On a Sunday morning when Avenida Juárez was closed to cars but humming with bicycles, skateboards, roller skates and running shoes, one tented corner of Parque Rojo invited passersby to consider something most take for granted: breathing.
Guadalajara’s first Clean Air Fair, organized by the Colectivo Ecologista Jalisco (CEJ) in collaboration with the Jalisco Environment and Territorial Development Ministry (Semadet) and the state Health Ministry, marked the UN’s International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies.
Under the playful slogan “Bring Your Lungs,” the fair turned air pollution—a subject often communicated through technical measurements and alarming statistics—into games, demonstrations and hands-on activities.
Visitors tested their breathing, compared the air consumed by humans and animals, played air-quality lotería and learned how Jalisco’s atmospheric monitoring network detects pollutants.
“The fair was born from the collective’s need to communicate air-quality issues in a different, entertaining way, with a close connection to health,” said Erasmo Cruz, CEJ’s project coordinator.
At one booth, a facilitator timed visitors’ breaths for one minute. A whale, participants learned, can inhale approximately 250 liters of air per minute.
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