The Struggle of the Cucapa and How You Can Support
The Zapatista Otra Campa–a finished their first phase of the campaign,
which was the national tour that el Delegado Zero (a.k.a. Subcomandante Marcos)
participated in. The objective
of this tour was to speak and listen to the concerns of the most oppressed
and forgotten. From speaking
and listening to the people, a national plan of non-violent struggle was to
be made and implemented.
Well, phase two is around the corner and is very close to us here
in San Diego. While Delegado Zero
was visiting the indigenous people of Baja California near Mexicali, he made
the commitment to struggle with the Cucapa people, whose way of life is
threatened by government laws.
The Cucapa (which means, people of the river) are a people who have
for thousands of years fished in the rivers and deltas connected to the
Colorado River. As cities and
populations grew in North America, the water from the Colorado River was
diverted to help meet the water needs of primarily U.S. cities and states. A treaty was made by the U.S. and Mexico
to guarantee that Mexican citizens and U.S. citizens would each have their
share of the water. Yet as time
has passed, the Cucapa community, which lives at the very end of the Colorado
River have lived to see the beautiful and powerful Colorado River turn into a
memory of the past since all the good water was been damned not only for the
use of major cities like Las Vegas, but for tourist areas in Mexicali. By the time the water reaches the
Cucapa, it is scarce and contaminated.
Therefore they've resorted to fishing in the Delta which leads to
the Gulf of California. Yet, for ecological reasons, the government has
prohibited fishing in an area where fish are plenty and has required these
marginalized communities to pay hundreds for a permit that allows them to fish
only certain kind of fish, or they must pay much more for fines if they are
caught fishing without a permit or for catching the prohibited fish.
The government is basically forcing these people to give up a
tradition of thousands of years as well as their ancestral right to fish in
these waters which gave their people life. Thus, this practice places their culture and community at
the risk of extinction. This is
ironic since the government is trying to protect endangered species through
their laws.
For these reasons, Delegado Zero will be in the Cucapa community
known as El Mayor in a Zapatista Peace Encampment for three months during the
prime fishing season and he will join the Cucapa as they fish. The Encampment's purpose is to
highlight the plight of the Cucapa and the indigenous people's of Baja
California and to win their right to fish.
We, within La Otra en el Otro Lado, have committed ourselves to
supporting this struggle by calling for the establishment of Support Centers
which will collect, food, blankets, and camping supplies for the people who
will join the encampment. Many
Support Centers have already been established in Los Angeles and Northern
California.
And to further spread the word about this struggle, we will make a
brief educational video about the struggle that is to take place that can be
distributed on the internet and shown in public screenings. We just recently came back from shooting
in El Mayor and are currently in the process of editing and are aiming to
finish the video by the first week of February.
Therefore, we invite you to help support this struggle by either
helping create a Support Center in your area, or by organizing a screening in
the month of February, or by doing both.
For more information, please contact (951) 288-8319 or (760)
468-4519.
Check out these links as well...
http://pecesenredcucapa.blogspot.com/
http://larevueltagrafika.blogspot.com/
MUDP