Last week the Secretary of Health sent out a declaration stating that the Río Santiago was not effecting the health of the inhabitants of El Salto and Juanacatlán. He insisted that the contamination levels were within the requirements of a river in Mexico.
Politics are an interesting phenomenon and, although I believe the statement to be an incredible fallacy, I don’t fault the Secretary. I think any other official would have likely been forced to say the same. It’s bigger than the Secretary of Health; it’s bigger than Mexico. I believe current politics are a result of what a relative few, and fortunate, have demanded from the earth and consequently other human beings. I write to you from a machine that requires the contamination of thousands of gallons of water. I am reminded of my choices evey time I cross the El Salto/Juanacatlán bridge.
We wanted to share some photos from our video workshops, the town of Juanacatlán, and the Río Santiago waterfall we often mention. If you click on any photo, it will enlarge and you can easily peruse all of them. To view our whole photo collection, click on this link.
I decided to video blog this week. I discuss my journey with an “environmental vigilante”, named Don Pedro. He took me on a bike tour to his brother’s farm in the hills. Thereafter we climbed a mountain to get footage of the surrounding Juanacatlán municipality. I also talk about my internal struggle in working with a community exposed to intense pollution.
The Río Santiago’s state of contamination is a really complicated issue, with many sides. For this post I took a two pronged approach to begin understanding and explaining the issue. First, there is a simple breakdown of the industrial and municipal contributors. Second, a stirring first person account of the river’s transformation as it “changed from being a river of life to a river of death.” We have received a lot of comments and emails asking for more information about the Río Santiago, and how this situation has gotten so bad. We are exploring this issue in our documentary, and will be running video workshops in Guadalajara to capture another side to this history. In short, there is still a lot for us to discover and learn, but we are happy to share some of what we have gathered thus far.
Directly below, there is a breakdown of the human and industrial pollution in the river. Disclaimer: there is a real lack of scientific studies so this data is outdated (2003). Currently, the first major medical study is being conducted in the area and the data from an extensive house survey focusing on health issues is being compiled. All information for this post is taken from “Mártires del Río Santiago,” a joint publication of IMDEC and Instituto Vida. For a succinct article exploring the pollution and water quality of the river, as well as the health effects, please check our friend Jeff Conant’s article Not a Drop to Drink.
Video of the Week! ”The Story of a Photo Exposition” depicts the history and fruition of the photo exposition “Through the Eyes of Children.” The kids in La Huizachera not only took the photos, but were involved in each step of creating their exposition. We hope you enjoy it, we certainly had fun helping out. If you’d like to read and see more, Jess wrote a great post on the photo exposition’s debut and the kids’ reflections and we created a video looking at the world “Through the Eyes of Mauro.” El video está en Español también. ¡Disfrútalo!
We met a wonderful array of people in Juanacátlan this week, and they all shared compelling stories. There was the generous veterinarian, the couple from the Playa Pharmacy, and the crew of elderly gentleman that “kill time” in the plaza every afternoon. One of the plaza revelers, named Don Pedro, spent‘69 to ’06 in California and worked as a coyote or border immigrant smuggler.There was also the metal smith who spoke of living in the town his whole life and planned to continue doing so, polluted river be damned.
How do you tell a story? Yes, it is a simple question, but we are finding out it is not a simple answer. How to tell a story is a question we are exploring in the workshops we are coordinating in Juanacátlan and debating amongst ourselves as we begin shaping our documentary more decisively. We are entering the third week of our first round of Flip Video workshops, reflecting on the direction of our workshops, and meeting with wise IMDEC popular educators to shape its future. The enthusiasm and material generated by our workshop participants so far is incredible, and we are more impressed and inspired each time we meet.
So far, we agree upon this much about what comprises a story: A story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. With any luck, it has a climax and a revealing contrast. The good ones possess a twinkle, a raw emotion, and/or something we hold onto and want to share with others. If you are interested in reading more from a master, I recommend “Ira Glass’s Radio Manifesto.” A good friend and collaborator, Becca, is also exploring how to tell a story visually with youth in Hyderabad, India, and I highly recommend checking out her approach.
Over the last three weeks, I have been lucky enough to visit with Sarah and Arthur in Guadalajara and spend some time with some of the communities they have been getting to know. When I arrived, I met up with Sarah and Arthur and we switched back and forth between English and Spanish as they shared their experiences from the last couple of months and gave me a more detailed summation of IMDEC, the different communities they work with, and the depth of water scarcity issues the communities face.
We started off at IMDEC that Wednesday, and I got the tour as we prepared to take the photo exhibit to the third school in La Huizachera. We set it up in the central plaza of the school, and one of the teachers brought out class by class to see it. They were really proud of photos they took and excited about anyone they recognized in the photos. It was both sad and incredible to see the connections that students repeatedly made in all different grades.
Happy New Year to everyone! Here in Guadalajara we have been relaxing, eating delicious food, and combing through hours upon hours of footage trying to figure out what we have, what we’re lacking, and where we’d like to head artistically in the new year. One of Adapting to Scarcity’s New Year’s resolutions is to post more videos, so here is a short two minute clip looking at the world through the eyes and perspective of Mauro. Mauro is one of the 5th and 6th grade students who lives in La Huizachera and participates in IMDEC’s environmental clubs. Mauro also loves taking photos and talking about his passion for the environment. Hearing his perspective fills us with hope, so we wanted to share his voice and vision. Without further ado, here is Mauro. El video está en Inglés y en Español.
Listen to Steve read his blog post here
Uncategorized | steve | 
23 February 2010 3:19 | 
Comments (2) 
We met a wonderful array of people in Juanacátlan this week, and they all shared compelling stories. There was the generous veterinarian, the couple from the Playa Pharmacy, and the crew of elderly gentleman that “kill time” in the plaza every afternoon. One of the plaza revelers, named Don Pedro, spent
Over the last three weeks, I have been lucky enough to visit with Sarah and Arthur in Guadalajara and spend some time with some of the communities they have been getting to know. When I arrived, I met up with Sarah and Arthur and we switched back and forth between English and Spanish as they shared their experiences from the last couple of months and gave me a more detailed summation of IMDEC, the different communities they work with, and the depth of water scarcity issues the communities face.
English
