For my Spanish Class, I attended two Latin American Film Festivals. The one that I liked the most was the second one that I attended, which was when we watched “Cacu: A change for Life.” I attended this film back on October 6. What I really liked about this film was that it described the environment and how in the Dominican Republic there is a big pollution problem that is hurting the sea turtles. I really enjoy nature, and I especially enjoy learning and exploring sea life. When I watched the movie, it was very upsetting to hear that many sea turtles were wiped away from the ocean and they had to eat on plastic and beach trash. It also made me think that humans have a very unethical relationship with animals, and it is unfortunate that humans decide that they have the power to decide whether or not it is okay to make laws to help protect the animals. In other words, it should not be up to humans to decide what is right for the sea turtles, rather it should be up to the turtles themselves how they should find shelter and create an environment.
This relates a lot to my experience working at the garden because for three of my garden hours, I went to the Allentown Public garden to help pick up trash. I remember thinking that while I was cleaning up, humans are too lazy to pick up their trash, and Allentown has started to make strict laws about forbidding people from littering. I also realized that this garden was a nature preserve, and I realized that I had never seen a natural resource or site without litter. This connects a lot to the unethical treatment between humans and sea turtles in the Dominican Republic because a lot of the beach pollution that put the turtles in danger resulted from people littering on the beach. The Dominican government has tried to enforce a law to prevent people from going to the beach where the sea turtles were living to provide protection for the sea turtles. Even though I said that humans should not justify the turtle’s right to live or die, this was an important choice for them to make because it showed that the government wants the turtles to survive.
In conclusion, the environmental problem discussed in Cacu: A Change for Life and the littering problem in Allentown’s gardens both address the issue of pollution and littering. They both explain how humans have unethical treatment to animals and nature, and it is in our best interest to preserve the environment not because we believe it is right, but rather because it is naturally the right thing to do.
