factory

Friday, November 7,
8:00 AM at
Puyo - Francisco de Orellana Educational
Unit

Wednesday, November 26,
3:00 PM at
Amazonian State University Km 2 1/2, Puyo- Tena highway

Hope to see you there! 🩵

10/19/2025

💧 During the Quito premiere of Together for Water, Catherine Walsh—Professor and Director of the Doctorate in Latin American Cultural Studies at Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar (Ecuador)—shared a reflection on the deep relationship between water, territory, and ancestral rights. She emphasized the urgency of defending these rights in the face of extractive destruction.

With a long trajectory accompanying Indigenous and Afro-descendant movements across Abya Yala/Latin America, it is an honor to call Dr. Walsh a friend, a mentor, and an inspiration to our work at Roots & Routes. Her presence reminded us that to care for the rivers is also to care for memory, for life, and for the collective right to exist with dignity ❤️.

🎥 Together for Water

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Santa Cruz, CA

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