Skies would darken with monarchs

Personal memory by K. Brandon

1989 CEReserves de Mariposa Mexico

I was interviewing a woman in her 70s about monarch butterflies coming to overwinter in Mexico. As a conservation biologist in 1989, it was great that reserves were created to protect monarchs. The old woman said when she was young, the skies would darken for days with butterflies and the sound of millions of wings was amazing.

Memory submitted at One Life: Maya Lin, National Portrait Gallery, 2022

Image: Raina Kumra, nyc, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons