The Reality of Green Burial in Mexico: Wilka Roig, GTO: Ep5

Wilka Roig, MA, MFA, PLC, is a death activist, death doula, grief worker, and transpersonal psychologist who is passionate about advocating for green burial for reforestation in Mexico and beyond.

Wilka is the founder and president of Fundación Elisabeth Kübler-Ross México Centro, the cofounder and academic director of Espacio Formativo para la Integración de la Muerte and the cofounder and administrator of Red Latinoamericana de Acompañamiento en la Muerte y el Duelo.

I spoke with her about her involvement in Mexico’s ‘first-ever’ green burial, although that term does have some caveats, which we discuss in the episode.

In This Episode:

• The history of the Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Foundation in Mexico

• The Foundation’s mission and their involvement in green burial

• How the first green burial for reforestation cemetery was inaugurated in San Miguel de Allende

• The challenges, and potential, of replicating green burial across Mexico

• The state of green burial in Latin America

• The connection between land conservation and green burial

• The broader issue of death denial and its impact on environmental responsibility

• The conflict between the green burial movement's core values and the monetization of body disposition

• Greenwashing as a barrier and/or stepping stone to green burial

• What the green burial movement can learn from the dying process

• The cultural history and legal status of body disposition in Mexico

• The need for collaboration across governmental agencies and diverse communities

• Cultural and community resistance to foreigners being buried in municipal cemeteries

• Usos y costumbres, and the defense of personal convictions and beliefs

• The future of green burial in Mexico and Latin America

Learn More:

Visit Fundación Elisabeth Kübler-Ross en Mexico

Read the blog and watch the video on Green Burial for Reforestation

Learn more about Wilka Roig at her website