Loss of water means loss of culture for Mexico’s Indigenous Yaqui

YAQUI VALLEY, Mexico — Without the Yaqui River, survival is almost impossible for the Yaqui tribe in the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora. A lack of water affects the food production and cattle raising, the tribe’s main form of subsistence. But beyond basic biological needs, it also threatens the culture of the Yaqui peoples.

As a child, Mario Luna Romero lived near a stretch of the Yaqui River where his tribe used to gather to celebrate the festival of San Juan Bautista in Vícam Pueblo. He recalled the way the river would swell during certain seasons, bringing to life a large number of plant and animal species, such as mesquite (Prosopis), alamo (Ficus cotinifolia) and the giant reed (Arundo donax).

“It used to be a paradise,” he said, but the loss of water has led to a decrease in plants and trees across the territory, which is a great loss for Yaqui culture. It has also threatened the survival of the “four mirror butterfly” (mariposa de cuatro espejos or Rothschildia cincta), an endemic moth species that depends on the Yaqui River and is central to the Yaqui ritual dance.

From the banks of the now-empty river, Luna pointed at a spot where people from his tribe used to swim. But now, the once-wild river has been redirected by concrete dams that divert most of the streamflow toward distant cities outside the tribe’s territory. For the last 50 years, the river has usually dried up before it reaches the Yaquis, especially as a persistent drought places a greater strain on an already overwhelmed water system.

In 2015, anthropologists concluded an inevitability: the massive extraction of water from the Yaqui River and the drying out of a large part of its historical channel “will affect important aspects of tradition, rituality and daily life.”

Vanishing traditions

The once-mighty Yaqui River used to flow freely from the Sierra Madre Occidental, for 320 kilometers (200 miles) across the Yaqui Valley to the Gulf of California, where it emptied. But ever since the Mexican government developed the Yaqui River dam system, which is an extensive arrangement of imposing concrete dams that stopped this flow, the Yaquis have been left without water.

The region has also experienced record-setting heat and some of the driest seasons ever recorded, which have combined to sap the river of water at unprecedented rates. According to data from the Yaqui River Irrigation District, the Yaqui River dam system is at 10.9% of its total capacity, with 1.95 billion cubic meters (about 69 billion cubic feet) less water than it had a year ago. In addition, in June, federal officials reported that the state of Sonora reached 52° Celsius (125.6° Fahrenheit), which broke Mexico’s all-time heat record since registers began. The previous record was 51°C (123.8°F) in 1993.

When José Luis Moctezuma from the National Institute of Anthropology and History began working with the Yaquis in the mid-‘80s, the tribe used to collect water from the river using clay pots. Now, they have to buy it. “We are facing a very critical situation of loss of many aspects that have to do with culture,” he said. “In the way they work the land, the way they eat and also in the way they carry out their rituals.”

According to Luna, 7,000 hectares (17,297 acres) of Yaqui land has been affected by soil salinization, which inhibits water absorption and limits the growth and productivity of plants and trees. Poor waste management and agrochemical runoff have also led to contamination of the last few remaining water sources left in the territory.

Moctezuma told Mongabay that the inability to cultivate culturally important foods has created a dependency on junk food, which has caused high rates of diabetes and other health issues among Yaqui peoples. “A series of foods, both animals and vegetables, are disappearing or becoming contaminated in such a way that no one grows anything anymore,” he said over a video call.

Besides their ecological relevance, the disappearance of mesquite, alamo and giant reed also threatens the survival of certain elements of Yaqui culture. Traditional ceremonial huts and structures in Yaqui villages are built using these plants and trees but the lack of water and contamination from agrochemical use has led to their decline across the region.

Four-mirror butterfly under threat

The loss of water in the Yaqui Valley also threatens the survival of the four-mirror butterfly, a native moth species that is endemic to northwestern Mexico and is culturally significant for several Indigenous peoples in the region, including the Yaqui and Mayo peoples.

Its empty cocoon is collected by the tribes for various ceremonies. After ensuring that the moth is no longer inside, the Yaquis fill the cocoons with small stones or sand and thread them together to form a long chain. The result is a musical instrument, known as a ténabari, which is worn by traditional dancers when performing the danza del pascola y venado (the dance of the pascolas and the deer) in Yaqui festivals.

For some years now, these cocoons have become increasingly difficult to find because of the lack of water and other factors, such as the harmful effects of agrochemical use, which threaten the species.

“What we notice is that [moths] are seen less and less,” Yahel Ulises Estrella Ríos, head of the Yo’o Joara Cultural Center in Cócorit, told Mongabay. “The elderly tell us that before, they could find large quantities in the mountains. On one plant, they could find up to five or six cocoons or more. Right now, they don’t have any on the plants.”

From inside the center’s Baiseborimta Butterfly Farm, which was created for the conservation and preservation of the species and to promote Yaqui culture, Estrella explained that the lack of water also makes it difficult for them to reproduce.

“It is extremely important that it rains,” he said. “In years with low rainfall, we are only able to generate around 50 cocoons. But in rainy years, the production and generation of cocoons can increase considerably to more than 2,000.”

This number could be even higher if there was enough food available. But the only food source of the insect’s larvae, the foliage of the sangregado (Jatropha cinera), is also in danger because of the lack of water, Estrella added. As a result, Moctezuma said some Yaquis have had to use alternative materials to replace the ténabari, such as aluminum cans or plastic.

“If we do not do something in the coming years, then unfortunately it could be said that in 50 years, this moth could disappear,” Estrella said. “I hope that the center can generate awareness and that we can learn to respect nature.”

Banner image: Young traditional dancers wearing ténabari around their ankles perform the danza del pascola y venado (the dance of the pascolas and the deer). Image by Mario Luna Romero. 

Read related article: As drought parches Mexico, a Yaqui water defender fights for a sacred river

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Citations:

Padilla Ramos, R., & Moctezuma Zamarrón, J. L. (2017). The Yaquis, a historical struggle for water. Water Hist, 9:29-43. doi:10.1007/s12685-017-0194-1

National Institute of Anthropology and History, I. (2015). Anthropological expertise regarding the social and cultural impact of the operation of the Independence aqueduct. Country Routes, (8), 8–56. Recovered from https://revistas.inah.gob.mx/index.php/rutasdecampo/article/view/7440

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