Taking a Step Back
We thought it would be a good idea to take a step back and share a brief overview of the communities around Guadalajara that we’re working with. At the moment, there are three:
While they are geographically disparate and are facing their own unique issues, they are all a part of the Río Santiago watershed. To get a better sense of the area and the communities we’re working with, be sure to check out the map at the end of the post!
La Huizachera
La Huizachera, is an incredibly poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Guadalajara. The Canal Ahogado (an open air canal) containing untreated industrial waste and human effluent from the southern half of the city runs right through the middle of it (see map below). When it rains, the canal floods the neighborhood. IMDEC has been conducting a popular education project with kids (8-16) in the neighborhood to help them learn about the serious issues facing their community – especially the toxic canal. For most of them, they’ve never known anything different – although they know something is amiss because a huge number of people in their community and in their families are incredibly sick. The people generally don’t directly drink the water from the canal, but they grow corn, water their animals (which they eat) and make bricks using the water/mud from the canal. In fact, the main industry in the neighborhood is brick making. After the bricks are made using the mud/water from the canal, the bricks are used to build homes, schools, etc. all over Guadalajara.
The canal and the entire neighborhood reeks of sulfur, methane and rot. We’ve been wishing there was some way we could convey the smell through videos or photos. The stench reminds me a lot of what I smelled in flooded parts of New Orleans after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. As in New Orleans, a lot of the poorer communities are prone to flooding. Many of the communities, such as La Huizachera, are situated along the canal. When it floods, the canal’s highly polluted waters invade their streets and homes.
IMDEC has the kids taking pictures of their neighborhood. They’ve taught them to use digital cameras and are using photography as a medium to teach the kids about the environment and environmental health, while also capturing their stories. It’s been a real pleasure working with the kids. They just light up when they start taking pictures. The joy they seem to get from the process is contagious – every time we’ve gone to visit, we’ve left grinning ear to ear.
As Sarah mentioned in a previous post, we’re helping to organize an expo of their photos in Guadalajara, and hopefully in the Bay Area! The kids are pretty stoked and blown away that their photos might be shown in SF. If you know a gallery or anyone who might be willing to help us put on a show (ideally February or March of 2010), please get in touch with us.
El Salto and Juanacátlan
El Salto and Juanacátlan are neighboring towns just to the southeast of Guadalajara. The Río Santiago divides the two, as it runs from Lake Chapala along the eastern edge of the city. Guadalajara gets most of it’s ‘fresh’ water from this river via the Canal Azucena a few miles upriver of where the Canal Ahogado (and all of the effluent) joins with the river. There’s a waterfall – La Cascada de Juancátlan – which used to be incredibly beautiful – that aerates all of the chemicals, etc. in the water causing a huge amount of toxic foam to build up. On particularly bad and windy days, this foam gets blown around the towns. Apparently, if the foam touches you, it burns and bleaches your skin. The same noxious stench permeates the air, and the same medical problems affect these communities.
As far as we understand, no formal medical study has been conducted in El Salto, Jauanacátlan or La Huizachera. But if you talk to anyone who lives there, they can rattle off the names of half their loved ones who have a mysterious cancer, or got sick and died a few weeks later. In 2008, a young boy named Miguel Angel fell into the Río Santiago just downstream from where the Canal Ahogado dumps its waste. He didn’t drown, but he was hospitalized that same day and died 21 days later from arsenic poisoning – merely from exposure to the river.
If you follow the river upstream, further south from Guadalajara, the countryside quickly becomes incredibly beautiful. Open, lush, fertile countryside surrounded by mountains. The river is much cleaner, although it smells strongly of chemicals – I thought it smelled like latex paint, Sarah thought it smelled like crabs. At the river’s headwaters, along Lake Chapala, there’s an industrial center (in the city of Ocotlán) that dumps it’s waste into the water. It’s unclear to us what all the factories are, but the big ones are from the US (operating under the protection of NAFTA) and the others are smaller Mexican operations – mostly textile, I think. This is the ‘clean’ water that Guadalajara uses for consumption by its residents.
We are currently piecing together our first implementation of our community-based filming project with our FlipVideo cameras. El Salto and Juanacátlan will be the first communities in the project. Working through IMDEC and their connections to local community groups there, we’re hoping to spend some intensive time over the course of about a month working with residents to capture their own stories about life with the Río Santiago.
Temacapulín
Temacapulín is, in some respects, a much different story from the other communities. It’s an old Mexican town in an especially beautiful spot, nestled in a steep-walled canyon or gorge. The surprisingly clean and incredibly scenic Río Verde runs through the valley, providing much of the protein in the local diet. With its geographic features, it’s basically the ideal spot to turn into a reservoir. There is, of course, a ton of history in Temaca – from what i understand, it is the site where the people of Mesoamerica and Aridoamerica first converged. In other respects, it’s a typical ancient pueblo in Mexico. The families of the people who live there have been there since the town came into existence. Many of the men work in the United States or other, more lucrative parts of Mexico and return for portion of the year. It’s a place rich in culture, history and tradition.
The Mexican government is planning on constructing a dam which will flood the valley – completely submerging the town. The government has offered to relocate all of the inhabitants, but to an area with undesirable (and rather unfertile) land. Besides the history here and familial ties to the land, the area has some of the best fertile land in the country. Naturally, the people of no desire to leave. The president of Jalisco (the state containing Guadalajara and Temaca) has promised to not let this happen if more than 50% of the people don’t want to be relocated. Of course, a much higher percentage of the people don’t want to be relocated, and the president has recanted his promise. The people are upset and very well organized – there are graffiti, posters and stickers all over the town saying ‘no a la presa’ (no to the dam) and other things of similar sentiment.
We went and visited there a few weekends ago and had a blast – everyone was incredibly warm and welcoming, and very eager to show us around (and a good time). It was very eerie being in people’s homes and thinking ‘holy crap, in a few years, this might be completely submerged’. IMDEC has been working in Temaca to help strengthen their organizing and come up with solutions/alternatives to the dam/relocation/etc.
What connects Temaca to the other communities is the water shed and the shared story of neglect/abuse in the face of water scarcity. It’s considered a part of the greater Río Grande Santiago watershed. The river that runs through the valley, the Río Verde, converges with the Río Santiago on the northwest corner of Guadalajara. A little bit downstream from the confluence of the two rivers is the site of another proposed dam – the Arcediano. This dam, partially funded from the Inter American Development Bank and partially by the residents of the area, is purported to provide drinking water from the residents of Guadalajara. But remember, this site is only a little ways down stream from where the Canal Ahogado converges with the Río Santiago – and where Miguel Angel died. Many people say that this water cannot be treated to a potable level.
Map
This is a map of the area and the communities we have been working with. We will try to continually update it as we learn and explore more. Note that the ‘red’ path is the Canal Ahogado (the open air canal containing untreated human and industrial effluent from Guadalajara to the Río Santiago). The ‘blue’ path is the Canal Azucena, which carries ‘clean’ water from the Río Santiago to Guadalajara.
View Adapting to Scarcity in a larger map
Until next time
We’ve really just begun scratching the surface here. We’re thrilled to be working with the people of these communities, and to finally be piecing together our community filming project. The people have all been very inspiring and have given us a deep sense of hope in what otherwise seems like hopeless, tragic situation.
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