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Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World

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Alan Weisman, a journalist hired by NPR to investigate solutions for environmental crises, spent years collecting information in a tiny, remote village at the eastern edge of the war-torn country of Colombia. That village was Gaviotas; this book is his result.

I read this book on a recommendation from Daniel Quinn, author of "The Story of B" and "Beyond Civilization." Quinn's entire philosophy rests on two ideas: living in a sustainable manner, and allowing the reader to come up with their own solutions for doing so. Gaviotas is a community where people did just that - through ingenuity, creativity, and hard work, the residents of this planned village created a place where water is pulled from the ground using pumps attached to children's see-saws, heat is provided by the sun, and electricity by the wind.

It's a progressive's dream come true, and an experiment that has succeeded in all possible ways. This book lays out the history of Gaviotas and its unique founder, Paolo Lugari, and places it within the context of the ongoing struggles in Colombia. In the wake of the World Trade Center attack, I decided to re-read Gaviotas to remind myself that not only is there hope for humanity as a whole, but hope that individuals will begin to take responsibility to begin freeing ourselves from the confining forces of our self-imposed prisons called "civilization," but still manage to retain the good things, too.

Every person on earth should read and re-read this book. If you haven't, buy it now or start hoofing it to the library.

A captivatingly inspirational account of story that reaches to the core of what is remarkable about human nature, human courage, and human ingenuity achieving something great and important in the face of daunting conditions. The continuing adaptive accomplishments of the Gaviotas people in the face of multiple challenges -- extreme environmental conditions, corrupt government practices, turbulent and deadly national politics, indifferent and unsupportive post-1980s corporate globalization, continuing uncertainty -- is truly an affirmation that people can, and hopefully will, achieve a kind of society that is both ecologically sustainable and humanly necessary. This book is 'the power of one' writ large on our collective future.

I teach a university course entitled: Humanistic Values in a Technological Society and, in the face of social and environmental problems caused by industrialization and electronic media-technology, it is difficult for the title not to seem a proverbial oxymoron. In the future this book will be required reading so that students can see that indeed there are solutions to our collective problems, both human and technological. One reviewer bemoaned that there was no 'useful information' in the book, meaning it was short on technical details (I am sure this will follow if sufficient positive interest is shown to this publication). In response I would point out that the people of Gaviotas have shown that the most important and necessary 'commodity' of the future is and will be human inspiration and perseverance; given these, the details will follow. I thank Alan Weisman for telling the Gaviotas story.

In 1966, when he was 22, Paolo Lugari and his brother drove over barely passable roads to a desolate area 200 miles east of Bogota, Columbia. The llanos area is a poor-soil barren that grows only a few nutrient-deficient grasses, a vast expanse of sun-baked plains in spite of over 100 inches of rain per year. A place of deadly water and hungry mosquitos. Conditions were so daunting that the Columbian government abandoned an attempt to build a road through the area. Lugari saw an opportunity to create something very special. And he did it. Today Gaviotas is a thriving, sustainable community of hundreds of joyous people studying, inventing, producing, singing and dancing amidst a huge forest that they planted. Residents from all walks of life have designed and built, planted and harvested, birthed, nurtured, taught, and entertained. There are teeter-totters that operate super-efficient pumps to bring water to the school, solar heat to cook meals, solar kettles to sterilize drinking water, ultra-light windmills to provide power. The hospital has been designated one of the 40 most important buildings in the world. Some have called Gaviotas a utopia. Lugari insists that, "Utopia literally means no place. We call Gaviotas a topia because it's real." Gaviotas the village is surprising, uplifting, extraordinary. Gaviotas the nonfiction book is as compelling as a novel, as educational as a textbook, as inspirational as the biography of a great person. If you need to rise early, do not take this book to bed with you.

In 1998, journalist Alan Weisman collected and presented information about a little known, yet quite monumental, village known as Gaviotas. To get there, one must travel 16 hours by car from the nearest major Columbian city, Bogotá. Even then the path there is not a smooth one; rough, muddy roads and severe political unrest serve as some major barriers in getting to Gaviotas. So why then is such an arduous trip worth it; in essence, Gaviotas is yet another tiny village located in a generally uninhabitable region and possesses none of the modern modes of transportation or communication that we are accustomed to. While in a sense these aspects may be true of Gaviotas, it is also undeniable that this community holds as one of the most efficient, supportive, and thoughtful communities on the planet.
Started in 1971 by a group of Bogotá scientists, Gaviotas originally was created as a sort of scientific experiment, a reaction to the way things were - which clearly wasn't working. A Gaviotas saying goes "the real maturity in life is to realize your dreams" and the founders of Gaviotas did just that when they decided to create their own society. The harsh life and extreme poverty that had been rampant in developing urban areas paired with the blatant depletion of natural resources was enough to spark the idea that maybe there should be a change. Yet instead of trying to make changes in the system already in place, this group of determined individuals took on the radical notion of creating an entirely new, segregated, yet completely self-sufficient, place to live. And that is just what happened.

Twenty-seven years ago, a group of South Americans envisioned a society in which limited resources would form the base of a sustainable future. To bring their experiment to life, they chose a site in the sparsely populated and nearly arid plains of eastern Colombia. They called their village "Gaviotas" and went on to create a host of ingenious and relatively affordable technologies. Alan Weisman produced a documentary on Gaviotas for National Public Radio in 1994. After producing his radio documentary, Weisman maintained an avid interest in Gaviotas. He returned to the village several times in the past few years, and updates the Gaviotas story in his new book: "Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World." Weisman, a journalist based in Tucson, AZ, has covered some of the world's worst ecological disasters, but when he needs his faith in the future restored, he always returns to Gaviotas where, he says, "people seem to have gotten it right." This book documents the successful implemntation of a self-sufficient, harmonious, ecologically based community that is building a sustainable economy. Gaviotas comes as close as human society can to achieving a real Utopia - and perhaps will serve as a model for a more balanced way of life for all of us.

Do you believe in Utopia? Throughout history people have looked for the ideal community, a place where problems are solved, not created, where a dream of peace and harmony can be fulfilled. In the words of the high llama of Shangri-La, in Capra's classic film, Lost Horizon: 'the world must begin to look for a new life and it is our hope that they may find it here. For here we shall be with their books and their music and a way of life based on one simple rule: Be kind. When that day comes, it is our hope that the brotherly love of Shangri-La will spread throughout the world.' Alan Weisman writes his account of the Columbian settlement of Gavoitas firmly in the tradition of utopian literature: he has found his Shangri-La and it is not only a utopia but an eco-topia too. I found the story he has to tell immensely inspiring from an environmental point of view, especially his description of the way in which the Gaviotans have managed to reforest the pampas. However, I also found that the way he tells the story detracts from some of its potential power. At one point, he mistakenly claims that 'utopia' is the Greek for 'no place'and that therefore Gaviotas cannot be a utopia because it exists. In fact 'utopia' is Greek for 'good place', which would admirably describe Gaviotas, I would have thought. The problem with utopian writing is that it often leaves the reader doubting the reality of the place described. Can Shangri-La really be found? Can Gaviotas really exist, magically protected as it is from the twin ravages of marxist gorillas and cocaine barons? In promoting the positive aspects of the Gaviotan experiment, Weisman downplays any negative aspects that must surely exist. I would have liked to have read an account that presented the settlement 'warts and all', rather than this rather one-sided eulogy. Sure, Gaviotas may well be a utopia, a 'good place', and so many of its discoveries could well change the world, but please, Mr Weisman, let the reader decide.

The vision described in the book is inspiring and very hopeful. The idea is to use our ingenuity in ways directly adapted to our environment so that small towns can be self-sufficient. Along the way, very clever uses of wind and water are discovered and described. If the reader is looking for great general ideas or approaches, this book would be hard to beat. On the other hand, if you are a garage-tinkerer and would delight in building the clever devices described, this book is close but no cigar. The drawings offered in the book purposely omit the most important details required to fabricate the devices in a proper working form. If you are a tinkerer and want to build these "goodies," you have three options. In the U.S., you can e-mail with the "Sustainable Village" web site and get the plans (eventually---they are not quick in responding). You can contact the Gaviotas offices in Bogota, Colombia. You can, of course, also take the basic idea and think through the details for yourself. That could take longer and be a little more expensive---perhaps. If you primarily want the ideas and the inspiration, then buy the book, by all means. If you primarily want to tinker and build, go straight for the plans.

This is truly one of the most inspirational books I have ever read, for a couple of reasons. For the most part, utopian ideals such as this are very hard to envision as a real solution, because they tend to be made up of people who for whatever reasons are willing to give up the creature comforts and bring their standard of living down a few notches. Whether or not their new style of living is actually better, and more enriching is not the issue in my mind, what is the issue is that the vast majority of those in the first world would under no circumstances give up those luxuries.

But Gaviotas is a colony founded not by communalists or hippies, but by pragmatic engineers, who enjoy many creature comforts. They do not attempt to drastically change the social structure into something entirely non-hierarchical; instead, one gets the impression this is a group of very intelligent people, who realized they were destroying the planet they lived on with their lifestyles, and so keep it on a 'selfish' level, rather than introducing an ideological debate. This is terribly important, in my mind, to creating a new world in which we can live sustainably.

This book is well written, full of intriguing concepts which will send you out looking for more information about photovoltaic systems and how exactly pumps work, and most of all, full of more hope than anything I have read in... well, forever.

After all, if this can work in the middle of a virtual desert, in -Columbia- of all places, than it should be able to work anywhere.

I recently bought fifty copies of this book, and I give them to almost everyone I meet. I'm not a zealot by nature, but this book is so very important, I would urge every single person who is considering buying it to do so, and to tell fifty friends as soon as you've read it.

Disclaimer: I do not know Alan Weisman and do not hold stock in Chelsea Green.

"Gaviotas: A Village To Reinvent the World" is the story of the failures and successes of small but visionary sustainable community project in the "wastes" of Colombia's llano. The project succeeds, fails, and succeeds again in spite of drug war, guerrilla war, corruption (uh, I guess this goes without saying), inhospitable environment, unpredictable if not lame government policies, fires, chronic underfunding, technology learning curves, and more. What the pioneers of Gaviotas lack in stability and funding they make up with faith, cajones, and inspired resourcefulness. And a lot of hard hard work.

The machines the Gaviotans make and the town they build are dreams made real. Power generators using wind and water, solar-powered pressure cookers and water purifiers--they even manage to make a solar-powered refridgerator that operates on ammonia instead of freon. "Why make blueprints?" one of the engineers says. "You're going to build it anyway. It's easier to design in three dimensions."

Gaviotas-the-place sounds like a slice of paradise (albeit surrounded by chaos and otras cosas muy malas). No crime. No police. Neighbors who help each other. Excellent homemade music. Constant innovation, frequently in the guise of inspired play.

Author Alan Weisman is an NPR reporter/NY Times Magazine (et al.) writer who handles the big story with ease. Very readable. Not so techy as to alienate the non-geeks. Written with a two-part focus on the people *and* the machines they design and build. Plenty of humor, reverence, and plainly stated cold hard facts.

Gaviotas the place is amazing! I can't believe how many good ideas were put into practice in one community! Incredible. All working/aspiring engineers, city planners, architects, etc. should having a working knowledge of the theories and practices Alan Weisman describes in this book.

Humans CAN be part of a non-destructive, even a positive, productive relationship with their surroundings. We CAN prosper without decimating everything with which we interact. Gaviotas is a good start--a good example for the rest of the world.

READ THE BOOK! BUY THE BOOK!