About us

The Esperanza Project is many things at once: It’s an online newspaper, it’s a networking tool and it’s a digital media empowerment and networking project for a sustainable future. It’s about a journey, but it’s also about being deeply rooted in whatever corner of the planet you find yourself, and making it the best that it can be.

The Project began with an epic journey planned by travel writer Tracy L. Barnett for the entire year of 2010, beginning in Mexico in January and ending in Patagonia in December. The idea is to visit and document creative and resourceful sustainability projects throughout the Americas, sharing ideas and gleaning inspiration from those she meets along the way.

At the same time, she hopes to raise the visibility of these unsung heroes while sharing multimedia and social media networking skills and a forum on which to share their work and their ideas. And most importantly, as the word “Esperanza” implies, it’s a search for hope in dangerous times.

Why Now?
 Closing in on the first decade of the new century, fear is in the air here in the richest nation on the planet. Economic crisis. Massive layoffs. Melting icecaps. Rising sea levels.
This is a time for a new vision, and The Esperanza Project seeks new voices to help articulate that vision. It’s very much a forward-looking response, one that seeks to utilize new media technology to promote an inclusive, democratic and sustainable transition to a future less reliant on fossil fuels and rampant consumerism. It’s also an approach that looks to the elders and the First Nations for a wisdom that predates the industrial age.

Why Latin America?
From the barrios of Nueva York in the north to the pampas of Patagonia in the far south, the Spanish-speaking Americas provide a vibrant, passionate, imaginative answer to the imminent global threat that we share, a resourceful response characteristic of the Latino culture.
The same people who persist in planting flowers in front of the poorest hovels; the same people who still hold forth on poetry and politics, with equal amounts of ardor, and who still believe in both; the same people whose murals have splashed life and history onto the barren walls of the inner cities of this hemisphere – these are a people who have not been defeated by poverty, and they will not be defeated by crisis.
Art and music, imagination and irony, and a defiant, brilliant joy characterize the Latin American approach to transition, a shorthand term for the paradigm shift that awaits, if we can seize the moment and coordinate our efforts as a global community before it’s too late.

Why Tracy?
Most recently an award-winning travel writer, Tracy Barnett’s two-decade journalism career has included a master’s degree in science writing and many years as an investigative and environmental reporter. She has taught journalism at one of the top journalism schools in the country, founded a Spanish-language bilingual newspaper there and went on to help start a group of Spanish-language dailies in Texas. She has traveled widely, but Latin America is the place that feels most like home. Tracy@tracybarnettonline.org.


Collaborators

Spanish-Language Editor: Jorge Luis Sierra is a Mexican journalist specializing in international affairs, security and defense. He reported on the Iraq War in 2003 and has covered border issues and the Latino community in the US. His reports appear in a variety of publications on both sides of the border. He is the author of the book El Enemigo Interno: Fuerza Armadas y Contrainsurgencia en México and dozens of chapters in books on the drug trade, counterinsurgency and the armed forces. He was founding editor of Rumbo del Valle in McAllen, Texas, and lead writer for the Houston Chronicle’s weekly newspaper La Voz. He is founder of The McAllen Times and lives in Edinburgh, Texas. jlsierrag@yahoo.com.

Cofounder, Organization Design and Development Collaborator: Tami Brunk is a freelance writer and organizational design consultant bringing greater visibility and abundance to community-based sustainability initiatives across the globe. She holds a B.A. in Biology from the University of Missouri-Columbia and an M.S. in Environmental Writing from the University of Missoula-Montana. She co-founded the Marda Permaculture Farm in the West Bank of Palestine and is co-director of the Seven Sisters Project.



Web Designer / Online Services Robert Metzger is the owner of OpenAllOver.com, which provides Online Web Design, Email, and more.

OpenAllOver.com is based out of Houston, which means this is where we grew up. Becoming a part of your local community is as important to us as designing websites.

About the Author

Tracy L. Barnett is the founding editor of The Esperanza Project. She can be reached at tracy@tracybarnettonline.com.