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DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHER Born in Berne in the Swiss Alps, Gertrude Duby was an anti-fascist organizer during WWII. In 1940, weary of war, she journeyed to Mexico, where, inspired by the writing of French anthropologist Jacques Soustelle, she decided to reinvent herself as a jungle explorer and documentary photographer. She bought an old camera and taught herself to use it. Then in 1943, she convinced a government official to let her join an expedition in search of the legendary Lacandon Maya. The only Maya never conquered by the Spanish, the Lacandon had lived free for centuries deep in the Chiapas jungle (La Selva Lacandona). They were rarely photographed and only had sporatic contact with the outside world, mainly with loggers and chicle workers. Not only did Blom photograph the Lacandon and write a book about her experiences with them, she found in the Lacandon Maya and their jungle home her life's work. It was on a second expedition to visit the Lacandon that she met Frans Blom , a Danish archeologist and cartographer who was searching for lost Mayan ruins. They teamed up on several subsequent expeditions and later married. CASA NA BOLOM Moving to San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas in 1951, the Bloms bought a derelict monastery which they restored and named Casa Na Bolom. They took in paying guests for breakfast and dinner to finance their trips to the jungle. Eventually, Casa Na Bolom evolved into an inn attracting visitors from all over the world, including archeologists from major American universities and guests as notable as Diego Rivera and Henry Kissinger . Conversation in many different languages flew across the long table in the dining room, and Mrs. Blom became famous for the kitchen she kept. For the next 20 years, until Frans Blom's death in 1963, the Bloms shared a passion for jungle expeditions, and their explorations led to the discovery of many important Mayan ruins. It was on these trips that Trudi Blom took the photographs that put her in the ''ranks of other great social observers with a camera, like Laura Gilpin, Dorothea Lange, and Eugene Smith.'' (BEARING WITNESS 3) Also, it was on these jungle trips that Mrs. Blom developed lifelong friendships with the Lacandon Maya. She built a camp at Naja, the home of Lacandon spiritual leader, Chan K'in Viejo, who she considered her best friend. ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST The systematic deforestation of La Selva Lacandona by loggers, settlers, and the Mexican government changed the direction of Trudi Blom's life yet again. In the 1970's, after reading SILENT SPRING by Rachel Carson, Blom decided she must speak out, and thus became one of our first environmental activists. She traveled the world, lecturing from first-hand experience about the death of the jungle and its cultures and showing slide shows of her documentary photographs. In three languages, she wrote hundreds of articles protesting Mexican policies. In 1975 she started El Vivero, a tree nursery that distributes free trees for reforestation. Blom said, "I am hopeless, but I plant trees." In 1983, GERTRUDE BLOM - BEARING WITNESS, a book of her documentary photographs, was published by The Center for Documentary Photography, Duke University. It also contains one of her most powerful essays, "The Jungle is Burning, " in which she writes: ''If mankind continues abusing the planet as we are today, the effects in the near future will be far worse than the devastation that would be caused by any atomic bomb. '' These prophetic words were written twenty five years ago. In the late 1980's, concerned citizens and friends of Mrs. Blom urged her to create a non-profit organization that would protect Casa Na Bolom after her death. Today, ''La Asociación Cultural Na Bolom A.C.'' continues the work of Gertrude Blom with events and programs dedicated to the protection of La Selva Lacandona and its Mayan residents. During her life time, Gertrude "Trudi" Blom became a legend. She was fearless in the jungle and tireless in her efforts to save it; sparing no one her fiery anger and righteous indignation. It is rumored that Subcommandante Marcos , during the occupation of San Cristobal de las Casas in 1994, sent a fax to Casa Na Bolom stating that no matter what, he would never harm ''the home of the great lady for us, Dona Gertrudis''. Gertrude Blom's NEW YORK TIMES obituary called her ''a chronicler of Mayan culture'' and in a correction to the obituary added later, stated that she was also a horticulturist, a fact of which she was quite proud. "It is the only thing I do, for which I was educated and hold a university degree," she said. ''Primary Source: Harris, Alex and Margaret Sartor, ed. GERTRUDE BLOM BEARING WITNESS. Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press. 1984. EXTERNAL LINKS
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