Alberto Ruz Buenfil

Alberto Ruz Buenfil (11 September 1945 – 7 December 2023) was a Mexican writer and activist whose work is dedicated to social change, environmental sustainability, and the performing arts. He co-founded two international theater groups as well as Mexico's first ecovillage, known as Huehuecoyotl. He led the 13-year Rainbow Peace Caravan, an international effort to promote sustainable design and permaculture, as well as theatrical performances, across seventeen countries of Latin America. He was also funded by Ashoka from 2002 to 2005, and received in the name of the Rainbow Peace Caravan, the prize "Escuela Viva" from the Brazilian President Lula da Silva and Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil, as one of the 60 most advanced projects in education in the country.

Ruz was the author of several books. At his return in 2009 from South America, he was invited to be part of a team at the 'Direction of Culture' of Coyoacán, México DF, where he created the project Ecobarrios and took it for three years to 10 different pueblos and barrios from that part of the city. From January to November 2013 he was Director of Environmental Culture in the state of Morelos. Beginning in 2014, he was an adviser to the "Asamblea Legislativa", from Mexico City, on the subject of the recently adopted Law of Rights of Mother Earth. He organized the 1st Global Forum for the Rights of Mother Earth in Mexico city, from 1 to 5 June. His main purpose was to contribute to the Universal Declaration of Rights of Mother Earth at the United Nations. He lived in Huehuecóyotl and traveled around the world as a keynote speaker in different forums and for all kinds of audiences.

Early life Alberto Ruz Buenfil grew up in Yucatán with his brother Jorge, and was the son of archaeologist Alberto Ruz Lhuillier, best known for his discovery of the subterranean tomb of Pakal the Great in the Mayan ruins of Palenque in 1952, and Blanca Buenfil, an outstanding woman from Campeche. He attended junior high school at Liceo Franco-Mexicano, and high school at "Preparatoria 5", in Mexico city.

Education and career Alberto Ruz earned a degree in education at the Instituto Francés de América Latina through the University of Paris. He taught courses in French language and culture at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) from 1964 to 1966. He briefly served on the Faculty of Chemistry there in 1964 and was subsequently in the Faculties of Economical and Political Sciences (1965–1968).

Ruz Buenfil studied Contemporary Arts at the Bauhaus Situationiste of Drakabygget, in Orkelljunga, Sweden, (1970–71), as well as organic agriculture at the Moshav Yodfat, Israel (1971–72), and Comparative Religions at the Theosophical Society headquarters in Adyar, Madras (now Chennai), India (1974–75).

Huehuecoyotl

After performing abroad for several years, Ruz returned to Mexico in 1982 with members of The Illuminated Elephants and founded Mexico's first ecovillage, named Huehuecoyotl named for an Aztec deity whose name in Nahuatl means "very old coyote". The village is situated on five acres (2 ha) in the mountains of Tepoztlán, Morelos. The community, with about twenty members, is based on sustainable design principles and offers educational and cultural programs throughout the year.

Rainbow Caravan for Peace

In 1996 Ruz founded Rainbow Caravan for Peace, a group of twenty or so rotating travelers dedicated to spreading the lessons gleaned from Huehuecoyotl. They stopped in Chiapas for an exchange with the Zapatistas, where Ruz was inspired to take his moniker Subcoyote Alberto Ruz, after a leading Zapatista, Subcomandante Marcos. The caravan traveled all the way to Peru, where in 2003 they were the primary host in the international gathering and ecovillage called The Call of the Condor. The group received an invitation from the Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil to travel through the country giving lessons on sustainable living. In 2004, Ruz described the work on the group in a particular desert region of South America (cite) as, among other projects, "intensive two-day workshops on permaculture, consensus decision making, appropriate technology for desert regions, ecovillage living and design, and an introduction to the Mayan calendar of 13 moons".

The Caravan subsequently journeyed through the Amazon for the next four years. Ruz finally returned to Mexico in 2009 and joined the staff at the 'Casa de Cultura Jesús Reyes Heroles' in Mexico City at the invitation of Mexican bestselling author Laura Esquivel. The organization is located in a historic neighborhood of Coyoacán, where Ruz created the program 'Ecobarrios' in ten different marginal barrios, to form groups of eco-promoters to work in their own communities.

Ruz Buenfil was presented in this event of the "Koseny Communitarian award" from the Fellowship of Intentional Community for a long life dedicated to promoting cooperative and sustainable living in Mexico and the rest of the world.

On 7 July, a proposed law adopting the rights of Earth as a living being was presented at the Commission charged to create the new Constitution of Mexico city, and on 8 August, the results of the forum and the new proposed law were presented at the Senate of the Republic in Mexico city, to be adopted officially.

Ruz Buenfil was father to Odin Ruz Hansberg, permaculturist, living in Tepoztlán with his family and developing "Project Oztopulco", a new permacultural ecovillage near Huehuecoyotl, México; Mayura Ruz Hansberg, architect, living in Tepoztlán with her family; Ixchel Ruz Comneno, Environmental Anthropologist living with her husband in Grondona, Italy; and Solkin Ruz Ondategui, TV and theater actor, living in México city. Ruz was grandfather to six grandchildren, Arun Ruz, musician, artist and student of Permaculture at the University Fray Luca Paccioli in Cuernavaca; Sebastián, Amaya, Ilan, Nayelli and Ezra, living in Tepoztlán, Morelos in Mexico. Ruz was also actually married to Verónica Sacta Campos, originally from Ecuador, a woman dedicated to the preservation of her Andean culture and other indigenous traditions from the Americas.

Ruz Buenfil died on 7 December 2023, at the age of 78.

Books and communications Arcobaleno, popolo Senza Confini (Rainbow, a nation without borders,) edited by Amm Terra Nova, Firenze, Italy, 1988 Rainbow Nation without Borders: Toward an Ecotopian Millennium, edited by Bear & Co. New Mexico, 1989. Testimonies from post-World War II alternative movements Guerreros del Arcoíris (The Rainbow Warriors) edited by Círculo Cuadrado, México 1991 La Leyenda del Cuarto Mago (The Legend of the Fourth Magicien) edited by Arcoruedas-publishers, Medellín, Colombia, 2001 Hay Tantos Caminos (So Many Roads) edited by, Colofon, Mexico, 2004, and by Arcoruedas-publishers in Argentina in 2005 Huehuecoyotl, Raices al Viento -(The story of a 30 years ecovillage) Co-editor and co-author, México 2012 Co-creator of Mexico's first network of environmental groups, ('Arcoredes,' a network of Eco-communications) Originator and main inspiring force behind the Vision Councils in México and South America since 1991, national and international gatherings from Earth Keepers Co-creator of the Multimedia Documentation Center "Produvisiones Arcoiris," 1981 Editor of several magazines: El Viejo Coyote, Arcoredes, Voces de Huehuecoyotl, and Arcoruedas(1982–2004) Actor in the film "Cocoré", from Brazilian director Tullio Marquez, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 2006 Actor in the film "Dreaming with Tulum", (an homage to Federico Fellini,) by Tiahoga Ruge, México 2011 Keynote speaker of the documentary "Pachamama, a Manifesto for the Earth", by Thomas Torelli, Italy, 2016