About Indira
Cultivate community: Women protecting urban lands

Instagram: @iselaindira
Location: Iztapalapa, Mexico City

Isela Indira Salas Juárez is originally from Iztapalapa, Mexico City. A curious and creative Mexican woman, she has found in her bond with nature the tools to learn, enjoy, and transform environments in more collective, just, and sustainable ways.

For Indira, the land is a living fabric where memory, culture, nature, and all beings converge. It encompasses every space where we learn to relate, care for one another, and transform how we exist in the world — from the planet itself to our neighbourhoods or even our own bodies. Each holds our roots, experiences, hopes, and our boundless capacity to dream, create, and resist.

“If my land could speak, it would say that every step we take grows its roots, but that every step taken together makes its strength, resilience and transcendence blossom.”
Indira Salas

For her, climate justice means transforming unjust structures by relearning to live collectively and in harmony with nature. It recognises that the climate emergency stems from economic, political, and social systems that divide us, deepening inequalities and vulnerabilities. Being just with the climate means creating paths where communities flourish together — caring for the Earth, honouring ancestral roots, and allowing territories to be reborn.

Indira’s project

In the peri-urban agricultural zones of Xochimilco, Tláhuac, and Iztapalapa, women farmers safeguard ancestral knowledge, grow healthy food, and protect water sources — often without recognition or support. Urban expansion, pollution, and institutional neglect threaten both the land and the communities that depend on it.

Cultivate Community connects 10 women leaders from these areas, creating spaces to share experiences, strengthen networks, and preserve the cultural memory of their work. Through storytelling gatherings, collaborative mapping of community food initiatives, and the creation of an online knowledge repository, their expertise will be documented and shared for future generations.

This project highlights the essential role women play in food sovereignty and urban climate resilience. By amplifying their voices and linking their efforts, it helps protect biodiversity, strengthens urban resilience, and inspires a just and sustainable future for Mexico City.

Learn more about the Amos Climate Fellowship →