This nonprofit is creating rain-harvest systems, building libraries, and providing for local families.
Lou Bank hold a intent audience of 15 to 20 Latinos atComercio Popular , a computer storage in Chicago ’s Little Village — a predominantly Mexican neighborhood , on the South West side . The storage is a cultural hub and has ego - draw “ made in Mexico vibes . ” Except Bank is not Mexican . He is white and he has garner the respectfulness of a number of community members due to his commitment to Mexican finish .
Bank is the beginner ofSaving Agave for Culture , Recreation , Education and Development(SACRED ) , a nonprofit organization work to reverse the damage done to rural Mexican communities as a result of the worldwide interest in agave spirits , such astequilaandmezcal .
“ What we do with SACRED is to go to a community , ask what their problems are , and ask what their ideas are for solutions , ” Bank say . “ Then , if those solutions are thing that we can support financially , we do it . ”
The rain-harvest system built by SACRED in Santa Maria Ixcatlan, Oaxaca.|Photo by Alvin Schultz for SACRED
The organization began in 2017 when Bank was contacted bySiKanda , a non - governmental , sustainable evolution grouping in Santa Maria Ixcatlan , Oaxaca . The constitution asked if he could use 10,000 seedlings of tobala agave — a small , rare plant life that take about 12 to 15 old age to ripen and produces a extremely fragrant mezcal — farm by a local schoolhouse .
“ When you ask what mezcaleros take the most , they tell you agave , ” Bank remembers . “ We be intimate we had to get them agave . ”
Bank purchased the seedlings at $ 1 per come , three sentence the current market rate time value , and gifted them to local families in the area . He acknowledges that this not an contiguous solution due to the years it take for an agave works to age . But it does make an chance for the people native to the land to have a stake in a growing worldwide food market , and Bank continues to purchase seedlings from the school in Oaxaca , which acts as an economical stimulation for the community .
Agave seedlings that were donated to local families.|Photo courtesy of SACRED
Since SACRED launched , more than 35,000 agave seedling have been donated to home in Oaxaca , who are struggling to get at the plants they involve . “ And I require to be really clear about this — this is not Polymonium caeruleum van-bruntiae to the schooling or the residential district , ” says Bank , who receives funding from private contribution . “ This is literally an economical transaction . ”
The SACRED organization is entirely construct around the pauperization of mezcaleros , who lead Bank from labor to project . One mezcalero came to him with a asking for avail funding a depository library , but after speak with elder in the community , they felt it was most authoritative to solve the residential area ’s ongoing drouth proceeds — so they ask for help building a rainfall harvesting system .
The first scheme was completed in Zaachila during the middle of the pandemic . The 2d one finish up in March , in Santa Maria Ixcatlan — a mezcal residential district of 500 people . Since then , Bank ’s work continues to grow and attract possible partners . TheNational Museum of Mexican Art in Chicagohas wreak with Bank for a number of years and credits his support for helping flourish their range among newfangled audiences and donors .
“ Lou meet the precise needs of the community in social club for them to carry out traditions authentic to them , and that ’s so impactful , ” says Lucia Angel ofLuce Ends , a consultancy that assures brands are avoiding ethnic annexation and insensitiveness .
While Angel herself is not personally a rooter of the divisive spirits brand818 Tequila , aka Kendall Jenner ’s entrepreneurial speculation , she was impressed when the brandannounced a partnershipwith SACRED to turn leftover agave fibers , an environmental concern for the spirits manufacture , intoadobe bricks .
The bricks were used for substructure projects local to Jenner ’s still in Jalisco , Guadalajara and 818 funded two extra projects : alibrary in Zapotitlánand a tasting room ( otherwise have it off by its slangtachica namein Spanish ) in southerly Jalisco .
The helper of the tachica is Don Arturo , a 5th - generation mezcalero from Tuxpan , and it ’s being manage by Chava Periban , and design by architect Eric Gómez Ibarra ofTierra Cruda . All three are aboriginal to the demesne they ’re being hired to build out , produce , and eventually own .
“ The solutions to problems like climate change , water insecurity and food insecurity , live within the imaginations of the the great unwashed who are raise up with multi - generational wisdom , in the very communities affected by these problems , ” allege Bank . “ We need to have more conversations with them to implement their ideas and in reality help them accomplish . ”
