Biography

Gustavo García López is an engaged researcher, educator, and apprentice organizer, from the islands of Puerto Rico. He currently works as Researcher at the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra, where he forms part of the Ecology and Society Workshop (ECOSOC). He has experience in transdisciplinary social-environmental studies, learned from --mostly public-- schools and universities, but also through the environmental and anti-imperialist struggles which he's had the honor to accompany. His work is situated broadly at the intersection of ecology and the political, but he also cultivates inevitable interests in postcolonial/decolonial, Caribbean, island, Puerto Rican and Latin American studies. Some of the themes he engages with are the commons and commoning, autogestion, mutual aid, environmental justice (and climate/energy/water/land justice), territories, communal weavings, just transitions, liberation, sovereignty, and new ecosocial pacts. His praxis seeks to contribute to mobilizing against exploitation and for the systemic changes we need, while co-creating worlds of life for our human and non-human families, to live democratically, equitably, free. He is passionate about planting and being part of encounters. Most recently, he participated in co-organizing the 3-day Post-Extractive Futures event and the CES-ECOSOC Summer School "The Pluriverse of Eco-Social Justice". He is founding member of the JunteGente collective in Puerto Rico (juntegente.org), the Climate Justice Network (climatejusticenetwork.org) and the Undisciplined Environments blog (undisciplinedenvironments.org). He lives uprooted from his lands but finding home and guiding stars in his daughter Maia. He is held in life by broad networks of care and nourishment, of people, spirits, memories, and ecologies.