00:00We're here in Havana, Cuba. Behind me is The Malecon, maybe one of the best-known
00:17places in the Cuban capital, but today we want to take you to other places of
00:21the city, places that are less well-known but where neighbors day-to-day are
00:27working in a collaborative effort, always thinking in the best for their
00:31communities. In this case we went to El Cerro, that is about seven to eight
00:36kilometers south from here. In there, Annie Becks, in her house, in her workshops,
00:41she is leading her own revolution, a revolution against consumerism and waste
00:47society that is hurting our world so much. Today, in the Cuban way, De Vuelta.
00:54De Vuelta is Spanish for coming back around, rediscovering what had been
01:00discarded. This is the name of the glass recycling project born in El Cerro, a
01:06neighborhood in the south of Havana, led by Annie Becks. Nurse, actress and creator,
01:11her interest in creating environmental awareness in her community dates back to
01:16her childhood. Since I was a child, I used to look for bottles. My job at the
01:23Revolution Defense Committee was to recover raw material and I used to go
01:27around with a card knocking on doors so that the bottles wouldn't be thrown away
01:31to recover them. My love for that, for recycling, for the environment, has always
01:36been there. It is a concern of mine and a latent commitment. The project began in the
01:45year 2021, after the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the harshest face of a world in
01:50crisis. Since then, De Vuelta seeks to educate about the concrete impact that our
01:56actions have on the planet. In its creative recycling workshops, children and adults
02:02learn to transform bottles rescued from the trash into new treasures. And when they
02:07finish, they are ready to continue replicating the experience in their
02:11communities. What I was most excited about was to come and learn this technique and
02:17then go back home and be able to give a new life and a new form to everything we have
02:20collected. I also want to integrate it to the construction of my house, which is really
02:28the objective I am looking for. I want to make skylights with bottles in the areas
02:33we are building right now and also to transmit the idea to people who might be interested. That
02:39you don't have to look for one of these nice skylights from the store. That you
02:43can make them in a very practical way with bottles.
02:46Through creative contact with the material, De Vuelta pursues a deeper goal. To demonstrate
02:55that consumerism and throw away mentality from capitalism is the cause of the serious
03:01environmental crisis that the planet is going through.
03:05Normally, we see the culture, the culture of consumerism. Let's put it that way, where
03:11something is no longer useful. It has lost its use, supposedly, and it's gone. But those
03:17things can be transformed into something else. You can give them another use and you feel it
03:22a little more yours. When you start to see everything that can be done with glass, you have a little
03:27more respect when it comes to throw it away or not.
03:34It is a rebellion against consumer society, which is what is largely destroying the planet.
03:43Behind each glass, behind each recycled cup, there is a collective effort. And for Annievex,
03:49at the end of the day, what matters most is the power of joining efforts in the face of adversity.
03:55Glass is a pretext to do something together. To transform something that was no longer useful,
04:04no longer functional. And make it work. I emphasize this a lot in my workshops. Unity. The importance
04:16of coming together, of doing something together. To care about what you are doing and getting
04:21involved to help you do it better. So I am constantly promoting this. The importance
04:29of uniting, of standing together. Because separated, we are not going anywhere.
04:36Brian De Los Santos, Denise Aravique, Furthermore, from Havana, Cuba.
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