La Lucha Yaqui: A Conversation with Mario Luna Romero

“Primero, compartiendo esta charla, haciéndola llegar a cuanta más gente sea posible.” When asked how to support the Yaqui people seeking environmental justice, activist and tribal secretary Mario Luna Romero responds by asking us to spread the word. The Yaqui struggle is emblematic of new struggles to defend and restore commons and alternatives to the Western model—alternative modes of producing, decision making, governance, and being. As Mario Luna has written elsewhere, “Autonomía para nosotros, entonces, es gobernarnos nosotros mismos, defender nuestro derecho al territorio con todo lo que ello implica: agua, aire, tierra, plantas, animales, bosques, mares, ríos y lo que no se ve. Lo que no se ve, que no se cuenta, que no se valora. Lo que no seve es esa condición espiritual con tu tierra, y que se da a través de varios elementos. En algunos pueblos son el fuego, en algunos casos como es el yaqui es con el agua, pero de la conexión que hay del territorio, del yaqui con lo material y lo inmaterial.”

We are proud to join our voices with his and the Yaqui community, here in this interview and through our work as part of the Afro Yaqui Music Collective. Our ensemble’s latest work, Mirror Butterfly: the Migrant Liberation Movement Suite, is inspired by the Yaqui struggle as well other Indigenous activist movements, and the album contributes directly to the Yaqui struggle. All of the album’s sales will go to benefit Námakasia Radio, the central medium of communication of efforts to defend the Yaqui River.

We spoke with Mario Luna Romero in March 2020, during his visit to the University of Wisconsin–Madison supported by the Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program. During our conversation, we discussed the historical legacies of the Yaqui tribe, their ongoing struggles for land and water rights, and how his activism led to his political imprisonment and also connected him with global Indigenous communities.

Stream or download our conversation here. Interview highlights, edited for clarity, follow.

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Interview highlights:

Interview highlights have been edited for length and clarity. Questions and responses in English (below) reflect Barson and Rodriguez’s simultaneous translations during their interview with Mario Luna Romero.

Ben Barson y Gizelxanath Rodriguez: Estamos muy honrados de que estés aquí y sabemos que la lucha de los Yaquis tiene una importancia no solo para los Yaquis o para México sino para el mundo entero, porque nos ofrece el poder crear una alternativa de cambio. ¿Nos puedes hablar de la lucha contra el Acueducto Independencia?

Mario Luna Romero: Esta obra es una obra del gobierno. Es una obra que está pretendiendo desviar el cauce del río Yaqui antes de llegar al territorio y consiste en transportar por un acueducto alrededor de 75 millones de metros cúbicos de agua al año. Esta obra no cuenta con un manifiesto de impacto ambiental. No se construyó siguiendo los reglamentos de SEMARNAT. Además, esta obra se está construyendo y operando violentando amparos que la tribu Yaqui ganó en la Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación. En el 2011, nosotros pusimos la demanda de amparo y en el 2012 nos otorgaron el amparo. En el 2013, nos confirma la Suprema Corte de Justicia.

Bueno, la Corte Suprema de México ordenó que el Manifiesto de Impacto Ambiental que se le había otorgado se cancelará porque no contó con la aprobación ni con la consulta debida al pueblo yaqui.

Y esta obra también se hace con el argumento de que se le va a dotar de agua a la población de Hermosillo que es la capital de Sonora. Pero lo que nosotros sabemos es que esta agua que se está desviando de nuestro río es para otros fines que son meramente económicos y no de ayuda humanitaria para la gente.

Y también esta obra del Acueducto Independencia se suma a otros proyectos sobre la cuenca del río Yaqui que ya tienen afectaciones muy evidentes en el territorio. Algunas de las afectaciones son que ya hay siete mil hectáreas de tierras que antes eran buenas para la agricultura y hoy, a falta de que el agua escurra por el río, están totalmente deshabitadas. Y además, también el agua donde tomamos nosotros para consumo humano está cada vez más contaminado con arsénico a falta de las recargas naturales que antes el río hacía a los depósitos de agua subterránea.

Todo esto lo hemos denunciado al interior del país en México pero al no tener respuesta hemos tenido que elevar nuestra demanda y nuestra denuncia a instituciones internacionales como es la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos de la OEA y también el Foro Permanente de Cuestiones Indígenas y de derechos humanos de la ONU.

Barson y Rodriguez: ¿Cómo podemos apoyar la lucha Yaqui y la lucha de los pueblos originarios? Cómo puede apoyar la comunidad que nos escucha? 

Romero: Primero, compartiendo esta charla, haciéndola llegar a cuanta más gente sea posible y segundo, pues seguirnos en nuestra plataforma de lucha que es Námakasia Radio, que son nuestras cuentas de Facebook. Nos pueden encontrar como mi cuenta privada que es este Mario Luna Romero. También pueden buscarnos como Námakasia Radio. Pero hay una página de web que se llama culturayaqui.com que es donde concentramos toda esta información tanto referente a la cultura Yaqui como a la lucha del pueblo Yaqui y los diferentes métodos de defensa que estamos desplegando. Entonces, es un poco seguirnos aquí para hacer llegar más información y evitar así que esa invisibilización que está creando el Estado Mexicano contra la lucha del pueblo pues que no tenga éxito y que logremos seguir informándonos de la realidad que se está viviendo en México. Los pueblos indígenas que están resistiendo y negándose a morir en forma indigna pues así como nos quieren condenar.

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Ben Barson and Gizelxanath Rodriguez: We’re honored to have you here on Edge Effects. We honor the Yaqui struggle because it is of importance not only for Mexico but for the entire world. It points to an alternative system of life. Can you tell us about the struggle against the Independence Aqueduct?

Mario Luna Romero: This project is funded by the government of Mexico. And it is a project that pretends to deviate the Yaqui River, seventy five million cubic meters of water per year. This work did not have any kind of environmental impact assessment, and it violated all types of laws in the Yaqui community. What’s especially disturbing about this process is that this aqueduct has been constructed very violently and actually in violation of Mexico’s own Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the Yaqui community.

After a long struggle from 2010 to 2013, finally in 2013 the Supreme Court ordered that this aqueduct not be constructed until there was an environmental impact assessment, especially its impact on the traditional culture and modes of living of the Yaqui peoples. The Supreme Court told the Mexican state that this project will forcibly be cancelled if you do not do an environmental impact assessment and if you do not consult with the traditional authorities of the Yaqui people.

The Sonoran government made the argument that there is a humanitarian reason for building this aqueduct. They pointed to the population of Hermosillo, which is the capital. They said there’s a lot more people in Hermosillo than in the Yaqui community, so we need this water to provide nutrition and sustenance to the population there. But, actually, Yaquis have researched, and much of this water is being used for commercial interests and industrial interests and not for humanitarian reasons.

In addition, the construction that’s happening on the water basins is affecting more than just the river that they’ve diverted. It’s actually affecting the entire aquifer system in the Yaqui territory. There were 7000 hectares of land that were used to produce agriculture, and now they all have dried up and eroded. And now the remaining water is more and more contaminated with arsenic, even though there was always some quantity of arsenic, because the water is becoming more and more subterranean.

This aqueduct actually ends in an industrial park in Hermosillo, where some of the largest companies in the world are benefiting from this water. This water is not being supplied to the population of Hermosillo. It’s being used to help the largest industrial operations in Hermosillo operate.

The Yaqui community is engaging in international diplomacy around this issue, this violation of the Mexican constitution. We have taken our case to the organization of American States and also the Permanent Forum of Indigenous rights at the United Nations.

Barson and Rodriguez: As a community of listeners, how can we support the Yaqui struggle and Indigenous resistance more broadly?

Romero: First of all, please share this talk so it can arrive to as many listeners and people of conscience as possible. You can follow us in our struggle on our different platforms. We have a radio station, Námakasia Radio, on Facebook. I will broadcast on that from time to time and share relevant news. Also, I invite you to message or friend me personally on Facebook, at Mario Luna Romero. I also recommend visiting the website culturayaqui.com, which contains information about Yaqui culture, rituals, and ancestral forms of autonomy. That site also contains a lot of information about politics.

The information war is really important right now. Some in the Mexican government want you to think that the Indigenous peoples are extinguished and defeated. So, keeping our own means of communication and information alive, to let people know that there is resistance, to let other people Indigenous peoples know that there is resistance in Mexico, to let ourselves know that there is resistance, is really important.

Featured image: Río Yaqui, Sonora, México. Photograph by Tomas Castelazo, 2009.

Podcast music: “Gloves” by Julian Lynch. Used with permission.

Mario Luna Romero is a tribal secretary of the Yaqui (Yoeme) tribe of Vícam, Sonora. He is a community organizer who was commissioned by the Yaqui tribe to protect the water of the Yaqui River, and is a notable spokesperson for the Yaqui people’s resistance to the Independence Aqueduct. After being jailed for a year due to his activism, he has since participated in the United Nations’ Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. He has been a delegate of Mexico’s Indigenous National Congress since 2007 and is a council member of the recently formed Mexico’s Indigenous Governing Council. Website. Contact.

Ben Barson is an award-winning composer, educator, baritone saxophonist, historian and political activist. Barson cares deeply about the environment along with racial and social justice and inequities. Like his mentor Fred Ho, he composes music to impact change inspired by the jazz tradition. Contact.

Gizelxanath Rodriguez is a Mexican Indigenous (Yaqui) renowned vocalist, cellist, educator and artivist (art and activism) at the intersection of Indigenous rights, ecosocialism and migrant justice. She is fluent in five languages (Spanish, Portuguese, English, French and Italian) and her vocal work spans a range of styles and cultures. Contact.

Together, Barson and Rodriguez co-founded the Afro Yaqui Music Collective, an ensemble that combines Afro-Asian musical and political affinities with inspiration from the struggles of the Yaqui of northern Mexico. Barson and Rodriguez strive to incorporate voices of regional and Indigenous communities in the creation of their boundary-pushing interdisciplinary works. Website. Twitter. Contact.