About Xananine
Ngiwa women cultivating ancestral wisdom and climate resilience in the Tehuacán Valley

Instagram: @gusanitx.x
Location: Cuautlancingo, Puebla, Mexico

Xananine is an Indigenous woman from the Ngiwa people, who have inhabited the Tehuacán Valley for over two thousand years. She became involved in climate activism three years ago through Legado Gaia (LEGAIA) — a Mesoamerican youth collective for climate justice — and the Stop Financing Factory Farming Coalition.

For Xananine, territory is more than land. It's the keeper of her community’s stories and ancestral knowledge — the plants that feed and heal, the animals, and the relationships that hold her culture together.

“Many people think the semi-desert is a dead place — but that's not true. It holds so much life and culture, different ways of using water and soil. What others see as dry actually holds an abundance of water.

 

That’s why Tehuacán is home to major water springs in Puebla. Our territory would be proud of its daughters and sons who are reclaiming its value and seeing it as a possibility for the future.” Xananine Calvillo

For Xananine, climate justice means Indigenous and rural communities who have cared for these territories for generations are recognised, listened to, and supported. It means defending the right to decide how they live on their land, grow their food, and protect water.

Xananine’s project

Led by young Ngiwa women with support from allies and ecofeminist organisations, this project strengthens cultural heritage and environmental practices while resisting extractivism and climate change. The Ngiwa were the first to domesticate maize in the Mesoamerican semi-desert. Today, their land faces threats from industrial agriculture and the climate crisis, leading to water scarcity and soil erosion.

The project preserves ancestral farming knowledge, increases women’s participation in climate action, and promotes territorial defense. Through community education and advocacy, it fosters regional solidarity and amplifies voices affected by climate injustice. By focusing on ecological sovereignty, women's empowerment and cultural resilience, the project creates alternatives to dominant food systems and advocates for the restoration of Ngiwa food sovereignty and traditional knowledge.

Learn more about the Amos Climate Fellowship →