Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World

I read this book on a recommendation from Daniel Quinn, author of "The Story of B" and "Beyond Civilization." Quinn's entire philosophy rests on two ideas: living in a sustainable manner, and allowing the reader to come up with their own solutions for doing so. Gaviotas is a community where people did just that - through ingenuity, creativity, and hard work, the residents of this planned village created a place where water is pulled from the ground using pumps attached to children's see-saws, heat is provided by the sun, and electricity by the wind.

It's a progressive's dream come true, and an experiment that has succeeded in all possible ways. This book lays out the history of Gaviotas and its unique founder, Paolo Lugari, and places it within the context of the ongoing struggles in Colombia. In the wake of the World Trade Center attack, I decided to re-read Gaviotas to remind myself that not only is there hope for humanity as a whole, but hope that individuals will begin to take responsibility to begin freeing ourselves from the confining forces of our self-imposed prisons called "civilization," but still manage to retain the good things, too.

Every person on earth should read and re-read this book. If you haven't, buy it now or start hoofing it to the library.


The challenge of sustainability in a chaotic world   December 22, 1999
Craig Stern (Flagstaff, AZ USA)
15 out of 15 found this review helpful

A captivatingly inspirational account of story that reaches to the core of what is remarkable about human nature, human courage, and human ingenuity achieving something great and important in the face of daunting conditions. The continuing adaptive accomplishments of the Gaviotas people in the face of multiple challenges -- extreme environmental conditions, corrupt government practices, turbulent and deadly national politics, indifferent and unsupportive post-1980s corporate globalization, continuing uncertainty -- is truly an affirmation that people can, and hopefully will, achieve a kind of society that is both ecologically sustainable and humanly necessary. This book is 'the power of one' writ large on our collective future.

I teach a university course entitled: Humanistic Values in a Technological Society and, in the face of social and environmental problems caused by industrialization and electronic media-technology, it is difficult for the title not to seem a proverbial oxymoron. In the future this book will be required reading so that students can see that indeed there are solutions to our collective problems, both human and technological. One reviewer bemoaned that there was no 'useful information' in the book, meaning it was short on technical details (I am sure this will follow if sufficient positive interest is shown to this publication). In response I would point out that the people of Gaviotas have shown that the most important and necessary 'commodity' of the future is and will be human inspiration and perseverance; given these, the details will follow. I thank Alan Weisman for telling the Gaviotas story.


Not DIY   March 13, 2005
Jim Curry (MT)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful

The vision described in the book is inspiring and very hopeful. The idea is to use our ingenuity in ways directly adapted to our environment so that small towns can be self-sufficient. Along the way, very clever uses of wind and water are discovered and described. If the reader is looking for great general ideas or approaches, this book would be hard to beat. On the other hand, if you are a garage-tinkerer and would delight in building the clever devices described, this book is close but no cigar. The drawings offered in the book purposely omit the most important details required to fabricate the devices in a proper working form. If you are a tinkerer and want to build these "goodies," you have three options. In the U.S., you can e-mail with the "Sustainable Village" web site and get the plans (eventually---they are not quick in responding). You can contact the Gaviotas offices in Bogota, Colombia. You can, of course, also take the basic idea and think through the details for yourself. That could take longer and be a little more expensive---perhaps. If you primarily want the ideas and the inspiration, then buy the book, by all means. If you primarily want to tinker and build, go straight for the plans.


Utopia? No. Topia? Yes.   February 10, 2000
GENE GERUE (Zanoni, MO USA)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful

In 1966, when he was 22, Paolo Lugari and his brother drove over barely passable roads to a desolate area 200 miles east of Bogota, Columbia. The llanos area is a poor-soil barren that grows only a few nutrient-deficient grasses, a vast expanse of sun-baked plains in spite of over 100 inches of rain per year. A place of deadly water and hungry mosquitos. Conditions were so daunting that the Columbian government abandoned an attempt to build a road through the area. Lugari saw an opportunity to create something very special. And he did it. Today Gaviotas is a thriving, sustainable community of hundreds of joyous people studying, inventing, producing, singing and dancing amidst a huge forest that they planted. Residents from all walks of life have designed and built, planted and harvested, birthed, nurtured, taught, and entertained. There are teeter-totters that operate super-efficient pumps to bring water to the school, solar heat to cook meals, solar kettles to sterilize drinking water, ultra-light windmills to provide power. The hospital has been designated one of the 40 most important buildings in the world. Some have called Gaviotas a utopia. Lugari insists that, "Utopia literally means no place. We call Gaviotas a topia because it's real." Gaviotas the village is surprising, uplifting, extraordinary. Gaviotas the nonfiction book is as compelling as a novel, as educational as a textbook, as inspirational as the biography of a great person. If you need to rise early, do not take this book to bed with you.


South American Shangri-La   July 28, 2000
R. Griffiths
10 out of 11 found this review helpful

Do you believe in Utopia? Throughout history people have looked for the ideal community, a place where problems are solved, not created, where a dream of peace and harmony can be fulfilled. In the words of the high llama of Shangri-La, in Capra's classic film, Lost Horizon: 'the world must begin to look for a new life and it is our hope that they may find it here. For here we shall be with their books and their music and a way of life based on one simple rule: Be kind. When that day comes, it is our hope that the brotherly love of Shangri-La will spread throughout the world.' Alan Weisman writes his account of the Columbian settlement of Gavoitas firmly in the tradition of utopian literature: he has found his Shangri-La and it is not only a utopia but an eco-topia too. I found the story he has to tell immensely inspiring from an environmental point of view, especially his description of the way in which the Gaviotans have managed to reforest the pampas. However, I also found that the way he tells the story detracts from some of its potential power. At one point, he mistakenly claims that 'utopia' is the Greek for 'no place'and that therefore Gaviotas cannot be a utopia because it exists. In fact 'utopia' is Greek for 'good place', which would admirably describe Gaviotas, I would have thought. The problem with utopian writing is that it often leaves the reader doubting the reality of the place described. Can Shangri-La really be found? Can Gaviotas really exist, magically protected as it is from the twin ravages of marxist gorillas and cocaine barons? In promoting the positive aspects of the Gaviotan experiment, Weisman downplays any negative aspects that must surely exist. I would have liked to have read an account that presented the settlement 'warts and all', rather than this rather one-sided eulogy. Sure, Gaviotas may well be a utopia, a 'good place', and so many of its discoveries could well change the world, but please, Mr Weisman, let the reader decide.