JESSICA HERNANDEZ, Ph.D., is an Indigenous scholar, scientist, and community advocate based in the Pacific Northwest. She has an interdisciplinary academic background ranging from marine sciences to forestry. Her work is grounded on her Indigenous cultures and ways of knowing that are rooted from El Salvador (Maya Ch'orti') and Oaxaca, Mexico (Zapotec). She advocates for food, climate, and environmental justice through her scientific and community work and strongly believes that Indigenous sciences can heal our Indigenous lands. She was raised in South Central Los Angeles and in 2020, she became the first alum from her high school to receive and complete a doctoral degree. She is the founder of Pina Soul, SPC, an environmental consulting and artesanias hybrid business that promotes and supports environmental sustainability and conservation among Black and Indigenous communities.
"Westerners, [Dr. Hernandez] writes, fall short on including
Indigenous people in environmental dialogues and deny them the
social and economic resources necessary to recover from 'land
theft, cultural loss, and genocide' and to prepare for the future
effects of climate change."
—Publishers Weekly
“In Fresh Banana Leaves, Jessica Hernandez weaves personal,
historical, and environmental narratives to offer us a passionate
and powerful call to increase our awareness and to take
responsibility for caring for Mother Earth.” A must-read for anyone
interested in Indigenous environmental perspectives.”
—EMIL’ KEME (K’iche’Maya Nation), member of the Ixbalamke Junajpu
Winaq’ Collective
“A groundbreaking book that busts existing frameworks about how we
think about Indigeneity, science, and environmental policy. A
must-read for practitioners and theorists alike.”
—SANDY GRANDE, professor of political science and Native American
and Indigenous studies, University of Connecticut
“Inspiring and sobering, philosophically powerful and practically
grounded, this book weaves together storytelling, razor sharp
critiques of oppression, and liberatory pathways for how we can
achieve transformation in solidarity. Dr. Hernandez offers the
instructions so many environmental protectors and conservationists
need to know.
—KYLE WHYTE, George Willis Pack Professor, School for Environment
and Sustainability, University of Michigan
“Dr. Hernandez offers many gifts for us to learn, grow, and heal.
She shares many details of how settler colonialism has impacted
Indigenous people, specifically people of Mexico and Central
America. Fresh Banana Leaves is a true validation of the Indigenous
knowledge of community.”
—DR.MICHAEL SPENCER, Presidential Term Professor of Social Work and
director of Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and Oceania Affairs
at the IndigenousWellness Research Institute (IWRI),University
of Washington
“While ecological destruction has intensified, many of the
approaches intended to minimize cataclysmic harm continue to emerge
from the Global North. What has long been ignored are the practices
and world views that Indigenous peoples have with our nonhuman
relatives. Fresh Banana Leaves offers seeds—through the form of
lived experiences and historic practices that come from the
author’s own ancestors and relatives. We are invited to take heed,
to be part of rebuilding a world that is more dignified and
responsive to our environment and nonhuman living relations. Our
collective futures hinge upon us abiding.”
—DR. ALEJANDRO VILLALPANDO, assistant professor of Latin American
Studies, Cal State LA
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