Support the Indigenous Lenca Resistance in Honduras – Unique auction of original acrylic by Javier Espinal

[Auction Opens 11th April and runs for 7 days]

ENCA newsletter 66 (March 2016) has been released at a time of great tragedy and sadness for Honduras and the international community. On March 3rd Berta Cáceres – a world famous campaigner and leader for environmental, indigenous & human rights, was assassinated in her home. She was an indigenous Lenca from the West of Honduras, a founding member and the general coordinator of COPINH – the Council of Indigenous and Popular Organizations of Honduras. COPINH has featured heavily in ENCA articles. As a key organisation fighting for indigenous rights in Honduras, COPINH, its members and leaders face regular threats of violence and murder. On March 15th, COPINH suffered another violent blow as Nelson Garcia, another Lenca leader, was murdered during an eviction. In the weeks before Berta’s murder, COPINH started escalating calls for international attention on threats they were receiving due to their resistance to the Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam project on indigenous land and spiritual heritage in the Rio Blanco area.

Javier Espinal is another Honduran Lenca who has strong connections with ENCA. He visited Europe last year, partly to escape threats in Honduras, and with the aim of building connections in Europe to spread and support his artistic work. As reported in ENCA 66, Javier has worked for many years in Honduras as an artist using mural-painting projects that involve members of communities. These collective projects tell the communities’ own stories, empower their sense of identity, give young people hope and self-belief outside of gang violence, and strengthen the identity of communities in resistance against Honduras’ violence & corruption. The indigenous people’s struggle is one for identity – against 500 years of having this identity squashed and disparaged by colonial powers & landowners, and against the violence that continues to deny indigenous communities the right to their own land, religious  & lifestyle today. As Javier told us when he visited us, the pieces act as a form of resistance “hidden in plain sight” – they empower a community’s identity while appearing as harmless art to the authorities that threaten them.

Javier is a friend of Berta and a member of COPINH. He is now back in Honduras working with COPINH in Rio Blanco. He is hoping to carry out a series of community & resistance art projects in various at-risk indigenous communities in Honduras, to further realise his aims of supporting the resistance & indigenous identity through collective art. He is hoping to start this in Rio Blanco, right now the epicentre of both the international attention on Honduras, and the threat from international corporations. ENCA plans on supporting him in this work. With the release of ENCA 66 we are hoping to auction the original oil painting Raices Ancestrales, en las Sonrisas Infantiles (Ancestral Races, in the Children’s smiles) that Javier painting in London and left with us, to send the proceeds to Javier for his project.

This is a unique and powerful way to support Rio Blanco’s struggle, and share in it. The painting is a beautiful acrylic on canvas original, 100 x 70cms. Javier’s described his work as part of an indigenous “integralist” tradition, which seeks to break down barriers between people, and between us and the environment. He saw in Europe the deep divisions that continue to last since our colonial history, the inhumanity of European authorities’ response to refugees coming from Africa, and European colonial power’s sense of superiority over other people and the planet itself. He compared this alienating cultural influence to the integralism of indigenous people in Central America and elsewhere, which sees each human life as an important but equal part of the universe, along with all other forms of life and nature. We are individual brightly coloured threads that pulse with our own life, but we are part of the wider tapestry of the universe itself, which is made of us and supports us.

Javier’s notion of Integralism speaks of connection beyond geographical & national barriers. It speaks of the power of creativity and communities to fight back against violence and repression. It very much speaks to the spirit of international solidarity which ENCA tries to be a part of. We are hoping that we can use this same creativity, power & connection by raising money for Javier’s Rio Blanco project by auctioning Raices Ancestrales, en las Sonrisas Infantiles. If you are able to bid on our auction, all the money of the winning bid will go directly to Javier (ENCA has no paid staff or anything like that), and support Rio Blanco directly. The unique painting itself will, we hope, bring a sense of the power of integralism and solidarity to the people who are able to hang it on their wall.

The auction is on ebay here. It has an initial reserve price of £200, but we are hoping to raise much more than that. Please bid, and share widely with anyone you know who might be interested.

[Auction opens 11th April]

Further Links:

More of Javier’s work can be seen on his blog, here. 

Javier’s has started a website for his community art project plans, here.