Three years after ‘Aerocene Pacha’ rose above the Salinas, the Aerocene Community returned to Jujuy to facilitate The Alfarcito Gathering, an occasion that marked the continued collaboration between Aerocene and the regions’ communities. During this two-day gathering, we were joined by a diverse group of participants, including sociologists and lawyers Maristella Svampa, Enrique Viale, Gastón Chillier, Melisa Argento, Bruno Fornillo, and Alejo de Risio; as well as Alicia Chalabe, the lawyer representing the Salinas Grandes communities. We were also fortunate to have environmentalists Pía Marcheggiani and Maria Laura Díaz, writers and environmentalists Claudia Aboaf and Gabriela Cabezón Cámara; scriptwriter Graciela Speranza, and curator Inés Katzenstein in attendance.

In conjunction with an agenda of activities that includes workshops on key components for a just Ecosocial Transition from the Global South and the centrality of the Rights of Nature in the defense of the Salinas Grandes and Laguna Guayatayoc basin, the screening of the first cut of ‘Fly with Pacha, into the Aerocene’, directed by Tomás Saraceno and Maxi Laina took place. The gathering culminated with the communities declaring the Salinas as a Subject of Rights and rejecting the continued encroachment from multinational lithium extraction companies on their ancestral lands.

Coinciding with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s visit to Argentina, news channels from around the world turned their focus to Alfarcito, and their coverage of our Gathering reached international primetime evening news, on, among many others, Deutsche Welle, Al Jazeera, ARD and ARTE.

To learn more about the Alfarcito Gathering, visit the Territorio Salinas website.