Since 2019 more than 60 homes in El Bosque have disappeared into the ocean as the climate crisis brings severe weather to the peninsula
More than half of the homes in El Bosque, as well as its primary school, kindergarten and a main road have been wiped out by the sea. Photograph: Gustavo Graf/Pablo Montaño
Further erosion of the shoreline and destruction of the village is inevitable in the coming months, according to climate experts from organisations such as Greenpeace and Conexiones Climáticas. El Bosque, which is located on a thin peninsula bordered to the east by the Gulf of Mexico and to the west by the Grijalva River, has been historically susceptible to hurricanes, though it has been the ferocious fronts in recent years that have devastated the village.
“It’s impossible for our kids to continue learning in conditions like this,” said Guadalupe Cobos as she surveyed the sand-covered desks in the shack.School furniture lies covered in sand in the school shack and, right, the remains of the old school building. Photographs: Conexiones Climáticas “We are now migrants in our own country,” said Cobos. “The government says they will assist us with relocation, but we’ve been hearing that for years.”In February and again in May, Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, was asked in his daily morning press conference about the government’s plans to provide housing for the residents of El Bosque.
A sign hangs on a line with the words ‘How do you imagine your home/school?’. Photographs: Conexiones Climáticas