Conversation with Shaney Peña-Gómez
Shaney Peña-Gómez
A 2018 Loeb Fellow, Shaney is an active practitioner in the natural and built environment. Her education in architecture and landscape architecture has influenced her interests in green infrastructure systems and the ability landscapes have to foster urban and economic development through land use, stewardship, and private/public collaboration. As a Loeb Fellow, Shaney continues her work on bi-national border regions between Haiti and the Dominican Republic and plans to advance her knowledge in new urban models focused in green infrastructure financing, open space creation, and increased density. We sit down to chat about her work along the border, her perception of the bi-national “environmental divide”, and how these narratives fit into the context of landscape architecture in the Dominican Republic.
+ This conversation was reduced and edited for shareable content
Coffee & Conversation
S - We can say that the line dividing the Dominican Republic and Haiti is the most interesting territory of this regional landscape. I am most interested in boundaries because of the power that design has when it is translated into a territory. During my thesis, many of my interests coincided. I was able to study the border between Haiti and the DR as a public space, and to practice without having a particular client driving the creative process. So, I came back to the DR and started this unsolicited project and decided to look for the stakeholders to make it happen-- to develop a bi-national park between Haiti and the DR.
A - That’s amazing! For my research, I am interested in working in transboundary areas and using the native and endemic flora as a binding factor for design. I really feel that the plants here are key to the cultural landscape, on both sides of the border.
S - Very interesting! There is a spiritual dimension to plants on the Haitian side. There are plants that are sacred and respected because of what they give to people, and for me, it was an interesting dimension to discover that connection indigenous communities have to the land. Indigenous communities had a way better understanding of the plants and regional geography, way better than we do now as a modern society. This may be a bit off from what you’re studying, but I think that along the way you will come across these landscapes many times in your research and I think it is an important factor when thinking about this region.
A - You know, this isn’t the first time I am hearing about plants within spiritual landscapes in Haiti. There are some people I’ve met here, students, who are participating in trips to Haiti to study the spiritual relationship communities have with the land. And many people have mentioned the sacred forests that hold voodoo ceremonies and rituals surrounded by ancient landscapes.
S - There is a whole center in the Haitian side that is a connection of mountains and caves, that allowed the slaves to organize their independence and now serve as pilgrimage destinations for voodoo ceremonies. I was able to experience one of these ceremonies as a spectator, and one of the main rituals is done underneath a Ceiba Tree. Now, I didn’t know there was a Haitian Ceiba Tree and Dominican Ceiba Tree, but I have explored this in some of my projects in landscape architecture.
One of the main issues here, when looking at the Haitian and Dominican landscape, is deforestation and erosion. There is a recurring topic of discussion whether reforestation is the right technique to use to address these issues or if it’s just better to leave the landscape alone. There have been symbolic actions in terms of environmental degradation on the border, where Haitians are working and planting on the Dominican side and Dominicans planting on the Haitian side. There’s even more discussion on addressing soils first and regenerating so that we can grow back the vegetation layer etc. So, I think that as you move forward in your research it is important to highlight the complexity of the relationships along the border, because I know there is this postcard going around where Haiti is brown and Dominican is green and that’s just not the whole story.
A - To be honest, I am guilty of that perception and it’s kind of what started my interest in research for this country. The green versus brown narrative is very strong outside of the island and people have a very strong opinion on why or how it came to be. But, the more that I am here, I’m finding that narrative to be completely false and easily shifted based on pre-conceived racial and political judgment.
S - Exactly, I would encourage you to showcase this complexity because that image does no favor to Haiti or DR. At some point, it was useful to get attention to the border for investment but it has not been productive to say that the “Dominicans are racist” and “Haitians are victims” and that those factors are fueling this environmental catastrophe. There is always a reductionist narrative of these wars in relationship with our relationships between countries.
A - I agree -- I believe it’s completely reductive, and not just socially but also within the landscape perspective. To say that certain communities are undeserving of valuable landscapes that require regeneration, or asserting that it is impossible because “they” [Haitians] messed it up, is a false narrative that doesn’t even hint towards the years of political and environmental exploitation placed on this island as a whole.
S - Environmental issues, and this goes for every place, are economic issues which are political issues which get put into place by changing parties; in the end, people are just doing what they need and are told to do for profit. There are other problems related to corruption here [In the DR], where protected areas are illegally and secretly deforested or exploited for resources. There are layers of business that do not tie with environmental and social issues. This island has suffered on the dependence of natural resources for growth and all the layers of corruption, in terms of land use for profit, showcases that this society has burned down their resources. What it is, is the acquisition of capital when you know you have access to a political structure that will allow you to do that. You feel protected to take advantage of environmental systems.
After realizing the state of the environment, a past president initiated natural resource protection projects through mass reforestation. Even though his environmental efforts were promising---One, green is better but it’s not sustainable and two, reforestation is in our psychology. So much so that people don’t understand taking out invasive species because it means taking out a tree. Reforestation, for us, is the answer to every environmental situation. Over time, there are have been historic events and political influences that have directed our approach and perception of what a “natural environment” is. But the truth is, if we don’t continue to subsidize basic goods to the most remote communities with minimal accessibility, we are gonna burn all the forest down no matter how protected the areas are or how much reforestation happens. So yes, we may have more green coverage but that does not mean we are sustainable.
A - Or that reforestation means regeneration. That planting mass amounts of one tree type does not necessarily mean you are conserving and building habitat to promote healthier ecological systems.
S - Exactly, exactly.
A - So you did your MLA at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign--how do you feel about landscape architecture on the island compared to your experience in the states?
S - Haha, that’s a good question. The first thing is that here, in the academic environment, you need to be an architect in order to participate in anything related to the built environment. So that is already a weak point. And what happens is that if you want to be a planner, you get your architecture degree and then study urban planning abroad. For landscape architecture, I don’t even know if people are aware of the profession until they are in the architecture field and then find their interests and start to specialize. I think that this is a handicap for the diversity in the discipline here.
In architecture school in the DR, landscape architecture was ornament. I’m guilty of that perception [haha] because the way it was taught was always in relation to the built form within the landscape, and not as a separate public space; it was taught as landscaping. And then I was lucky that, in my final year, I knew I was interested in environmental issues, territories, and natural systems. I was considering a Master’s program in urban planning. I ended up running into a colleague of mine that was a Fulbright scholar, working with a group of students from UPenn doing a LA studio, here, in the DR. I got to chat with them about my thesis in transboundary landscapes, my interests, and the professor of the group says, “so what you’re telling me IS landscape architecture” and I remember being like, “what-- Landscape architecture?!” So, I went to visit Upenn, the GSD, other schools and was really getting into the identity of the field. I was surprised to find a discipline that brings more clarity to issues and projects within design through complex social and environmental layers. So still, here, there is a lot to be done and work to do but it's slightly better than when I was in architecture school; which is almost 20 years ago now. I think there's promise though, and the country is continuing to move forward.
+ Shaney continues her work as the regional planning coordinator for the Quisqueya Binational Economic Council and developing strategies for land stewardship with the urban office - Shearly Initiative.
Read more about Shaney’s 2018 Harvard Loeb Fellowship here -- https://loebfellowship.gsd.harvard.edu/fellows-alumni/fellows-search/shaney-pena-gomez/
