“Pachamama” gets its name from the Quechua and Achuar people of the Andes. Translated, it means, “Mother Earth.” More realistically, the term translates to mean through all time, the sky above, and the land below.

Pachamama travelled from its indigenous roots in Equador and Peru to De Anza College on April 28 from 1-5 p.m. in the Campus Center in the form of the symposium, “Awakening the Dreamer – changing the dream.”

Conference rooms A and B in the campus center were decorated with foliage that was on loan from a local nursery, a small scale wall garden, inspirational posters and baskets of organic apples and bananas.

“It was great to see the room full and so many people there wanting to make a difference,” De Anza student Gabby Vasquez said. “Hopefully next time even more people can come and will be involved.”

The symposium builds itself not only around the meaning of Pachamama, but around four questions that were asked by the facilitators during the symposium: Where are we? How did we get here? What is possible for the future? Where do we go from here?

Facilitators never answered the questions at the event. Instead, they asked the audience to develop their understanding of Pachamama by way of student speakers, informative videos, group connectedness exercises and live music.

One exercise had the audience walk fast and look down, then walk slower and look up and finally, stop and notice the people that they had been walking past.

“You’re noticing all of these bodies around you, but you’re not noticing who these people are,” symposium facilitator Joshua Gorman said to the room full of participants as he concluded the milling exercise.

Audience members heaved a sigh of relief as they understood that the exercise was meant to show them how to stop and notice not only people, but problems that they have been ignoring.

Another exercise Gorman facilitated asked participants to form groups and share “one thing you find most exciting about being alive right now.” He also asked participants to share their names, locations, and what occupies them with school and work.

Another moving exercise had audience members close their eyes and envision a sustainable future while listening to a De Anza student gently strum a guitar.

Spoken word was a much less interactive, yet powerful crowd pleaser during the event.

“I’m here to awaken the dreamer within,” said a spoken word performer who went simply by the stage name Jae. Jae is also a member of the De Anza environmental club, Wise 37.

Foothill student Chelsea Price was the second student to recite spoken word poetry. She took the stage notebook in hand, aviator sunglasses covering her eyes, and a “do something” attitude that permeated the room.

“She was here first, jerk,” Price said, defending Mother Nature. “We only have one life, you have to do it right,” she added.

Two of the symposium’s main organizers, Vice President of Environment and Sustainability Keith Hubbard and LEAD member Claudia Flores, spoke for about 30 minutes of the event before De Anza’s President Brian Murphy arrived.

Murphy gave recognition to the organizers, spoke about ongoing collective struggles, and encouraged the attendees of the event to ask, “What am I going to be? How am I going to live?”

De Anza sits at the intersection between two great cultures: competition and the market and democratic engagement, Murphy said.

“Education either prepares you to work in the system or prepares you to change it,” he said.

The purpose of the symposium was to “bring forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, and socially just human presence on this planet.”

“We aren’t separate,” said the late Thomas Berry in a video shown by the facilitators. “We aren’t an addition of the earth, but an expression of it.” Berry is a cultural historian and environmental pioneer.

Latina/o Empowerment at De Anza, Wise 37, the De Anza Associated Student Body, the Institute of Community and Civic Engagement and the Inter Club Council all helped in hosting the four-hour symposium, along with cooperation from Cupertino Green, West Valley College and the Pachamama Alliance.

“Keith, Faye, Adriana, and Cherise busted their humps,” Matt Wrightsman, president of Wise 37 said. “They sweated, slaved and 100 percent dedicated themselves to the whole entire event.”

Members of clubs including Students for Justice and organizations such as the Audubon Society tabled in the rear of the conference rooms.

“We are here supporting student involvement,” said Joseph Certeza, one of the organizers for an upcoming student movement art show, while tabling with SFJ.

The Awakening the Dreamer facilitators passed out handmade Equadorian bracelets that were intended to be a metaphor for helping one another in a time of environmetal crisis. They wanted their audience to leave the Campus Center with not only a better understanding of their cause, but a plan for the future of environmental sustainability. They asked the audience to take part in three kinds of actions: the personal practices we follow in our daily lives, communicating about the urgency of change, and collective and cooperative action with others.

“I’m planning to volunteer at a community garden and get involved with Tutor Outreach Uniting Communities for Change (TOUCCH) to reach out to others,” student Athena Maack said.

“I’m planning to bring this event to Foothill to help spread awareness and engage and educate our students too,” Foothill student Gustavo Okamura said. Okamura is an Associated Students of Foothill College senator.

“I’m going to start taking the time to think ahead and know what I really need and what others need to know,” Anaruth Hernandez said.

“I wish the whole world went,” Wrightsman said. “It’s changed me. I’ve becoming so much more aware of my own consumption and waste. I realized that things are never really thrown away. The solution is not to recycle, but to use less.”