Estela RomeroFebruary 10, 2021

Ambassador Monarchs landing at "El Rosario" Sanctuary!

Estela RomeroFebruary 10, 2021

THE VISIT

Dear friends: Our schools continue closed and might end the school year so while we wait for Covid vaccination, which program all throughout our country, has already started with doctors and nurses first, elderly people next and teachers just getting started right after. Many of our children, meanwhile, continue attending classes online when conditions allow, since not for all families this is possible in far away communities. Meanwhile, the Symbolic Migration continues visiting all reachable children and teachers living and belonging to schools all over the surroundings of our Sanctuaries bringing our lessons on conservation derived of our main theme this year: “The Benefits of Trees” . This past weekend, on Saturday, a representative group of students in that area eager to enjoy a little bit of school life again, gathered at the entrance facilities of “El Rosario” Sanctuary, where the largest colony of Monarch butterflies overwinter. The group attending was somewhat limited, due to the restrictions on local families bringing their children to work with their parents at the facilities. Working moms running restaurants, souvenir stands, being guards and guides, take turns at weekends bringing their children with them. On our arrival, around 10 in the morning, moms, dads and grandpas were already starting to get really busy greeting visitors already arriving to the Sanctuary, offering the best of services more than ever, due to the low season they have had this year. Relying on education as main tool for their children to face their future, they welcomed the Symbolic Migration program and named Jenny, 22, a girl born and grown up in “El Rosario” community (the largest and most populated community in our region), who just graduated as a teacher as their representative and Ambassador at “El Rosario” Sanctuary to attend our lesson with the little students. Our display stand was ready at once set at only a couple of kilometers away from the core of the largest colony of Monarch butterflies, on we went over with a brief but very concise recalling on the nature of the life cycle of Monarchs, consisting on 3 first generations which never migrate south, and the 4th and even a 5th generation called Methuselah which shall accomplish the great mission flying far away South reaching our impressive Oyamel spots in Central México to overwinter here amidst ideal micro-climate conditions just as their great-great grandparents did the previous winter. “ I am so impressed”, --teacher Jenny commented first--, “I grew up receiving my Ambassador Monarchs every single year while I attended elementary and middle school; In middle school, we could get to understand so much of what is surrounding us!. Little by little we got to know that it is we humans who depend totally on nature, and not nature on us basically!. As long as we care of every little living creature, we shall guarantee our living in our homeland; however, I could not understand why Monarchs could feel that our winter was rather warm for them in those years, since while at our classrooms in the morning this time of the year, we as children were always freezing!; now, the climate has changed so much; our parents and grandparents are really concerned about temperatures and the intense sun we are having day by day, after having had such a warm and short winter. I think I decided to become a teacher, because I loved the way this visits made us aware of the reality we are living outside in our daily lives. I realized how important it is to educate our little children since they are this ages; there is where everything starts in a human being; I studied Educational Psychology”. Jenny’s father is chief and responsible administrator on guarding the Monarchs forest of El Rosario, a huge and complex responsibility to keep with over 80 Ejidatario participating families under his charge. Then Estela continued: “Monarch have been migrating to our Oyamel forests for as long as our forests are old, that means thousands and thousands of years!”. Then little and wonderful enthusiastic Joshua raised his hand and added: “They arrive on the “Day of the Dead”, because they are the souls of our dead relatives arriving to stay with us and now they are up here hiding themselves at our forests keeping quiet and warm while snow melts down in the North, so they can go breed their babies there; their babies will come back next year on the “Day of the Dead” as the souls of our our Dead again; our Dead ones never die; they live in Monarchs forever!”, -- Joshua’s enthusiastic way, rounded-up some participations on children, who, more than participating, listened rapt attention and elicited long “oooohhhh!; ooohhh!” expressions all along the lesson; they could not help their surprise at hearing every fact on the life-cycle of Monarchs and the whole migration phenomenon; a visiting couple with their two boys who decided to interrupt their walk into the colony on arriving to first attend the lesson with their children; they were simply delighted to hear all of the content of our visit, who lasted much longer than planned (as always), loosing all of us track of time and feeling at its end, as if having made a long journey into the fantastic world of nature all together, turning our heads around and realizing the invaluable treasure we are living in!. Estela decided at the very end, it was necessary to quickly make sure we knew by heart the names of our local trees in the forest, the names of our local fruit trees; everyone mentioned a benefit we locals get from our legendary trees in our forests. Our two fantastic books on trees donated by the Monarch Butterfly Foundation have been incredibly illustrative, inspiring and with an invaluable content in such a simple language for children and teens, that they just immerse themselves at every page finding a fabulous story to read on the life in the forest and trees as main actors everywhere!. Every teacher, every group of children ask to get these books next season when they are back to school. Jenny kept both of the donations to show all Ejidatarios in the Sanctuary and asked whether they could be provided next year with one or two more sets of them!. It has been so how your Ambassador Monarchs landing here have rendered a humble act of honor to our Methuselah Monarchs overwintering in our legendary Oyamel tree forests accomplishing so their ancestral mission for the survival of their own species. Joy, hurrahs, jumps and even a foot-ball match in our portable “futbolito” game, closed our day at nearly 2 o’clock in the afternoon!. ***Due to the involuntary error at sequence number of Symbolic Monarchs delivered, find here Ambassadors 272 to 282 and 290, 291.