Studying the Bones of Nature with Natalia Belen Carreño
By Victoria Editor
Natalia Belen Carreño (they/them) is a Chicagoland-based earthworker who uses agricultural practices and environmental activism to advocate for and support communities of color.
Image: Natalia Belen Carreño, Instagram
Image: Natalia Belen Carreño, Instagram
Victoria: What is your ethnic background?
Natalia: I am Mexican. The last time I was in Mexico, my dad’s cousin, a historian, traced our lineage back to Spain. I was born in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, then we moved to a predominantly Latino neighborhood in Cicero just outside of the city.
V: Are your parents immigrants?
N: Yes, my father was undocumented until I was about 13 or 14.
V: Seeing how President Trump continues to encourage violence and unsafe spaces for immigrants, how do you show up for these people through your work?
N: One of the greatest injustices and atrocities that has ever been committed against people of color is the non-consensual separation of the people from the land. We were practicing sustainable agriculture before it became a “thing.” I work with them to help them understand that once we take back the land, a lot of the corporations aren’t going to have the power that they have. The government is giving these corporations power to exploit people and resources. There was a time when I was in horticulture and urban agriculture when I would go to schools in my community to talk to kids whose parents were sometimes laborers. I talked plants and growing your own food and the kids would say, “I don’t wanna do that kind of work” because they associate it with undocumented field laborers and dirty. They don’t understand that network of exploitation was created purposefully to systematically oppress their ancestors.
“‘Radical’ simply means to grab something by the roots.”
Photographer: Victoria Gwen
V: How is your non-binary identity related to your work?
N: Gender nonconformity has always been present in indigenous cultures. Shamans and healers always assume an identity of androgyny, so queerness has always been present. It wasn’t until colonization that gender roles were broadcast unto these cultures and tribes. Queerness and gender diversity have always existed in nature, as well. People don’t understand that humanity is the newest species in nature, so we’re only replicating what nature has already expressed.
V: How do you explain your identity to someone who doesn’t understand it/have never heard of it?
N: People have a hard time understanding the non-binary identity because they haven’t considered what’s in between the two points or what it could look like. What’s cool about being non-binary is that one day I can be more masculine and the next day I can be more feminine. The beauty is in not assuming either and giving myself the freedom to feel whatever.
V: When you ask someone, ‘What does it mean to be a man or a woman?’ people use restrictive language and cite gender roles. Do you think the misunderstanding or unwillingness to understand is a projection of self?
N: I think it comes from fear of queerness and otherness. People who are cis, straight, and/or white come from a place of privilege and are detached from otherness and discomforted by it. People are afraid to step outside of themselves and inquire about the possibility of their own queerness.
V: How do you go about creating teachable moments when children misgender you?
N: Very straight-forward, correcting in the moment. The role of an educator has been imposed upon queer people, people of color, and especially black folks.[You] have to assume the role of educator; we just present you with the opportunity to absorb information and become a self-educator. Even in my work, I want to make myself obsolete as a mentor so that my peers and mentees can learn the process of absorbing, transforming, and alchemizing so they become self-organizing systems on their own.
“My greatest mentor has been nature because it puts you in a place of observation and you get to choose what you pick from it.”
Photographer: Victoria Gwen
V: Have you always had an interest in food and agriculture and how did you become involved?
N: I went to culinary school and I was like, “This is so wack.” I took a culinary foundations class at Le Cordin Bleu in Arizona. I was really expecting to connect to the food and understand flavors and their origins, but it wasn’t emotional or engaging. They trained my palate, but there was a disconnection. I came back to Chicago and decided to grow my own garden and things snowballed.
V: That’s how you know you’ve found your purpose because things move quickly!
N: Yes, I went from growing my own garden to managing one of Illinois’ first state-of-the-art cannabis greenhouses in three years. It was very autodidactic. I was trying to learn as much as I could, reading a lot of books, taking online courses, and mentoring with anyone who would let me.
V: What are your opinions on growing eco trends (Chicago’s plastic bag ban, plastic straws, vegan dining options, etc.)?
N: I think we need to be skeptical when movements are co-opted by corporations because historically that’s always led to a lot of shady things happening behind closed doors. It’s important to approach these things with reticence, but these solutions need to start happening at an accelerated rate because we are in a real time crunch.
V: How do disabled people fit into this?
N: I’ve worked in developmental disability, so I understand the necessity. There are people with compromised immune systems who are affected, and it’s important that we acknowledge that. It’s about choice and if you are an able-bodied person, you have that option.
Photographer: Victoria Gwen
V: The food industry is truly a battleground for human rights and that can be spiritually taxing for someone trying to heal people and the earth through plants. How do you stay even-keeled through the stress?
N: When you learn how to approach nature and the ecologies that nourish you with permission, you realize that it’s not just the taking or giving. Working in nature itself is about balance. It’s made me realize that I can’t become a resource that’s exploited. I recognize and acknowledge when I’m withering and need a period of rest.
V: I notice you take regular periods away from Instagram, for example.
N: Yes, social media assigns a sense of “productionism” upon a person. We become the producer and the consumer in the same movement, and that catalyzes self-exploitation. It fosters a vapid, intangible metric of value and the gratitude that comes with it is fleeting. When you work in nature, you think about longevity. I’ll never know the legacy of what I plant because it assumes its own life.
Photographer: Victoria Gwen
V: Is there anything else that you want to tell me?
N: No plant works without the root, and to get to the root you have to do a lot of uncovering. The work that I do is fundamental in the sense that it does the uncovering and it allows you to see the beauty in how we connect to this huge thing that we have been separated from for so long. Winter is a period of rest. Nature is showing its bones and its cuing you to show yours, too. This is the best time to be introspective and to see the parts of yourself that you couldn’t see through the lushness of the canopies.
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