After watching Hija de la Laguna, I began to think more about the impacts resource extracting has had on Indigenous communities. One of the more emotion-provoking shots that sticks out to me was towards the beginning of the documentary when the camera pans from green hills to the dry, gray hills that are a result of harvesting resources. You can see some work vehicles driving around, and everything looks dusty and dead. This specifically really made me feel upset regarding the extractivist companies that are tearing up these natural landscapes. Hearing the woman in the film, Nelida, speak about wanting to study law in order to protect her land and family was quite powerful, and the way she spoke about the land so lovingly was touching.

Thinking about Hija de la Laguna made me think about the Uros people, which my group is writing about for our blog project. The Uros aren’t necessarily facing mineral extraction impacts, but they have felt the effects of globalization. Increased tourism to the region has caused their supply of Totora reed – one of their staple foods and building materials – to go down, fish and wildlife population to dip, and water to be contaminated. Because of these things, the Uros have worked with the government to implement various means of making tourism more sustainable for their community. Hija de la Laguna reminded me of their situation because of the impacts they were facing, and how some, though not all, Uros believe tourism and globalization have threatened their culture and identity.