Las Fuegas. Organized Forest brigade women, from the Sierras Chicas of Córdoba.

After a fire burned out of control in Ascochinga (57 km from the city of Córdoba) for several days in August 2024, a member of the forestry brigade advances over the field to monitor the fire front and the terrain’s topography, in order to lead the rest of the crew in direct combat.
In 2024 alone, more than 93,000 hectares of native forest burned in Córdoba. Intentionally started fires are used as a tool to clear land for later development by real estate, agricultural, livestock or mining businesses. In Argentina, one hectare of forest is destroyed every two minutes — the equivalent of 30 football pitches per hour (Greenpeace, 2023)

Despite the desolation and the feeling that intentional forest fires will continue to occur, the phrase ‘El monte resiste’ has become a symbol of resilience and hope.

A group of fire brigade attacked the fire from the flanks or tail and not from the head due to the intensity of the fire.

Women from the community forest fire brigades in Córdoba, Argentina

A circle formed at dawn. All the community forest fire brigades of the Sierras Chicas Corridor, met for a day’s training on the mountainside. Before the training, Las Fuegas read a document created by them, with the intention of shining light on situations of violence in these organizations. This document was later incorporated as a security protocol to prevent gender violence.
One morning in July 2023, a day of training and tool practice was held for brigades in El Carapé Ascochinga: The Inchin, Chiviquin, Isquitipe, Chavascate, Kamchira, Colibrí and Aromito brigades were present, along with more than 58 forest brigaders from across the Sierras Chicas corridor. Before the training began, the seven brigades gathered in a circle. The bodies arranged in a circle allow for mutual listening and observation. This reflects the horizontal moments in these types of practices, where there is no hierarchical command, but rather a circulation of words and collective decision-making.

Three female brigade members hold a branch with shoots from the Algarrobo tree (Prosopis alba), which is highly resistant to semi-arid climates and intense droughts. The tree’s very sweet fruit has served as food and nutrition for indigenous peoples for hundreds of years. Currently, the practice of consuming this fruit is being revived, though it is not widely used in the food industry.
Caring for native forests is one of the pillars of the brigade movement in Córdoba, a province where only 2% of native forests remain in good condition.

One cold winter’s morning, Victoria Prado, a 29-year-old member of Fuegas, has breakfast with her nine-year-old son, Salvador. Motherhood is an important issue for Fuegas participants.
Through the window, they could see the green hills of the 5000-hectare Los Quebrachitos Municipal Natural Recreation Water Reserve, located at the eastern base of the Sierras Chicas mountain range in Córdoba.

Cristina, Luana’s mother, holds her daughter’s photo in her arms and is embraced by Las Fuegas. Diego Concha has been sentenced to life imprisonment.
On the day of the final sentencing, August 27, 2024; Fuegas arrived at the courthouse very early in the morning. They were giving notes for the media that approached, as well as reporting on what was happening. They made several performances on the courthouse sidewalk. They set up an altar there. When Diego Concha’s sentence was announced, Cristina Caminos Varela, Sergio Ludueña, and Luana’s family went outside to thank the organisations that had supported them.

Mell, a brigadista of the Chiviquin Brigade and a member of Las Fuegas, stands for a moment and looks desolately at the vegetation that has been razed to the ground after the fire in Ascochinga 2024, Córdoba.

Four brigade members of Fuegas, in the town of La Rinconada, north of Córdoba, light up the sky with their flashlights.
This happened on their way back from first aid training, to which the firefighters of La Rinconada, a town north of Córdoba, had invited them. On the way back, they stopped to look at the constellations, searching for shapes resembling the fire.

Women from the community forest fire brigades in Córdoba, Argentina Virchu, Yeni, Giuli, Vic, Vale, Euge, and Simone (dog) are members of Fuegas. This collective was born as an organization of women firefighters that seeks to address the problem of forest fires from an eco-transfeminist perspective. It is this intersection between environmental and gender issues that has given them significant visibility as leaders in their field. They frequently use the slogan “Neither the forest nor our bodies are territories of conquest.”

They were founded in March 2022, following the Luana Ludueña case, which motivated them to take to the streets in search of justice. This motivated other women to speak out about the violence they experienced in their own organizations, and they soon became leaders in their work in an environment as sexist as that experienced during forest fires. They are currently made up of 18 people, each of whom belongs to a community brigade in their locality. Some of them were left without a brigade due to a situation of violence, and decided to form the first community forestry brigade of women in Argentina, which they call Mampa, which in the ancestral Sanavirona language means “Running Water.