Our new Executive Director, Cristina Cabrera, joined the NESAWG team on April 4th. We are so excited to have her wisdom, experience, and perspective guiding our work. 

Cristina has been an urban community grower for the past ten years most recently graduating as a Master Gardener from URI. She has been a community organizer, water protector, and social and environmental justice organizer for over twenty years in what is now known as the state of Rhode Island and Massachusetts. With mixed Indigenous and Latinx roots, she currently organizes with local Aboriginal People and Native Green to restore the balance of Mother Earth. Cristina is also the co-Founder of Global Village Farms in Massachusetts, prior co-Founder of two architectural design and construction BIPOC businesses, and prior executive director of two grassroots non-profit organizations. She has a background in Architecture with a concentration in Urban Design and Planning, and a background in Business Management and Project Management. Cristina is also a Popular Educator and a Spanish-English interpreter and translator.

A message from Cristina

Asco Wequasin! I am grateful and excited to be joining the NESAWG community with the commitment of transforming our food system and our relationship to the Land.

We are standing on unceded Aboriginal Territory on Turtle Island. Our current relationship to the Land and Mother Earth — who cares for Her, who protects Her, who honors Her rights as a living being, and who grows food in balance with Her versus those who extract, exploit, strip, yet fully benefit from Her fruits — reflects the drastic imbalance brought about the inequities and injustices of a colonial and settler mentality prevalent to this day.

The settler mentality established itself with guns and cannons on Turtle Island over 500 years ago as a self-perpetuating system dispossessing Aboriginal People from their Land, enslaving Black and Indigenous Labor, and exploiting the work and lives of People of Color while asserting full decision-making power, full enjoyment and commodification of Her bounty, enclosing wealth generation, and claiming control and ownership over Her.

This all must change, and change is NOW!

I look forward to working with NESAWG and the greater NESAWG community to make the changes needed for an equitable and just food system that honors Mother Earth, restores a balanced way of being in this world, and brings healing to All. Twelve states plus DC can make a difference! Aho! Cristina Cabrera Chunchip Deer Spirit

Expect to see Cristina at a NESAWG meeting or event in the near future, and reach out to her at [email protected] if you’d like to say hello!