A Mother's Day Thanks to Latin American World Changers

QUETZALTENANGO, Guatemala - I awoke this sparkling Mother's Day to the sight of the Santa Maria volcano from my rooftop, rising green and conical over the mountains that surround this charming city in the highlands. Quetzaltenango, known to Guatemalans by its indigenous name, Xela, is quite literally a breath of fresh air.

The slap-slap-slap of the ladies in the kitchen next door "tortillando," making tortillas, is punctuated by laughter and chitchat.

My beautiful mother and daughter are well - I'm grateful to them for all they've given to me, and I'm grateful to Skype, which allows me to stay connected from so far away. I'm grateful, too, for the capable and loving hands of all the mothers around me, who will be honored today with family dinners, special events and the spectacular bouquets being sold in the streets and markets.

But most of all, I am grateful to the Mother that sustains us all, the Madre Tierra whose fertile soil, abundant rivers, fruitful forests and vast oceans feed and shelter us, century upon century, and I am grateful to all of those who work to protect and nourish her. In Mexico and in Cuba, in Belize and in Guatemala, I have met so many.

My conversations with them have revealed the daily destruction of the environment on so many levels; people from taxi drivers to street vendors comment daily on the the increasingly intense heat, the rising floods, the rampant deforestation, the contamination of rivers and lakes and air. The bad news is everywhere, and it can be overwhelming at times. But so is the good news: the fact that so many are dedicating their energy and talent to turning the tide.

Here is my Mother's Day thanks to Guatemalan world changers.

Follow my journey through Latin America as I tell their stories in The Esperanza Project. It's a search for hope, with a Spanish accent.Tracy L. Barnett is the founder of The Esperanza Project, a bilingual, multimedia initiative profiling sustainability projects throughout Latin America.