When I went to my first grape harvest in the Valley, I observed how thousands of hectares where grape vines grew in perfect condition seemed to be abandoned. The grapes, belonging to the L.A. Cetto winery, were left unharvested throughout the entire harvest season. It looked like a graveyard where grapes were left to turn into raisins. I lived in a house right next to the behemoth they called a winery, and the beautiful landscape of the Valley was disrupted by the size of their industrial containers and the noise that kept me from sleeping. It was an unpleasant factory, but it made the wineries I worked at even more beautiful. So, I forgot about it. Whenever I saw a bottle from this factory in convenience stores, I remembered it with disgust and let it go.
Now, reflecting on the upcoming world war, which will be fought over water, I realize that the guerrilla warfare has already begun. Today, I write about a soldier in this war, Óscar Eyraud. The water issue in the Valley in relation to the wine culture is well-known, and even in this magazine, solutions such as permaculture and keyline have been shared – solutions that only companies with great purchasing power can afford to implement. Today, I will write about the greater impact, about the wave of violence that emerges from water scarcity due to the exploitation of transnational corporations and the dispossession techniques to exterminate the cultures that make up Mexico.
The Kumiai-Mexicans are mainly located in Northern Baja California, in the municipality of Ensenada. I know little about this culture; I know what Wikipedia and other pages can teach me. I found out what I already expected, that in this community there is no phone service or internet access, the right to clean water is not respected, there is no public lighting, and the school that exists was built by them without the help of the state. It's no secret that these communities are marginalized. Óscar Eyraud Adams is part of this community and is one of the first ecologists to denounce the water plundering by transnational companies. According to Infobae, the National Water Commission (CONAGUA) granted a permit to the Heineken brewery in 2010 to exploit 1,892,160 cubic meters of water annually in Tecate. Furthermore, the Heineken brewery already has more than 12 wells under their concession in the Municipality of Tecate (which are already depleted according to the State Commission of Public Services of Tecate). In contrast, the Kumiai have no permit for water extraction. They used to have 3,000 nopal cacti, 200 fruit trees, and a self-sustaining orchard; now, only barren land remains. CONAGUA seems to be trying to slowly kill them by denying the Kumiai the construction of a well for their crops. The direct consequences are the migration of young Kumiai people, dehydration, malnutrition, individual death, the death of a culture, a territory, and a worldview.
The negligence and indifference of the authorities continue to astonish. In case CONAGUA is not aware, we inform them that there is a stream just 400 meters away from the families that would only require minimal effort on their part for these families to use this water for agriculture. Furthermore, the Kumiai community of Juntas de Nejà and the Heineken brewery of Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma are in the same Municipality but do not belong to the same aquifer. This means that they don't even have to take water away from their precious breweries, which clearly highlights their priorities. There have also been politicians who promised planting projects, goat farming, and greenhouses, but nothing has happened. Oscar wrote on his Facebook page:
"Unexplainably - he wrote - CONAGUA has initiated a campaign for the massive renewal of the 531,000 national water concessions (2 percent of concessionaires control 70 percent of the conceded waters), which would perpetuate until 2050 the current dynamics of over-concession, violation of indigenous peoples' rights, buying and selling and speculation of concessions, hoarding-dispossession, pollution, and impunity... The Tecate brewery, now Heineken, should receive this communication. Its excessive operation is no longer viable."
Óscar's aunt, Aurora Meza, taught him from a young age the importance of his language and the constant struggle that had to be made to preserve it. She founded the Abuelas group dedicated to teaching and conserving the Kumiai language, but unfortunately, she was falsely accused of horse theft to take her land. She was imprisoned, and her diabetes worsened. As soon as she was released, she died at the age of 54. She was just one of the victims, as land looting has been a sport that has been practiced for five hundred years, a sport that politicians and ranchers, supported by the army, hitmen, and narcos, continue to practice. Outside his house, Óscar Eyraud Adams, on Libertad Street, was cowardly shot to death by an armed group outside his home at the age of 34. According to the Northwest Citizen Commission of Human Rights (CCDH), it was a "crime orchestrated by alleged forces interested in hoarding water for private purposes." And so, this warrior became just another number among the 80 murders of environmental and territorial defenders since 2012.
According to Aline Corpus' Reforma investigation, it reveals the water injustice that exists through legal instruments that do not allow indigenous peoples to have legal rights to manage or access water in their territories. International agreements and constitutional articles have established that nearly 70 percent of concessions belong to 2 percent of water users in Mexico, allowing for the plundering of natural resources. That's why a General Water Law is demanded, a law that "recognizes the territorial rights of indigenous peoples over the waters of the territories they inhabit or occupy; that is our demand from north to south, to recognize the management and their internal mechanisms, their normative systems."
We demand justice and a dignified distribution of water concessions.
At Dos Cuerpos, we specialize in tastings and the distribution of agave distillates and Mexican wine. Tastings are a reflection of the alcohol to be tasted, and in this sense, these texts aim to promote continuous reflection. We hope you have learned about the cost of water in areas like the one mentioned. Let us know if you liked this text, if it helped you in any way, and if there are any discrepancies, please let us know.
Please also read:
"Óscar Eyraud Adams, ecologista de los pobres" by Luis Hernández Navarro - Link
"¿Quién era Óscar Eyraud, activista Kumiai que defendÃa el agua en BC y fue asesinado?" by Redacción Animal PolÃtico, September 26, 2020 - Link
"Óscar Eyraud Adams: guerrero que defendió agua del pueblo Kumiai" by Daliri Oropeza, September 26, 2020 - Link
"Señalan a Conagua y a cervecera como responsables del asesinato de Óscar Eyraud Adams" - Infobae, October 3, 2020 - Link
Aline Corpus, reporter from Reforma, September 25, 2020 - "Óscar Eyraud, el activista que luchó por el agua" - Link
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