Xiye Bastida

Bastida was born in Atlacomulco, Mexico to parents Mindahi and Geraldine, who are also environmentalists, and raised in the town of San Pedro Tultepec in Lerma. She is of Otomi-Toltec (indigenous Mexican) and Bolivian descent on her father’s side and Chilean and European descent on her mother’s. Bastida holds Mexican and Chilean citizenship.

Bastida and her family moved to New York City after extreme flooding hit their hometown of San Pedro Tultepec in 2015 following three years of drought.

Bastida began her activism with an environmental club. The club protested at Albany and New York City Hall and lobbied for the CLCPA [the Climate and Community Leaders Protection Act] and the Dirty Buildings Bill. It was then she heard about Greta Thunberg and her climate strikes.

Bastida gave a speech on Indigenous Cosmology at the 9th United Nations World Urban Forum, and was awarded the “Spirit of the UN” award in 2018.

Bastida led her high school, The Beacon School, in the first major climate strike in New York City on 15 March 2019. She and Alexandria Villaseñor officially greeted Thunberg upon her arrival from Europe by boat in September 2019 to attend the UN Climate Summit. Xiye has been coined “America’s Greta Thunberg”.

Teen Vogue released a documentary short We Rise on Bastida in December 2019. Xiye has also collaborated with 2040 film to create a short video titled Imagine the Future exploring what future landscapes and cityscapes could look like in the future.