Isidro Baldenegro
Activist – Sierra Madres, Chihuahua, Mexico (Deceased)
Isidro Baldenegro was a was a farmer and community leader of Mexico’s Tarahumara people as well as prominent indigenous activist. Murdered by gunman on January 18th of this year, Baldenegro had worked to protect the Mexico’s Sierra Madre range, one of the world’s most diverse ecosystems from drug traffickers and loggers. His work had won him the 2005 prestigious Goldman Environmental Award. Baldenegro was active in his defense of the ecosystem in Sierra Madre where his community has been living for hundreds of years. He founded an NGO in 1993 to combat deforestation. He organized community marches and blockades that caused a temporary shut-down of logging by the government in 2002.
Not so much warlike or aggressive as stubbornly resistant, the Tarahumara were never absorbed into the Aztec Empire. For centuries, they have defiantly withstood first Spanish and then Mexican encroachments upon their lives, continuing to maintain much of their language and many of their religious beliefs. Beneath the veneer of Christianity, an ancestral moral code was so rigorously enforced that a Tarahumara could not even tell a lie.
Following the destruction of the Aztec Empire by cruel Spaniards armed with guns, germs and steel, the Tarahumara were subjected to harsh forced labor and marginalization within their own country. Seeking to escape Spanish cruelty, the Tarahumara withdrew into the Sierra Madre of Southern Chihuahua.
Baldenegro grew up in his ancestral land in the Sierra Madre mountains, a region known for its biodiversity. His father was assassinated after he took a stand against logging, and Isidro was a witness.
His battle against logging goes back decades. In 1993, Baldenegro formed an advocacy group that began to organize sit-ins and marches to force the government to put an end to logging. In 2003, Baldenegro was jailed on false charges of arms and drug possession. After fifteen months in prison, he continued his work and won two more government logging suspensions.
Baldenegro was forced to leave his community after receiving threats from armed men who arrived to clear the forest and plant marijuana. He returned to visit his uncle, when he was shot several times by a gunman.
He was a fearless leader and a source of inspiration to so many people fighting to protect our environment and indigenous peoples.”
“All of the forest, the sky, the sun, and the moon we see as living beings with souls just like us”
Article: Murder of a Mexican Activist
Video 1) Short Documentary
Video 2) Goldman Price Acceptance Speech
