"Children For a Cleaner World"
By Judy Dykstra-Brown
September 2003 Guadalajara-Lakeside Volume 20, Number 1

      When you want to see reality, look through the eyes of a child. That’s what happened when 120 children showed up to paint posters depicting ways to clean up the lake and their village, San Juan Cosala. The children of San Juan Cosala took paint brushes in hand to educate their elders on how to save the lake and clean up their town.
      The ancient walls of the Hospitalito, the ruins of one of the oldest churches in Jalisco, gave some respite from the noonday sun. Above, all was calm: a small tree as well as several arms of prickly pear cactus sprouted from the ancient tower and dome, the sky was blue, a few egrets soared over en route to the lake. But down below, the interior of the ruins was a hive of activity.
      It was the last Sunday of July in San Juan Cosala, where 120 children aged 6-16 had shown up to enter a poster contest on the subject of cleaning up their town and the lake. Large tables were covered in sheets of paper as children stood around them painting patterns of blue, green, yellow and red. The pictures fell easily into different categories: mountains, sunrises, lakes, flowers, plants and boats, as well as the outline of the old temple which rose above them, complete with a television antenna in the background.
      Some of the kids got closer to reality by depicting trash, trash cans and people lined up on the streets of the village talking about the difference since everyone had stopped trashing the streets. “Dedicate five minutes a day to cleaning up your street,” read the slogan of one poster. In several, fish with conversation bubbles warned us to be careful.
      “Don’t contaminate your environment. The environment is life,” were words of wisdom from Alejandra Rameo, age 11, who was the grand prize winner.
      “Take care of your town and it will take care of you” were the wise words coming from the lips of a fish swimming through the foreground of the poster painted by Rodrigo Alejandro Vazquez Padilla, age 8. Jessica, age 6, painted carefully around the outlines of three large fish which swam a pristine lake of her imagination. Although backwards, the “s’s” of her signature were carefully formed.
      Judges quickly determined that it was going to be no easy task choosing the top ten posters. The grand prize winner would receive a backpack stuffed with art supplies and a 50 peso bill. The next three winners would also receive backpacks with art supplies. The remaining six winners would receive packets of school supplies, but no backpacks.
      The children formed a crush around the prizes spread out on the ground. One little girl, arriving after most had finished their paintings, hurriedly painted a picture of the lake and a large tree covered in festive red balls. “I didn’t enter to win the prize,” her slogan said in Spanish, “I entered to save the lake.” Yet when her name was missing from the list of winners, the disappointment registered in her eyes. In spite of what she had sincerely written, how nice it would have been to win a new knapsack.
      In the end, judges decided to consider for the top prize only entries that had both interesting art and slogans. An additional prizewinner won solely on her slogan, others purely on their art. Prizes were awarded as follows:

      An additional poster chosen to be reproduced as a greeting card was painted by Jose Eusebio Zamora Cañada, age 10. The contest was one of an ongoing number of projects sponsored by ARCOC, a group of artists in San Juan Cosala who are attempting to open a cultural center where kids can learn art and dance and become involved in activities to better their lives and community. They have made the winning posters into greeting cards which are for sale at Art 1 Colon, across from the Ajijic Post Office. For information on other locations where the greeting cards will be sold, check local bulletin boards, call 01-387-761-0281 or e-mail jubob2@hotmail.com. ARCOC is planning a number of other child-fueled lake cleanup drives as well as environmental educational projects, but they are totally dependent on the sales of the greeting cards for funding. Please support the children of Cosala by buying their greeting cards! All proceeds from the sale of cards will be spent on children’s lake cleanup projects.
      Prizes for the project were donated by realtor Agustin Vazquez, Padre Salvador Mora, and an anonymous donor. Chulili Moya donated paint, Carmela Mendoza provided refreshments, and ARCOC artists Isidro Xilotl, Eduardo Xilonzochitl, Luis Guzman, Eduardo Mora and Anabel Ibarra furnished supervision and assistance to young artists.

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