Crisis Inspires a Cross-Border Cultural Revival
Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua
News, May 16, 2005
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As a youth, Ernesto Ontiveros remembers venturing with his father into the
fields of the Juarez Valley in search of plump melons and fresh corncobs.
And
those were the days, recalls Ontiveros, when the Juarez Valley “used to be
Number One in cotton quality.” Nowadays, the retired teacher scowls at the
circumstances of local agriculture. Encroaching urbanization, adverse
economics, toxic dumping, and the salinization of the land have all taken
their
toll on the valley. Ontiveros and others on both sides of the border intend
to
turn things around for the rural sector and the Rio Bravo/Rio Grande River
that
nourishes it. For the fourth year in a row, some Juarez-area residents and
their allies to the north in Albuquerque, New Mexico, organized simultaneous
celebrations on May 15, San Ysidro Day, an old tradition honoring the Roman
Catholic patron saint of agriculture.
“For us, San Ysidro represents the union of humanity with the earth. That’s
why
we bless the water, plants, tools of the countryside, and natural world; and
so
that the creator gives sustenance our families,” read a joint statement by
celebrants from Mexico and the United States.
In the Juarez Valley about a half-hour drive from the big city of the same
name, church-goers, community activists and ejiditarios (title-holders of
collectively-owned farm lands) held religious processions, watched matachine
dancers and heard talks about the politics of farming in the free trade
era. “We ask for rain, a good harvest,” said Natalia Fernando Vega of the
San
Isidro ejido. The Juarez Valley event was supported by former braceros,
environmentalists and groups belonging to the Juarez-El Paso based Border
Regional Coordinator of Non-Governmental Organizations (COREF).
In Albuquerque, New Mexico, scores of people participated in the San Ysidro
festivities held on an old farm in the metro area’s semi-rural South Valley.
After completing a procession and ceremony in which the waters of an
irrigation
ditch, or acequia, were blessed, guests listened to New Mexican music,
observed
Aztec dancing and took in the whirl of brightly-costumed schoolchildren
tapping
traditional Mexican steps. Old-time foods like biscochitos (New Mexican
cookies) were served up to hungry stomachs. Information booths about
traditional agriculture, solar energy, the river ecosystem, and more rounded
out the open-air festival. A diverse variety of groups endorsed the event,
including the Pueblo of Isleta, New Mexico Acequia Association, Holy Family
Catholic Community, Rio Grande Community Development Corporation, and
Southwest
Network for Environmental and Economic Justice, among others.
According to San Ysidro Day organizers, activists from Mexico and the United
States decided to jointly celebrate the day several years ago after
conferring
about the state of the Rio Bravo/Rio Grande River, the common source of
irrigation waters for indigenous and Spanish-speaking communities in the
southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico. Environmental degradation caused the
U.S. conservation group American Rivers to declare the Rio Bravo/Rio Grande
one
of America’s most endangered rivers in 2003. Representing COREF, Ontiveros
says one of the main goals of the joint celebration is to “educate the
largest
number” of people possible about the importance of protecting the river’s
water
quality from north to south.
Albuquerque-area santero Jesse Anzures, who carves wood saints like the one
used in this year’s San Ysidro fiesta, says the celebration is reviving a
tradition which was dying out in central New Mexico due to the decline of
agriculture. Anzures says he is struck by the commonalities between rural
communities on the edges of both Albuquerque and Ciudad Juarez, places where
water contamination, disappearing farmland and the memories of displaced
rural
families are evident.
“The South Valley of Albquerque is almost a copy of the south valley of
Juarez,” adds Anzures. “Their water is foul, ours is almost gone.”
Jaime Chavez, a San Ysidro Day promoter and an activist with both the New
Mexico-based Mexicano Land Education and Conservation Trust and COREF, says
San
Ysidro is an occasion to refocus attention on water and land issues spanning
the Southwest and borderlands. Chavez says cross- border activists want the
Rio
Bravo/Rio Grande declared a patrimony of humanity, and a broad review
undertaken of water treaties between the U.S.and Mexico. Chavez adds that
the
water issue has moved organizers to also examine the land rights question,
given the similar stresses faced by Mexican ejiditarios and members of the
mercedes, the old New Mexican land grants awarded during the Spanish and
Mexican colonial periods.
“What’s important is that after we bless our waters, we do follow-up work,”
says Chavez.
Additional source: Diario de Juarez, May 16, 2005. Article by Araly Castanon.
Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
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New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
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