Lecture with Ronaldo “Rony” Lec Ajcot (Kakchiquel, Mayan), IMAP, Institute of Mesoamerican Permaculture

*This program has changed from in-person to Zoom, please register at the link below.

Join Artspace New Haven and artistic duo Aeron Bergman & Alejandra Salinas for a lecture with Ronaldo “Rony” Lec Ajcot (Kakchiquel, Mayan) of the IMAP Institute of Mesoamerican Permaculture concerning food security in Central America. The Mesoamerican Permaculture Institute (Instituto Mesoamericano de Permacultura—IMAP) is a non-profit organization based in Guatemala. It was founded in 2000 by a group of local people concerned by the serious environmental, social and cultural problems affecting the nation. They established an ecological education center to promote permaculture techniques, local biodiversity conservation, production of organic food, and seed preservation that strives to reconstruct the Mayan seed heritage. This seed preservation project includes the Amaranth Initiative to enhance food sovereignty in Guatemala by promoting the sustainable cultivation, processing, consumption, and commercialization of amaranth.

“Lecture with Ronaldo “Rony” Lec Ajcot (Kakchiquel, Mayan), IMAP, Institute of Mesoamerican Permaculture” is part of the series “The Commons: Towards Reclaiming Collective Power,” conceptualized by Bergman & Salinas as attendant works within their exhibition Against the General Good/ Contra el Bien General, on view September 17–December 3, 2022.

Please register for this ZOOM program.

Founder of IMAP Ronaldo “Rony” Lec Ajcot (Kakchiquel, Mayan), was born in 1971 in San Lucas Toliman Guatemala. In 1990 he was forced out of the country because of the violence of the civil war. In 1994 he received a BA in Cultural Anthropology with a minor in Peace Studies from the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. In 1996, after returning to Guatemala, he hosted the first certified Permaculture Design Course in the region sponsored by Permacultura America Latina (PAL) as part of the search for alternative agriculture practice. He then adopted permaculture as a tool for the revitalization of local agricultural lands, culture and environment. In 1997 he hosted a permaculture course from which a community organization, the Associacon Ija’tz was formed to begin the regional restoration of land. This structure appropriated the experimental farm as their agro-ecological center and he continued as director of the program.

In 1999 he resigned from the Associacon Ija’tz to devote himself to the creation of his vision for the Mayan people by creating the Mesoamerican Permaculture Institute (IMAP), where he is now director.