The Monarch Butterfly: A Symbol of Community, Climate, and Perseverance
By Katherine Hernandez, Edited by Hayley Bricker
I made the mistake of going late in the day for my pan dulce. On a Thursday afternoon I ventured out, having started my day with a concha and now seeking to end it with one (or preferably a puerquito, but evening prowlers can’t be choosers). The morning pan had graciously been provided by UCLA’s Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) chapter, but for this last one I made my way to La Monarca Bakery in Santa Monica.
Its namesake, the monarch butterfly, is an animal of multiple meanings. Native across North America, the butterfly is well known for its seasonal migration that takes the western population from their overwintering sites in northern California down to northern Baja California in Mexico, where they commune every year to breed, birth, and die. Around mid-October, the next generation of monarchs returns to the U.S., where their parents were born, to overwinter on the western coast.
Monarch butterflies are the only insect known to perform this two-way migration. Because of their short lives, it will take three to four generations before the population reaches its final destination, flying farther and farther north until February comes and it is time to fly south again. There are many dangers that monarchs face while migrating, such as predators and suddenly changing weather conditions. But the most challenging obstacles to monarchs in the last few decades have been human made.
The western population has dropped significantly since the 1980s. In 2018 the reported number of monarchs that migrated from Mexico to California was approximately 2,000. The number in the 1980s was 10 million. This decline has been steady for decades, but one of the biggest drops in population occurred in the last five years, leaving scientists confused and greatly concerned. Possible contributors are habitat loss, climate change, and agricultural & private pesticide use. Ultimately, the question is not if these human factors are affecting western monarchs, but how badly? And which one is the main reason why populations are dropping faster now than ever?
Efforts to restore the monarch butterfly are being led by multiple actors–local governments, nonprofits, and communities–across California and the American Southwest. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation is an international non-profit that has spent considerable time and effort on protecting pollinators like the Monarch butterfly. In 2020, the Xerces Society reported on their website recent cooperations between the society and community groups across California, including the Los Angeles / Santa Monica chapter of the California Native Plant Society. The local chapter has been working for years to restore the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve with native plants, like the monarch butterfly’s only food source, milkweed. The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area Youth Program (SAMO Youth) participates in similar restoration projects, inviting high school age students from across the greater Los Angeles area and Ventura County to connect with local natural spaces, practice stewardship, and gain guidance for possible careers in outdoor and environmental-focused careers. This program centers its efforts on supporting students from historically excluded communities, like the Latinx community who make up 48.6% of Los Angeles County, according to the 2021 federal census. Economic disparities, racial and ethnic discrimination, and the historical practice of redlining and community disinvestment make accessing natural spaces difficult for Latinx community members across the county and beyond.
In recent years, such environmental justice issues have been highlighted by major environmental nonprofits and conservation institutions, like the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. In 2020, for National Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month, the Natural History Museum published a video exploring the importance of monarch butterflies to the Latinx community. The symbology of the monarch butterfly has roots in indigenous Mexican culture. The migration of the eastern population of monarch butterflies into and through western and central Mexico occurs in late October, early November, coinciding with Dia de Los Muertos celebrations, which have been practiced going back thousands of years.
Specific beliefs and practices regarding monarchs vary among indigenous groups, but to this day, the image of the monarch invokes deep feelings of history and culture among the Mexican people and the Mexican diaspora. In the U.S., the monarch butterfly has been used as a symbol for Chicanx rights for decades. Solidarity among Latinx ethnic groups has made the monarch a symbol for immigration rights for all who find comfort and power in it. The iconic orange and black striped pattern can be found in murals, posters in protest, and from state to state across the U.S. connecting the pains of the past with hopes for the future.
The day I went to La Monarca, I had brought a friend with me. Like me, she is a grad student at UCLA. We are both of Latinx and Mexican heritage, but we differ in our experiences of that heritage due to differences in race, location, when our families came to the U.S., and all the other factors that define our varied lives. These distinctions are not an uncommon thing. My experience is different from hers, is different from my mother’s, is different from my cousins’, and on and on and on. What connects us is memory. Generation after generation, like the monarchs, many Latinx people find themselves returning to the history of our families. Much of that history of immigration is tainted with violence and oppression, not natural seasonal cycles, so the monarch is not a perfect analogy. But, symbols do not need to be perfect to be powerful. For some, the monarch is just a butterfly. For others, the butterflies are icons of hope and perseverance, of a harsh history and a freer future. Now, for others yet, monarch butterflies are another symbol among thousands of endangered symbols representative of climate change and environmental collapse.
This last July, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) declared monarch butterflies as a “red-list” endangered species. This signals the dire state of the species, and a potential increase of support from the federal government, now that monarchs are officially protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The next few decades and their rising temperatures will bring a new intensity to the challenges facing monarchs, but, backed by communities across the southwest, there is hope for the symbol of perseverance to do just that — persevere.
