“These hills were on fire,” says Adelaida Cucué Rivera, remembering a dark time, years earlier, for the quiet mountain community where she lives. “If you looked out at these hills, you would not see trees. The forest was demolished,” she adds, gesturing toward what is once again a dense woodland of pine. Fiftysomething Rivera has warm eyes and a presence as calm as it is commanding. From her porch, she looks out onto the lush highlands of Cherán, an indigenous Purépecha community of about 24,000 people, a few hours west…
