Ecomartyrdom in the Americas:

Living and Dying for Our Common Home

Welcome to “Ecomartyrdom in the Americas.” This website is dedicated to the memory of land and environmental defenders who have been persecuted and assassinated, especially in Latin America, as a result of their commitment to resisting the violence of extractivism and promoting environmental justice and ecological well-being.

Popular movements and grassroots religious communities in Latin America commemorate the lives and deaths of slain land and environmental defenders in many different ways. Literary practices of narrative and poetry are prevalent, of course, but other memory practices rooted in oral tradition, musical expression, and material culture saturate the fertile grounds of remembering Latin American ecomartyrdom. While most of these practices may be born in the form of live, in-person oral and material culture, many of them make their way into digital spaces and others are inherently digital in nature. This website curates digital materials–-from visual artwork to music, documentary films, and other audiovisual creations–-that protest extractivism and commemorate Latin American ecomartyrs of the late 20th and early 21st century.

Explore This Site

  • The Art of Memory

    The role of the arts and memory of martyrdom in social and environmental justice movements

  • The Music of Resistance

    Selections of music from Latin American social and environmental justice movements

  • Resisting Extractivism

    Learn more about environmental justice movements across the Americas

  • Remembering Ecomartyrs

    Stories and artistic representations of six slain land and environmental defenders

  • Resources for Action

    Links to environmental justice organizations that support land and environmental defenders

  • About the Book

    Learn more about extractivism and ecomartyrdom in the book Ecomartyrdom in the Americas