Queen’s University Graduate, Taleya Argueta is igniting youth engagement and water security efforts in San Simón, El Salvador. “In my undergraduate program of Global Development Studies, there was a large focus on feminist ecologies, political ecology, colonialism, and how colonialism shapes environmental transformations. I connected to everything I was engaging with in my classes because of my personal relationship to El Salvador. All of these processes directly impacted my father’s life when he had to leave El Salvador during the 80s civil war,” Taleya shares. “I always felt so enriched after these learnings as well as a sense of urgency to do something to support a community I care about and have a direct connection to.”
The Pathy Foundation Fellowship is a unique opportunity for young changemakers to design and implement an initiative to strengthen a community they care about. Taleya’s Fellowship journey has been largely driven by and intertwined with the tight knit familial networks and realities of San Simón. “I applied to the Pathy Foundation Fellowship because it connected my intellectual interests, my passion for social change, and a deeper desire to connect with my ancestral roots and the community where my father grew up,” Taleya shares. “I travelled to San Simón throughout my whole life and always came as a visitor. I’m half Canadian and half Salvadoran and over the years, I’ve felt this longing to know and connect with my Salvadoran roots.”
Taleya’s initiative idea was conceptualized while she was in San Simón in 2024: “My grandmother had passed and I had travelled back to San Simón for the first time in five years as an adult. I saw the community in a new light learning more about my grandmother and her legacy here. You could see how much love and care she had for this community in the hundreds of people who came to her funeral,” Taleya shares. “She followed her passions throughout her life which inspired me.”
Taleya’s curiosity and family visits to San Simón led her to learn about a growing water protection movement, called Torogual, focusing on the protection, education, and value of local water sources. Taleya’s uncle shared that Torogual had been facing challenges engaging the community in building collective consciousness around water protection. “I immediately thought, ‘what can I bring to the table that could help with water efforts in this area?’,” Taleya explains.
“One thing that stuck out to me that my uncle shared was that there was a lack of community consciousnesses around water security issues in the community, and I thought, ‘what a great place to start’,” Taleya shares. “There are so many ways to nurture relationships between people and the land, and I knew I could offer my skills to engage and gather people around an issue.”
For Taleya, the relational dynamics in the community meant that informal engagement was crucial to building trust and relationships with youth. She started offering English lessons as a first entry point to meeting young people. “I had snacks, a whole presentation, and two people showed up, which initially was disappointing. After getting to know them, I eventually invited them for a hike with me and my uncle to a sacred water source.” Taleya shares. “It ended up being a beautiful moment that foreshadowed the bigger hike we did on the Gualpuca with 20 people a few months later. It shifted my mindset to see beauty in each moment, no matter how slow progress feels, and to let that bring you forward.”
From those first two participants, so many young people have reconnected to the land and water through Taleya’s Pathy initiative. With her youth group, Jóvenes Guardianes Sansimonenses del Mañana, Taleya has been leading walks to local water springs, organizing opportunities for intergenerational learning, facilitating arts-based learning activities, and inviting knowledge carriers to share Lenca culture and its connections to land. “Youth have been wanting a different space to learn, not in a typical rigid school setting, but somewhere where they really have space to explore, learn, play, and create connections,” Taleya shares. This initiative has provided a platform for exactly that type of learning in a youth-driven environment. Children and teens in the community have enjoyed leading this work, as Taleya reflects; “Youth in the community have really stepped up in leadership roles and have developed a strong sense of pride in what they’re building. There is a real sense of collective ownership over this group.”
At the heart of every Pathy Foundation Fellowship initiative is a rooted connection between the Fellow and the community they work with. “The Fellowship has taught me to be a sponge as a leader. Absorb everything and then nurture it with your heart, brain, and soul. Then, give it back to the community in a way that mirrors what the community wants,” Taleya says. “What inspires and builds the foundations for a strong community is the relationships and connections you make.”
“This year has been so much better than my wildest dreams. Arriving in San Simón, my intention was to build relationships and organize around water security. Now looking around at this incredible community and all that has been accomplished is so beautiful. People have grown connections with environmental organizations, and have launched the region’s first water festival,” shares Taleya. “I deeply love and cherish waking up in this beautiful community and all my relationships here that will last a lifetime. I have a home here forever now.”
For Taleya, success is letting go of an idealized perception of what community change could look like. “I’m feeling confident that so many little seeds were planted this year and that some are already coming to fruition, but others will at different points in life. I’ll never fully know the small moments and decisions that youth will make to protect water in the future because of our shared learning this year,” Taleya explains. “This year was a garden, and I trust the land will tend and nurture those relationships for them to grow over time.”
To learn more about Taleya’s Pathy Fellowship initiative, or the Pathy Foundation Fellowship, please visit PathyFellowship.com.
