United Communities of the Antigua Watershed for Free Rivers

On the 20th of January 2022 is the 8th anniversary of when the PUCARL Collective (United Communities of the Antigua Watershed for Free Rivers) first blocked the entrance to the Río Pescados (River of Fishes), halting the construction of a dam that was threatening the entire region. The Brazilian goliath Novonor, previously Odebrecht S.A., had been working with the Mexican government to dam river and flood large swaths of the Antigua Watershed (Veracruz, Mexico). Odebrecht’s dams have brought disastrous humanitarian and environmental consequences across the continent. The 43 communities along the Rio Pescados are the first to defeat Odebrecht, thus protecting their waterways for the generations to come.

Below are some of the voices from the River Sentinels of the Antigua...

Hello, I’m Ananta Masa Diego. I live in Jalcomulco, Veracruz, Mexico. I think it’s important to preserve the rivers because humanity has created, over the centuries, a close relationship with these bodies of water that give us life. They’re the home of mythical beings, the axis of many magic rituals and knowledge passed on from one generation to the next.

The water of the rivers is a symbol of peace, unity, life, freshness and joy. They give us food, help us enjoy ourselves, and provide us with healthy ecosystems.

I believe our task is to keep them clean, free, respecting their flows and their cycles and trying as much as possible to be as rational as we can with the use of our water at home because all the water we have there comes from a river. I send you all a very affectionate hug.

My name is Alejandro Gallardo. I live in the town of Jalcomulco, Veracruz, Mexico right next to a wonderful river: the Antigua Huitzilapan River which means Hummingbird River. Why is it important to defend the river, the rivers of the world?  Basically, because the rivers are home to so much life. We’re water ourselves.

So, in my opinion, the importance of taking care of the rivers, so that they’re healthy and clean, is basically because they’re also living beings. For us, they’re alive. We need to defend it. We need to speak for those species that cannot defend themselves, such as fish, flora, fauna, everything that lives around the river. The importance then of taking care of them, of preserving them, of keeping them alive and free, and that we do not build dams on them with megaprojects and other situations that put them at risk.

So, in this situation, considering that rivers are home to life and that we are water, we must ensure their health, we must ensure that they remain alive, we must be more aware of the fact that a dammed river, a polluted river, a river that is not healthy, undoubtedly means that we will not be healthy either. So, at the end of the day, our way of thinking is that water should not be sold. It is a human right and therefore water cannot be sold. It needs to be loved and defended.

That’s the motto of the inhabitants of the Basin and of the collective that I represent, which is the Colectivo Pueblos Unidos de la Cuenca Antigua (United Peoples of the Antigua Basin Collective). We are water, we are rivers, that is the message and that is why I believe it is important to defend it and the struggle has to be fought on different fronts.

This is the message for all comrades in all parts of the world who are fighting in defense of the territory, in defense of the rivers, in defense of life. Greetings to all and long live the rivers.

Hello, my name is Alejo Bilbaez. I am a native of the town of Jalcomulco, Veracruz, Mexico. This town is located right on the shore of the Antigua Basin, a very important basin, both economically and historically. The importance of conserving our rivers, the planet, can be seen from different angles. It is an inheritance that we received from our ancestors. That is why they settled precisely on these bodies of water because of the importance they represent.

It’s a question of identity, of values. It’s also an economic question. It’s of vital importance for the development of the communities, and from an individual point of view they allow you to develop your life, to keep families together because thanks to the rivers one can develop one's life without having to migrate to different places. This is very important to mention.

Well, I believe that we have the commitment, the obligation of each one of us to fight for the importance of our rivers and to contribute our grain of sand to keep them alive so that we can continue to enjoy them.

United Communities of the Antigua Watershed for Free Rivers

Antigua Watershed, Jacomulco, Veracruz

Pueblos Unidos de la Cuenca de la Antigua por Rios Libres (PUCARL)

Photos by the PUCARL Collective

Translated by Steven White