Itza Martinez de Eulate Lanza
M.A. Water Science and Integrated Management, Universidad de Barcelona.
B.A. Environmental Engineer, Universidad Centro Americana (UCA) in Managua, Nicaragua.
Instructor in Biointensive Growing Method by Ecology Action in Willits, California, USA.
Itzá’s maternal family is from the town of Diriomo, located at the foot of the Mombacho volcano in Nicaragua. Her paternal family is from a village called Oteiza in Navarra, surrounded by an agricultural plateau. Itzá was born in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua in the early 90s, a tumultuous time, full of changes and marked by a newfound peace in the country. As a little girl, thanks to her parents’ enthusiasm f0r travel and exploration, she began to fall in love with the natural spaces in Nicaragua and Central America.
Itzá studied Environmental Engineering at the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) in Managua. Curious and interested in better understanding the region, she began working for Fauna & Flora International as a conservation project assistant. As technician in solid waste management in one of the five largest sugar companies in the country she conducted audits in water management for a shrimp company. Simultaneously, she was involved as a volunteer in the Center of Understanding with Nature in Peñas Blancas, Costa Rica, a protected area of the BOSAWAS Biosphere Reserve. Thanks to this work, she began an investigation on the contamination of wastewater produced by the coffee industry, which led her to work as an environmental technician in a municipality near the reserve region. To deepen his knowledge of water resources, she studied a Master’s degree in Science and Integrated Water Management at the University of Barcelona, where she is now involved in collaborating with the Water Observatory of Terrassa, the social movement Water is Life and recently in the New Water Culture Foundation.
Apart from engineering and her love for water, Itzá is passionate about agroecology, she has co-produced urban gardens in Managua, taught workshops in different parts of Nicaragua and worked for more than 8 months as an apprentice in a family farm in the Sacred Valley of the Incas in Peru. Itzá has been instructing with Dragons since 2017, and has led over 10 programs (summer, semester or partnerships). Itzá loves to cook regional food, hike, forage for mushrooms, spend the whole day reading at the beach or near a river shore, dance and have time to enjoy coffee in the morning.