MARX AND FEUERBACH IN THE ADJUNTAS’ MOUNTAINS

My friend who lives up in the mountains in Puerto Rico was never concerned with politics as such, except she voted every four years for one of the more centrist parties in the island. Her life as a retired kindergarten teacher was dedicated to taking care of stray dogs; until at her late 80s, she found out that the person she had granted power of attorney in case of illness and death -a young relative- had said to someone else, that he was planning to sell her farm to developers. At that point, she got a lawyer because her wishes are for the four acres of forest surrounding her house to be kept as underdeveloped as possible, and to use her house as a shelter for stray dogs. Given the turn of events, she also decided to attend a series of meetings organized by one of her town’s groups promoting environmental and economic considerations in the mountains’ area where she resides. One of the young men, graduate student of sociology, leading the discussion made her a little dizzy with his heavy quotations on Marx and Feuerbach’s opposing ideas on nature, human intervention and material production; but he was making enough sense with his positions on planning and projects development, for her to be able to agree that there was a need to play an active role in the community; and made sure her love for dogs would be part of the picture. Her story would have been an uplifting one. if it would had not ended with the police arresting the young man later that week when he left a pizza shop in town, accusing him of drunk driving. She told me, that she knew for certain, the guy would not even drink can sodas.