Bat Species: Mom- Greater Bulldog Bat, Baby- Tent-making Bat, Midwife- Vampire Bat, Friend on the Left- Sword Nosed Bat, Friend in the middle- Northern Big Bat or White Bat, Friend on the Right- Little Big Eyed BatPlant species from left to right: Zea Maiz, Alternanthera ramosissima, Rubus urticifolius, Hyptis verticillata, Bursera simaruba, Liguidambar styraciflua, Lobelia laxiflora, Artimisia lidoviciana, Smilax aristolochifolia, Baccharis vaccinioides, Smilax spinosaA trickle of water spills into the pond from a neighboring cave. Buried deep inside the Ceiba tree’s roots, this cave symbolizes fertility, the womb, water source and life source. Inside the cave, new life emerges. A vampire bat midwife assists the home birth. Midwifes are one of many examples of community-based alternatives to the practice of Western medicine that treats pregnancy as medical problem. Mounting pressure to conform to hospital birth and medical treatments dominated by pharmaceutical drugs reinforces this mindset and plays a part in marginalizing and discrediting the practice of traditional and indigenous medicine. This scene is symbolic of the diversity of medicine, health and healing practices struggling to stay alive. As western culture exploits and steals indigenous knowledge in the name of corporate profit, indigenous languages are going extinct at a rate of more than two per month in the United States alone. With each extinct language, an entire body of wisdom and knowledge is lost.
The bunches of plants surrounding the cave’s edges are native to Mesoamerica and are still used in traditional practices for fertility and women’s health. As opposed to the pharmaceutical industry’s approach to medicinal properties of plants as intellectual property to be patented, copyrighted and monopolized as for-profit commodities, the herbal medicine in the bat cave is shared among the community rather than traded on the market. It is harvested from the local bioregion rather than purchased at a pharmacy. The flow of water from the cave connects all the way back to the stream pouring from the Uo toad statue. And it is this flow of water that the privatization machine is so intent on interrupting.
