I was born in Madrid a little before the outbreak of the civil war which changed the destiny of the country and all of its inhabitants, including mine. Because, I suppose -- or they told me -- that my first three years of life took place amidst bombings, violence and arrests, which doubtlessly left their marks on me... Maybe this accounts for my rejection of violence and my search for justice. I received an education which was normal for a cultivated and comfortably situated family in those times of the dictatorship, repressive and isolated from the rest of the world as it was. In school is studied languages, learned a bit about the piano and the guitar, horse riding... I entered the university planning to study philosophy, but that was interrupted when at the age of 19 I went to Mexico. I married and had four children, which amounts to my life's greatest accomplishment. A painter, a photographer, an economist and a director of art, all of them good, intelligent and healthy... the greatest accomplishment for any mother. At the age of fifty, with my children grown and with six grandchildren, I realized that I wanted to dedicated the years remaining to me to my own evolution and to something that I had been worrying about for a long time: The growing and accelerating degradation of our planet, in the biological as well as the social and political senses. I don't believe in miraculous solutions or in violent revolutions. What I do believe in is that each of us can transform ourselves in the little circle in which we move. With this idea, in 1991, I bought an ex-hacienda that had been abandoned for decades, in one of the most degraded places I knew of, in the northern part of the Yucatan Peninsula. There was almost no soil there, just a rocky kind of crust. What little soil manages form is quickly carried away by strong winds and torrential rains. One nice thing about it, however, is that it has none of the attractions commonly sought by conventional tourists -- therefore things remain quiet there during those times when the rest of the region is overwhelmed. My goal here is to see if I can turn around this destruction of our planet, hopeless though it seems. Perhaps by simply leaving the soil alone for a while it will begin healing itself, to form humus, to support a forest... And when there are trees, then birds come, and mammals and insects -- more life for all. My idea, then, is that when the time comes for me to leave this life, I'll be able to say that this land which I received empty, dead, dried out and covered with spiny weeds, I have left to others green, leafy, filled with trees and flowers and birds and maybe -- I hope -- providing food to a few families... This is the idea, the proposition and the task of Komchén de los Pájaros. Those who understand and wish to be part of the dream are welcome to visit. Ana María conducts Earthfoot's Eco-Friendly Bed & Breakfast in Good Day-Trip Country program.