Storytelling for a suncken landscape: Valle de Bravo, Mexico

I have just come back from spending 4 days in Valle de Bravo, in the State of Mexico. This is a wonderful village nestled amongst mountains and pine forests. The village has a beautiful lake, and our house, was just a short walk from the lake, where hundreds of ducks, water hens and several herons  waddled happily. The photograph of the lake was taken by Luck Mendez and he has wonderful images of Valle in his page.

Apparently, the area was flooded over 50 years ago to create a huge hydroelectric reservoir. I wished there had been back the possibility of digital storytelling to record the feelings of the people living back then, when their land was flooded and they were relocated. That area is now lost forever, and although what is now the "new" environment is lovely, I became nostalgic about a heritage of stories and memories that is slowly dying because it was not possible or noteworthy enough to record.

We often think that only important events are worth recording, and yet, this is no longer the case; with a video camera, some pictures and sound, anyone can make a story and publish it on the Internet. We can therefore all become digital storytellers, using our creativity to preserve our memories, our daily impressions and thoughts, and whatever strikes us as magical. On this vein, it is worth noting that there are several manuals available for digital storytelling. A recently updated one and freely available for downloading comes from the KQED Digital Storytelling Initiative.