There’s always those few people in your life, the ones who you see nearly every day but never get to truly know and appreciate. For a while that was Carla Astorga for me. We knew little about her besides that she was our Chilean Spanish teacher who taught at a kayaking school, but did not kayak. But upon further research I began to realize what a long and interesting story she had to tell. And what an amazing message she had to give.  

Carla was born in 1980, in Santiago, Chile. Six years earlier, in 1974, the entire Astorga family left their homes and their lives to escape the new government of Chile led by the new political leader Agusto Pinochet. Carla’s father lead the family to Ecuador where they hoped to remain untouched by Pinochet’s tyranny. But Carla”s father could not stay away from the home he loved so dearly. He lead his family home  to Chile in 1980, ten years before Pinochet left office. Carla explained that even though they did not support the Chilean government at the time, her family missed their home far too much for that to stop their return. Before they fled to Ecaudor the Astorgas lived all around Santiago. Generations ago, the family owned the Maipo Valley, a large amount of land extending from Santiago east into the Andes. When they returned, the family took up residence once again in the Maipo Valley. They began a family community in Cascadas de las Animas, a branch of the valley 60 km. east of Santiago. This is where Carla spent her childhood,far away from cities, and all that they include: the noise, the rush, and the overall lack of nature and life.

Carla spent her childhood outside. She explained to me, that without the lure of Gameboys, computers, and lap-tops, she was nearly always outside. This, combined with the surreal landscape that was her back-yard, Carla saw little reason to return to the modern life she was missing. 

Carla spent her days walking through the Andes Mountains. She told me stories of how she would spend days at a time exploring the endless wilderness. Carla grew up without the distractions that the modern day world places before us. She described to me, what she saw, as the modern dilemma: people growing up in cities knowing little of the natural beauty the world has to offer. They are never surrounded by life. In a city everything is dead. From the houses they grow up in, to the buildings they work in, they are constantly surrounded by synthetic unnatural materials. Children today growing up in cities will be lucky to be outside for more than an hour. And even when they do get a chance to breath fresh air and see blue skies, the air is filled with toxic fumes and the sky is much more grey then blue.

When people miss out on the simple and natural beauty of the world, when the only thing they focus on are their watches and cellphones, then their senses become dulled. Carla explains that just like any other part of our body, we loose what we don’t use. We slowly forget how to use our senses properly, or maybe we just never learn how to use them. Either way people become more and more similar to the electronic devices they cling to so desperately. Sadly Carla tells me that, in her mind, people are becoming as lifeless as the world they live in.

Carla Astorga is a rare breed; she is one of very few people today who get the opportunity to see what is left of our natural world. She grew up with the opportunity to observe the workings of nature. 

So many children today do not have the opportunities Carla had as a child. So many never leave the city they were born in until they are well into their lives. So how can we ask these people to do things like recycle? How can we ask them to make an effort to save a place that may as well be on another planet!? What does it matter to kid in Brooklyn that dolphins are being slaughtered in Japan, or to a girl in Hong Kong that a river is being damed in Chile? Carla’s answer to this question was a simple one. She explained to me, as if it were the most obvious thing on the face of the earth, that if you can understand one aspect of life, you can understand all life. That all life is the same, from the activities of an ant to the ecosystem of the entire Amazon. She says that if you can learn to appreciate the beauty of a single tree then you could never let someone cut down a forrest, no matter how far away it is.

So all these people who treat their home with such ignorance just need the opportunity to see for themselves the beauty in the world. All we need to save our planet is love; love for all living things. How could you kill something you love? How could you possibly let a forest be clear-cut if you love every single tree? But how do we possibly convince so many to love so much?

Carla thinks the solution is simple. We educate. We get our children outside. We show, tell, and teach every generation how they can help their earth. We show them what a beautiful place the world is. We tell them to respect and love their home and all its inhabitants. And we teach them how they can change the world.

Carla Astorga