APPROVAL PAGE FOR GRADUATE THESIS OR PROJECT

GS-13

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULLFILLMENT OF REQUIREMENTS FOR DEGREE

OF MASTER OF ARTS AT CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, LOS
ANGELES BY

Pedro F. Quijada
Candidate

History
Field of Concentration

TITLE: Environmental History on the Western U.S.-Mexico Borderlands: The

Story of Tijuana’s Ejido Chilpancingo and the Alamar
River, 1938-2008

APPROVED: Angela Vergara

Committee Chair Signature

Enrique Ochoa
Faculty Member Signature

Ester Hernández
Faculty Member Signature

Cheryl Koos
Department Chairperson Signature

DATE: June 8, 2010

 ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY ON THE WESTERN

U.S.-MEXICO BORDER: THE STORY OF TIJUANA'S

EJIDO CHILPANCINGO AND THE ALAMAR RIVER, 1938-2008

A Thesis

Presented to

The Faculty of the Department of History

California State University, Los Angeles

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Arts

By

Pedro F. Quijada

June 2010
 © 2010

Pedro F. Quijada

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

ii
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank Dr. Angela Vergara, Dr. Enrique Ochoa, Dr. Ester

Hernández, and Dr. Choi Chatterjee for their support, patience, assistance and directions.

Dr. Vergara's recommendations and over all guidance have been of crucial importance in

the realization of this project. I thank Dr. Ochoa for all his help and for his invitation to

become part of the L.A.S' Thesis Collective, a group I became proud to be part of.

I also wish to thank Dr. Eric Schantz because it was through him that I became

interested in exploring the history of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands.

My gratitude to the neighbors of the Colonia Ex-Ejido Chilpancingo in Tijuana

who helped me with this project. This study is their story and without their help I would

not have been able to do it.

Special thanks to my wife Ana Iraheta—my sun and my air, as I call her—who

gave me the strength to succeed in my studies. She was my "research assistant" for this

project, but she was more than that. Without her I would not have finished it.

Finally, I want to thank my mother, Maria Quijada, who has supported me in

countless ways to achieve my goals of higher education.

iii
 ABSTRACT

Environmental History on the Western U.S.-Mexico Border: The Story of

Tijuana's Ejido Chilpancingo and the Alamar River, 1938-2008

By

Pedro F. Quijada

This study explores the history of Tijuana's Alamar River and one of the

communities through which the river stream crosses: the Colonia Ejido Chilpancingo, a

humble neighborhood located just steps below the Mesa de Otay, one of the largest

industrial parks in Tijuana. The time frame of this account begins when there were no

maquiladoras (late 1930s, when the Ejido Chilpancingo was created) until the present.

This thesis argues that the manufacturing plants had a devastating impact on the river and

on the Chilpancingo community. The study looks at how the chemical waste disposed of

by the maquiladoras polluted the river and affected the health of the people living in that

neighborhood and beyond. In addition, this study examines the consequences of the rapid

increase in population in the Colonia Ejido Chilpancingo as a result of the labor demand

coming from the maquiladoras, and how that increase in population transformed the

natural environment and thus the life of the people living in that area.

The study employs a bottom up approach: a significant amount of it is based on

oral histories. Its intention is to enrich the body of local histories that deal with

environmental issues on the borderlands and to center the experiences of the residents in

the region.

iv
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments………………………………………………….…….. iii

Abstract…………………………………………………………………….. iv

List of Figures……………………………………………….………………. vii

Chapter 1. Introduction …………………...………………………………… 1

Significance…………………………………………………………. 3

Scholarship………………………………………………………….. 5

Sources……………………………………………………………… 22

Chapter 2. Before the Maquila Program……………………………………. 25

Tijuana……………………………………………………………… 25

The Ejido Chilpancingo……………………………………. ……… 28

The Alamar River…………………………………………………… 34

Chapter 3. Industrial and Human Invasion: From BIP to NAFTA…………. 40

1965: The Border Industrialization Program……………………….. 40

Industrialization of Otay/Invasion of Chilpancingo………………… 42

NAFTA and Nueva Esperanza....…………………………………… 47

Chapter 4. Chemical Invasion……………………………………………… 55

Toxic Invasion and Health Hazards at Chilpancingo………………. 56

Tijuana's Pollution on the U.S. Side………………………………… 64

v
Chapter 5. Environmental Activism Along the Border……………………. 69

Chilpancingo's Activism …………………………………………… 69

Transnational Activism……………………………………............... 75

Chapter 6. Conclusion ………………………………………….................... 83

Bibliography…………………………………………………………………. 100

vi
 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. Map showing the area under study………………………………... 89

Figure 2. Doña Rosalba and siblings, 1959………………………………..… 90

Figure 3. Alma and Teresa Mendoza at the Alamar River, late 1970s …….... 91

Figure 4. First page of Doña Rosalba's home-made family-history book….… 92

Figure 5. Park of Chilpancingo, Mid 1970s ………………………………… 93

Figure 6. Park of Chilpancingo, 2010. Same spot as previous image. ………. 94

Figure 7. Abandoned maquila Metales y Derivados, Mid 1990s .…………….. 95

Figure 8. Alamar River and maquiladoras, 2010..……………………………. 96

Figure 9. Abandoned house in Colonia Nueva Esperanza, 2010……………… 97

Figure 10. River bed of the Alamar near the Ejido Chilpancingo, 2010….…… 98

Figure 11. Warning sign at Imperial Beach, San Diego, 2010…………………… 99

Figure 12. Maquiladora Tour visiting the Alamar River, 2010……..………. 100

vii
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

On 8 November, 2008, the Cal State LA History 561 class (History of the U.S.-

Mexico Borderlands) made a field trip to Tijuana. One of the sites we visited was the

Colonia Ex- Ejido Chilpancingo, a poor settlement populated mainly by employees of the

manufacturing plants at the Otay Industrial Park, one of the biggest industrial parks in

Tijuana, located just steps up a hill from the neighborhood. Unavoidable—and striking—

in this community was the foul smell that came from what, at first impression, seemed to

be an open sewage channel. The community organizer who addressed the group told us,

however, that the channel of dirty waters was in fact the remnants of what used to be a

river of crystal-clear water where people used to fish, and where she used to swim with

her father as a child. She added with a sad tone that the destruction of the river started as

soon as the manufacturing industry arrived.

The destruction of the river and the pollution of the environment along the

borderlands in general was something that caught my attention and kept me thinking after

we crossed the border back into the United States, and thus, I began to do research on

environmental history.

The degradation of the natural environment along the U.S.-Mexico border has

been a problem since the arrival of the manufacturing plants after 1965. The pollution of

certain river streams with chemical contaminants is critical, and the role of the

manufacturing plants as agents of pollution is undeniable. The problem has been

1
acknowledged to a certain degree by the governments of Mexico and the United Sates

and there have been some agreements between the two nations to try to solve it.1 To

address these issues, both governments have created agencies such as the Border

Environment Cooperation Commission—a bi-national agency set up to identify, evaluate

and certify environmental infrastructure projects with community participation.2

Nevertheless, the degradation of the environment has continued mainly because of poor

enforcement of the laws that regulate pollution on the Mexican side of the border.

In 1990, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tested the stream of the Río

Alamar that goes through the Ex- Ejido Chilpancingo neighborhood and determined that

the levels of lead were 3,400 percent higher than allowable U.S. standards, and the

Cadmium levels 1,230 percent above what is allowed in the U.S.3 Another analysis of

the same area's soil conducted in 2005 revealed lead concentrations of 200,000 parts per

million, a figure that in simple terms means that almost one quarter of the soil was lead.4

Nowadays, the stream of the Río Alamar in the Chilpancingo neighborhood is a

scary scene for the U.S. visitor, for the pollution that comes from the maquiladoras and

1
Such as the 1985 Border Environmental Agreements. The purpose of these agreements was to treat
sewage waste produced in Tijuana in U.S treatment plants.
2
Dean E. Carter, Carlos Pena, Robert Varady, and William A. Suk. ―Environmental Health and Hazardous
Waste Issues Related to the U.S.-Mexico Border‖ Environmental Health Perspectives 104, no. 6,
(1996):590.
3
Valery J. Cass, "Toxic Tragedy: Illegal Hazardous Waste Dumping in Mexico," eds.
Sally M. Edwards, Terry D. Edwards, and Charles B. Fields (New York: Garland
Publishing, Inc., 1996), 101.
4
William Hillyard, "Where is Away," Denver Voice, November, 2009, 18.

2
the actual human wastes deposited in it by the residents have turned it into a channel of

putrid waters carrying elements extremely hazardous to the health of the residents. 5

This thesis is a local and environmental history of the Chilpancingo neighborhood

since it was founded in 1938 as an ejido and of the Alamar River which crosses that

neighborhood. It argues that the manufacturing industry transformed the natural and

human environment in that section of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands since it started in

1965 as a result of the Border Industrialization Program (BIP). The study focuses on the

environmental degradation and shows how the Chilpancingo neighbors have organized

and struggled for a clean environment.

Significance

The degradation of the environment along the U.S.- Mexico borderlands as

byproduct of industrialization is an important issue not only for people in the affected

area but for people on both sides of the border, as well as for the people of the entire

planet.6 The destruction of the natural environment in this area is caused by the ever

expanding culture of consumerism originated in the United States and imitated by the rest

of the world. The depletion of natural resources for mere economic purposes poses a

great danger to our survival.

5
Tijuana’s lack of an adequate/efficient sewage system is a problem that adds to the pollution caused by
the chemicals of the maquiladoras.
6
The pollution of the Alamar River not only affects the Mexican side, but also the U.S. side: the river
stream eventually crosses the border into the U.S. and ends up in the San Diego beaches, polluting the
ocean on the U.S. side and affecting the tourism industry.

3
 Environmental degradation is also an important area for historians to study. The

December 2008 issue of the American Historical Review included a ―conversation‖ with

environmental historians about the environmental crisis and the way environmental

historians are approaching it. Out of the discussion came several observations that are

very meaningful for the field nowadays. Lise Sedrez and Peter C. Perdue, for example,

observed that environmental history has expanded outside the U.S. to areas such as Latin

America and Asia and that the field is nowadays being explored by scholars who are not

necessarily traditional ―environmental historians.‖7 Also, while Richard Hoffman pointed

out the benefits of collaborating with scholars from other fields such as paleontology,

archeology, soil science, etc, Jim McCann reminded us of the importance of the historical

approach and method. McCann further argued that telling the story the best way possible

is one of the most important contributions of historians and thus is the one skill that

historians who go interact with other disciplines must always keep sharp. McCann’s

reminder reveals the significance of this study as a piece of local history. The goal in this

thesis is not to make an assessment of the situation from a wide angle, including the

many aspects that other disciplines could provide, but to tell the story, from a very close

perspective, from the protagonists’ point of view.

This study builds on the scholarship of the U.S. Mexico border areas and more

specifically on the scholarship about the environment. But while most studies have used a

top-down approach, I believe that there is also an urgent need to tell the story from
7
―AHR Converstation: Environmental Historians and Environmental Crisis,‖ American Historical Review
133, no. 5 (2008) 1432.

4
below, not just because it has not been done and it is a missing piece—which is in itself

an important reason—but because it represents the human side and gives voice to the

people who have had and continue to live and struggle in a polluted environment every

day.

Scholarship

In order to understand the complexity of the environmental crisis in Tijuana and

in other parts of the border, it is necessary to have an ample frame of reference of both,

borderlands and environmental history. This section will examine two different types of

scholarships: the scholarship on the U.S-Mexico borderlands and Environmental studies.

The first will show the historical relations between the inhabitants of the two sides of the

border from the time when the borderlands were just an area called ―frontier‖ until

nowadays. Environmental Studies examine some of the transformations of the

environment and the ways in which people have interacted with it.

U.S-Mexico Borderlands

The United States-Mexico border has become an area of academic inquiry since

the 1980s. Historians such as Andrés Resendes, Paul Vanderwood, and Juan Mora-

Torres, among others, have demonstrated that the region is an important site of cultural,

social, and physical exchange. Their work and publications help us understand the

historical processes that have shaped life on the borderlands through time; how

communities on both sides have interacted with each other; how culture and social

production has been conditioned by economic factors; and how the politics of both

5
nations have influenced the border areas, as well as how the actual situation in the

borderlands has exerted influence on the governments of both nations.

Human diversity in the nowadays borderlands existed since way before the two

nations were completely formed as we know them today. The different groups—

indigenous groups, the Spaniards, and later the Anglos—had to find ways to co-exist in a

violent environment. The economic exchange among rival tribes of the southwest, for

example, was based on a system of captivity/slavery in which prisoners were highly

valuable because they served for exchange negotiations. James F. Brooks has made an

excellent study about the tribal relations that existed in the southwestern area from the

sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. In his book Captives and Cousins: Slavery, Kinship,

and Community in the Southwest Borderlands, Brooks tell us how the main objectives for

capture were women and children because they represented the sacred and honorable

elements of those male dominated communities, and, for the captors, the captives were

symbols of their power. Unlike the slavery system of the U.S. Southeast—a system in

which the main purpose of forced captivity was labor exploitation—the captivity system

in the Southwest served to establish relations between different communities, and the

captives could obtain a great degree of mobility within their captors: they could become

members of the society in which they were enslaved through marriage or adoption, and in

some cases they could even obtain their freedom after a certain amount of time as slaves.

Also, the captivity system of the Southwest was not based on racial terms, and thus

people of all ethnic groups were in danger of being captured. This system continued to be

6
used even after the arrival of the Spanish—who had practiced a similar system with the

Muslims since 661 AD—and, even though the system was not free of violence, the

captives became for both natives and Spanish, agents of conciliation and cultural

redefinition.8

Before the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), the cultural and

geographic borders that we know today were not clearly defined. Historians Jeremy

Adelman and Stephen Aron call those areas ―frontier‖ instead of ―borderlands.‖9 The

frontier was, then, a ―borderless‖ area where different ethnic groups mixed with each

other, and in many cases did not have a sense of ―belonging‖ to a specific nation or

culture.10 By the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, new political

configurations started to appear in the borderlands as result of the struggles for Mexican

independence from Spain. For the people who lived in those areas, the previous fluidity

of life they were accustomed to started to disappear, and people were separated, divided

in two. Andrés Reséndez argues in his book Changing National Identities at the

Frontier, that the Hispanics, the Anglo-Americans, and the Native Americans who lived

in the borderlands during the time in question found themselves pulled by two ―tsunami-

like forces‖ which were the Mexican state and the U.S. market, and thus their loyalties

shifted from one side to another depending on what was convenient for them at the

8
James Brooks, Captives and Cousins: Slavery, Kinship, and Community in the Southwest Borderlands
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002), 53.
9
Jeremy Adelman and Stephen Aron, ―From Borderlands to Borders: Empires, Nation-States and the
Peoples in Between in North American History,‖ The American Historical Review 104, no. 3 (1999):815.
10
Adelman and Aron, "From Borderlands to Border", 816.

7
moment.11 Unlike the traditional scholarship derived from the expansionist point of view

proposed by Frederick Jackson Turner, Reséndez, a historian who received his initial

training in Mexico, proposes that the people at the frontier had a great degree of agency

in the politics of the time and thus were highly important participants in the final

secession and annexation to the United States of half of the Mexican territory by the mid-

nineteenth century.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo put an end to the Mexican-American war in

1848, changing the previously fluid and permeable frontier forever. The U.S.-Mexico

boundary was created and people suddenly found themselves belonging to either this or

the other side of the border. With a borderline established, the economic transactions that

happened in a natural and free form begun to experience restrictions and taxes. The

people were not accustomed to taxes on trade or to governmental intervention, and thus

the transactions continued now in the form of contraband. Finished goods were smuggled

from the U.S. side into Mexican territory, and the practice became so common that at a

point, as Juan Mora Torres points out, smuggling passed from ―being blameworthy to

being meritorious.‖12 With contraband, the northern Mexican states such as Nuevo León

and Coahuila, previously isolated and relatively unimportant for Mexico, became rich

and powerful enough to cause a great impact on the rest of the nation. The northern

border states—now rich and with a tradition of autonomy—meant for the Mexican

11
Andrés Reséndez, Changing National Identities at the Frontier: Texas and New Mexico 1800-1850
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 15.
12
Juan Mora Torres, The Making of the Mexican Border: State, Capitalism, and Society in Nuevo León,
1848-1910 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001), 32.

8
central government a possible threat. Thus, during the last quarter of the nineteenth

century, the government of Porfirio Díaz tried many times to exercise control over those

states and to ―tame‖ the northern caudillos, who in turn responded by igniting the flame

of the Mexican revolution that ended with his long dictatorship in 1911. 13

After the borderlands’ people were legally divided in 1848, new notions of

citizenship and sovereignty were established. The borderline separated the two nation-

states and also hardened the dividing line between ethnic groups. In his book about

Anglo-Mexican relations during the nineteenth century titled They Called Them

Greasers, Arnoldo De León argues that tensions between Anglos and Tejanos became

violent and racist because Anglos believed that Tejanos and Mexicans were lazy, lewd,

and subhuman. The antagonism towards Mexicans spread from the borderlands to the

political sphere of the country and in 1924 the United States government passed the

Johnson Reed Immigration Act, a piece of legislation that radically changed the way

immigrants were treated in the United States and that greatly affected Mexicans since

they were, from then on, racialized, and turned into ―illegal aliens.‖ Mae M. Ngai tells us

in Impossible Subjects. Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America, that after the

1924 Act, Mexicans nationals who wanted to cross the border had to face requirements

that were humiliating since they were considered an inferior race: they had to pass

through a process of decontamination in which they were sprayed with chemicals so that

13
Caudillos is Spanish for ―strong men.‖

9
they would not bring illnesses into the United States.14 The restrictions, Ngai says,

resulted into a greater number of people crossing without inspection, and thus into the

birth of the ―illegal alien.‖

During the first decades of the twentieth century, particularly during the

Prohibition Era in the U.S. (1919 to 1933), the Mexican side of the border became for

those on the U.S. side a place for recreation and tourism. Towns such as Mexicali and

Tijuana turned from being small and unimportant border towns into mayor cities along

the borderline, where prostitution, gambling, and alcohol were readily available for any

American who could pay. Eric Schantz demonstrates in his study about Mexicali’s Owl

Café, that Americans came to see the border cities as nothing more than large red-light

districts.15

But the border towns were not just red-light districts for common Americans who

wished to spend a night across the border gambling and drinking, they were also

destinations for the rich and famous. In 1928, the Agua Caliente Casino and Resort

opened in Tijuana, and so, celebrities and well-to-do Americans flocked there for horse

and dog racing, high stakes gambling, exotic meals and entertainment. Historian Paul

14
Mae M. Ngai, Impossible Subjets: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 2004), 47.
15
Eric M. Schantz, ―All Night at the Owl: The Social and Political Relations of Mexicali’s Red- Light
District, 1913-1925,‖ Journal of the Southwest 43, no. 4 (2001): 554.

10
Vanderwood shows that the Agua Caliente Resort presented a scene that truly rivaled that

of Monaco’s Monte Carlo or San Sebastian’s Trépot.16

By 1930, tourism in Tijuana and Mexicali was at its peak. In Tijuana, a town of

eight thousand residents, the fun-seeking tourists tripled the population almost every

day.17 The booming of these cities and the great amounts of money that circulated among

the business owners (many of them foreigners) began to call the attention of the Mexican

central government. In 1935, President Lázaro Cárdenas outlawed gambling, and thus the

opulent days of vice-tourism along the Mexican border cities came to an end. The Agua

Caliente Resort was closed down and turned into a school, and the red-lights districts

were greatly reduced, although not eradicated.

Border cities such as Ciudad Juárez, Mexicali, and Tijuana have historically been

subjected to heavy criticism from the Mexican federal government for their close ties to

the United States. Tourism particularly, has been attacked because it has been perceived

as a cause of the degradation of moral standards. Similarly, poverty, unemployment,

contraband, prostitution, and increasing social unrest have produced an image of the

border as trouble spot.

Migration to and from the U.S. side have also historically affected the border

cities. In the 1940s, for example, thousands of migrants arrived to the border cities

hoping to find a job through the ―Bracero Program.‖ This program was a diplomatic

16
Paul J. Vanderwood, Juan Soldado. Rapist, Murderer, Martyr, Saint (Durham: Duke University Press,
2004), 139.
17
Vanderwood, Juan Soldado,137.

11
agreement between the U.S. and Mexico that allowed Mexican laborers to work

temporarily in U.S. agricultural fields. The program lasted from 1942 to 1964. While in

effect, many people brought their families to the border cities and left them there while

they went to work in the U.S. When the program ended in 1964, thousands of braceros

who came back settled for good in the border cities, increasing the population. Because of

lack of employment opportunities the border cities started to experience high

unemployment rates. In response, the two countries agreed to industrialize the

borderlands and make use of the unemployed labor force. However, the manufacturing

plants that moved to the borderlands ended up giving more employment not to the

unemployed braceros, but to another segment of the population, women.

In 1965, the Border Industrialization Program (BIP), an agreement between the

U.S. and Mexican governments allowed the location of U.S. owned manufacturing plants

along certain border cities of the Mexican side. The BIP was also called the Maquila

Program. A maquila is a wholly owned Mexican subsidiary incorporated by foreign

companies. The Maquila Program allowed U.S. companies to assemble their products in

Mexico using raw materials from the United States with reduced duties. The finished

goods, of course, come back to be sold in the U.S. The maquilas assemble televisions,

industrial and personal products, automobiles, etc. The low cost that this operation meant

for companies made the manufacturing industry grow enormously. By 1996, there were

12
approximately 2,000 maquiladoras in Mexico, and it was estimated that 90 percent of

them were located along the border.18

The phenomenon of the manufacturing industry along the borderland has been

examined by several scholars, from different points of view. Some scholars have studied

the lives and struggles of the workers of the manufacturing industry, especially the

impact on the lives of women workers, while others have analyzed the overall political

and social effects of governmental agreements such as BIP and the North American Free

Trade Agreement, NAFTA.

Gender has been an important theme in the scholarship on this period. Scholars

such as Devon Peña have showed how the majority of the workforce in the

manufacturing plants is formed by women, how women have been active and highly

productive elements of the border society, and how women—not men, as it has been

traditionally— have formed groups of resistance against abuses in the workplace and

against injustices in their communities. Many of these works are based on extensive oral

interviews with maquila female workers. For example, Norma Iglesias Prieto in her book

Beautiful Flowers of the Maquiladora: Life Histories of Women Workers in Tijuana

describes and analyses the testimonies of the struggles of more than fifty women. 19

Iglesia Prieto's book helps to "give voice to the voiceless" and at the same time is a great

primary source for historians doing research on related issues.

18
Cass, "Toxic Tragedy," 101.
19
Norma Iglesias Prieto, Beautiful Flowers of the Maquiladora: Life Histories of Women Workers in
Tijuana. Translated by Michael Stone (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997), 34.

13
 Devon Peña, in his book The Terror of the Machine, has examined the grassroots

struggles of female maquiladora workers in Ciudad Juárez.20 His work, based on a

decade of personal activism in one of the organizations that works with women maquila

workers, Center for the Orientation of Women Workers (COMO)—not only documents

the personal and collective resistance of the workers but also provides a historical and

political analysis of capitalist industrialization. Peña also based his study on oral

interviews, and thus his study is an important addition to the body of scholarship that uses

the voices of the oppressed. Another significant aspect of the study is the idea of

sustainable development which proposes the careful use of resources to make them last

and to preserve the environment. Sustainable development is an alternative that the

author offers to counter the present state of things—since he is an activist who wishes to

exert some change through active scholarship.

Although women workers have faced harsh work conditions, low wages, and

human rights violations, among many other injustices, they have not been the passive

objects or docile victims that maquiladora owners and managers might have expected.

Women worker’s movements have sought to empower their communities by raising

consciousness among their co-workers about the human rights and economic injustices

that were committed against them. 21 In Tijuana, for example, a group called Centro de

Información para Trabajadoras y Trabajadores, Asociación Civil (CITTAC, Center for

20
Devon Peña, The Terror of the Machine:Technology, Work, Gender, and Ecology on the U.S.-Mexico
Border (Austin: University of Texas at Austin, 1997).
21
Joe Bandy and Jennifer Bickham Mendez, ―A Place of Their Own? Women Organizers in the Maquilas
of Nicaragua and Mexico,‖ Mobilization: An International Journal 8, no. 2 (2003): 174.

14
Information for Women and Men Workers, a non-profit corporation) is dedicated to

provide information about labor rights and legal representation for workers in the

maquiladoras. CITTAC has helped poor women with little formal education to become

articulate and informed leaders. In November 2008, we talked to four women about their

struggles. They accepted that many times the manufacturing industry system is so big and

powerful that can not be stopped from getting away with injustices. However, they also

told us of their experience of filing lawsuits against their employers for reasons that go

from lack of payment to damages to their health. These women explained that without the

information and the support provided by CITTAC they would have never become aware

of their rights nor be able to fight for them, or not even to speak in public in such

articulate way.

Scholars have also started looking at how women have established transnational

networks. The women worker’s activist groups along the border area have not limited

themselves to inform workers of their rights and to fight for better wages/working

conditions, but they have also established links across the border with other groups who

have expressed their solidarity, thus making their struggle a transnational movement that

defies the doctrines of economic globalization.22 The San Diego Maquiladora Workers’

Solidarity Network is an example of that transnational movement. Based on San Ysidro,

California, this organization stays in close touch with the workers’ organizations in

Tijuana and contributes to solve their struggles. Their philosophy statement reads ―We

22
Bandy and Bickham-Mendez, "A Place of their Own", 173.

15
believe that US and other multinational corporations operating factories in Tijuana and

other maquiladora cities have no right to pay poverty wages, require pregnancy tests to

their workers, pollute with impunity, and repress unions.‖23 Another of such

organizations is the Environmental Health Coalition, an organization whose goal is to

protect the public health of border communities from being jeopardized by toxic

chemicals and to promote environmental justice. This organization has joined efforts with

the Chilpancingo Collective for Environmental Justice, a group formed by the women of

the Chilpancingo community in Tijuana, and together achieved the goal of cleaning an

abandoned plant that had left toxic chemicals on the open affecting the community for

over ten years.24

Scholarship on the Environment

The field of Environmental History is relatively new. It started in the late 1960s

and early 1970s along with the Environmental Movement, which fought for the

preservation of the environment and the natural resources of the planet. The principal

goal of Environmental History is to expand our knowledge of how human beings have

been affected by the environment, and how we have affected the environment itself.

The first major scholarly work of Environmentalism in the United States was the

book titled Silent Spring, written by biologist Rachel Carson and first published in

23
Statement at organization’s website. http://sdmaquila.org (accessed May 2, 2010).
24
―La historia de mi colonia‖ A Publication of the Environmental Health Coalition. (Tijuana, Baja
California, 2009)

16
1962.25 The book documented the highly negative effects of pesticides on the

environment, on animals, and on people. Carson said that DDT—one the main chemicals

used as pesticide—was a poisonous substance that killed birds and other animals, and that

because of its uncontrolled use it was found in almost any type of food that Americans

were consuming at that time. The book generated much controversy since Carson not

only attacked the chemical industry but also stated that the ―tolerance‖ limits of DDT in

food established by the Food and Drug Administration was just ―mere paper security that

promotes the unjustified impression that safe limits have been established and are being

adhered to.‖26 The book faced harsh criticism and strong opposition from the chemical

industry. The uproar generated was such, that President John F. Kennedy started an

investigation about Carson’s claims in the book, claims that, of course, were verified and

established to be valid.

After Silent Spring, the movement of Environmentalism started to grow faster and

many other books started to appear. The journal Environmental Review (nowadays called

Environmental History) was created in 1976, and the American Society for

Environmental History was founded the following year. Scholars of this field have

written articles; guides to concepts, laws, organizations, and people important in the field;

books on environmental crime, on environmental management, and also case studies that

have traced the tragedy of particular eco systems such as forests or rivers.

25
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962), 71.
26
Carson, Silent Spring, 181.

17
 In an article that appeared in the journal Environmental History, for example,

David and Richard Stradling tell the story of the Cuyahoga River, a river stream in

Cleveland that at a time was one of the most polluted rivers in the United States and that

due to the high levels of contamination, caught fire for about twenty minutes in 1969.27

The fire was set off by the strong concentration of oils and chemicals that came from the

industrial area surrounding the river. The fire of the Cuyahoga River started an avalanche

of environmental activism that eventually resulted in the creation of the Federal

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970, a federal organization in charge of the

regulations of chemicals to protect human health and preserve the environment; and the

Clean Water Act in 1972, a legislation directed to stop the release of toxic substances into

American water streams.

A journalistic account on a case of environmental struggle that has become well

known is the story of Chico Méndez, a Brazilian environmental activist and unionist who

fought to stop the burning of the Amazon rainforest and was murdered by those who

opposed his activism. The story of Méndez is told by journalist Andrew Revkin in the

book titled The Burning Season.28 Revkin tells us how Chico Méndez, a rubber tapper,

struggled to preserve his ways of life—which depended on the forest—against cattle

ranchers who saw the rainforest as a mere obstacle that had to be taken off the way.

Méndez joined the rubber tappers of the rainforest and helped them, many times, to stop

27
David Stradling and Richard Stradling, ―Perceptions of the Burning River: Deindustrialization and
Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River,‖ Environmental History 13 (2008):515.
28
Andrew Revkin, The Burning Season: The Murder of Chico Méndez and the Fight for the Amazon Rain
Forest (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990)

18
the ranchers from cutting down trees. He also founded the Xapury Rural Workers Union,

an association of rubber tappers directed to stop the cattle ranchers from cutting down

trees or burning the forest. In 1988, Méndez was assassinated by gunshot at his home. His

murder received coverage from the international media, and because of that, several

natural reserves or protected areas were created in his memory.

A more recent Environmental History study is that conducted Myrna I. Santiago

about the extraction of oil in the Huasteca area within the context of the Mexican

revolution. In her book The Ecology of Oil: Environment, Labor, and the Mexican

Revolution, 1900-1938, Santiago examines the social and environmental changes that

happened in that area as a result of oil extraction.29 In the themes that she has looked at

closely are the changes in land use, marginalization of indigenous people, degradation of

the environment, and militancy of the workers. A very interesting argument that Santiago

makes is that the militancy of the oil workers had much to do with the 1938 decree of oil

nationalization made by the then President Lázaro Cárdenas, a very progressive leader

who also implemented an Agrarian Reform that helped in the creation of many ejidos—

communal lands—all throughout Mexico, being one of those the Ejido Chilpancingo in

Tijuana.

The last work about the environment that I want to mention here is a very recent

ethnography study by sociologist Javier Auyero and anthropologist Débora Alejandra

Swistun about a highly polluted marginal town in Argentina. Published in 2009, the book
29
Myrna I. Santiago, The Ecology of Oil. Environment, Labor, and the Mexican Revolution, 1900-1938
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 1-371.

19
Flammable: Environmental Suffering in an Argentine Shantytown examines a poor town

surrounded by a large petrochemical compound.30 The situation of the town "Flammable"

is similar—if not exactly the same—to that of the Chilpancingo neighborhood: the soil,

the river stream, and the air are contaminated with lead, benzene, and other chemicals

that make the neighbors become sick. Although the authors did both archival and field

research, it is the weight of the field research that makes this book unique. The voices of

the people who suffer the effects of toxic pollution can be heard loud and clear, and I

believe that it is only by listening to those voices that the world can begin to realize that

our attitudes towards the environment, towards nature, need to change. The voices of the

Chilpancingo neighbors in this study add strength those voices from "Flammable."

The field of Environmental History keeps growing every day. The environmental

degradation that is nowadays happening in the U.S.-Mexico border represent for

environmental historians an area of study in which much could be made. Several scholars

who have studied the border from the environmental angle have paid attention to the

political and economic forces that have played a part in the way manufacturing plants

work along the border, and thus in the degradation of the environment. Much of such

scholarship has been made from a top down approach, and has focused on analyzing

laws, governmental agreements, enforcement and violation of those laws and agreements,

the effect of population growth and urbanization on the environment, and in some cases

30
Javier Auyero and Débora Alejandra Swistun, Flammable. Environmental Suffering in an Argentine
Shantytown (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 1-188.

20
on analyzing the types and amounts of pollution that originates in the manufacturing

plants.

One scholar who has briefly touched on environmental degradation at the

borderlands using a bottom up approach is Valery J. Cass. In her article titled "Toxic

Tragedy: Illegal Hazardous Waste Dumping in Mexico," Cass tells the story of how

Metales y Derivados, a battery recycling plant located at the Mesa de Otay Industrial

Park in Tijuana was the cause of tremendous pollution of a close-by river stream and

contamination in the surrounding community, the Colonia Ejido Chilpanchingo.31 In

1994, the plant was abandoned by its owner, José Kahn. Seven thousand metric tons of

unprotected lead waste were left on the premises and soon started to seep down into the

nearby river stream, the Alamar River, affecting both the river and the health of the

people at the Chilpancingo neighborhood. The neighbors of the Chilpancingo area often

complain about health problems—problems that go from persistent skin rashes to brain-

damaged children born in the neighborhood—that they believe to have their origin in the

pollution of the river with chemical contaminants. Although she does not extend on the

problem at the Colonia Chilpancingo and the Alamar River, her mention of the health

hazards to which those people are subjected every day, represents a slight difference from

the traditional way that environmental history on the borderlands has been approached.

31
Cass, "Toxic Tragedy," 99-119.

21
 Sources

This thesis is based on oral interviews/histories conducted with some of the

residents of the Chilpancingo community. Other primary sources are newspapers from

Tijuana, pictures given to me by Chilpancingo long time residents Rosalba and Claudia

Mendoza, the video-documentary Maquilapolis. City of Factories, documents about the

creation and land tenure of the Ejido Chilpancingo, and studies that provide scientific

data about the pollution and the health problems that happen in the area under study.

I interviewed people who have deep connections to the area and who were willing

to help me with the research. Lourdes Luján, for example, was a maquiladora worker

who has lived her entire life in that neighborhood. She has a firm grasp of the issues in

question first because she has personally experienced them, and second because she is

part of the Chilpancingo Collective for Environmental Justice, a group that fought to have

the before mentioned abandoned lead-processing plant cleaned. I also was very lucky to

meet Doña Rosalba Mendoza, a woman who was born in Tijuana in 1950 and has lived

all her life in the Chilpancingo neighborhood. Doña Rosalba not only has memories that

go beyond those of Lourdes Luján, but she is also the "historian" of her family: she has

put together a homemade book—that she shared with me—in which she has recorded the

history of her family ever since her parents arrived to Tijuana. Her intentions with the

book—she says—is to make sure that her grandchildren know where they come from and

what their past is. Her book contains pictures, names of family members, and summaries

of events that happened throughout her life. The participation of Doña Rosalba—as well

22
as that of her sister Claudia—was of enormous help for this project because besides

offering me her own version of the story, photos and other materials, she also contacted

me with other older members of the community.

I also interviewed members of CITTAC who live in that neighborhood. Antonia

Arias's testimony about her labor experience helped me illustrate the second part of

chapter 4, where I examine the health hazards to which the Chilpancingo residents—and

many other workers—are exposed to when working inside the plants. The statements and

information offered by Enrique Dávalos—a Chicano Studies Professor from San Diego

City College who organizes trips from the U.S. to the maquiladoras in Tijuana—were

also very useful for my narrative about cross-border cooperation to stop the pollution and

to oppose the labor abuses happening in the maquiladoras.

I conducted research at three local institutions: El Colegio de la Frontera Norte,

the Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas of the Universidad Autónoma de Baja

California, and the Archivo Histórico de Tijuana. At the two first research institutions, I

found several studies on the history of Baja California, documents, newspapers, maps,

and testimonies. At the Colegio de la Frontera Norte, particularly, I found studies that

provide data on the degrees of pollution of the Alamar River and the neighborhoods

around the Otay Industrial Park, and on population growth in Tijuana. For specific

information on the history of the Colonia Ejido Chilpancingo I visited the Archivo

Histórico de Tijuana, an archive of the municipality of Tijuana dedicated to the

preservation of the history of the city. This is a wonderful place where I was able to go

23
through newspapers from the 1940s and on, and where I found much significant

information about the formation of the ejido during the late 1930s and also about the land

expropriations that happened during the 1970s.

I also consulted materials from the Mandeville Special Collections Library at UC

San Diego and from the UC Southern Regional Library Facility at UCLA.

As secondary sources I have examined studies that have a subaltern approach

such as Beautiful Flowers of the Maquiladora: Life Histories of Women Workers in

Tijuana by Norma Iglesias Prieto, Historia Viva de Tijuana, a collection of testimonies

conducted by the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, and also several studies with

a top-down approach such as those who analyze governmental agreements like the

Border Industrialization Program and NAFTA.

24
 CHAPTER 2

Before the Maquila Program

Tijuana

Originally a cattle ranch that was part of the Spanish Mission of San Diego,

Tijuana developed, during the last years of the nineteenth century and the first decades of

the twentieth century, into a tourist destination for the people from the U.S.32 During the

years of prohibition (1920-1933), particularly, large quantities of U.S. capital were

invested in Tijuana for the creation of bars, casinos, restaurants, race-tracks, etc. Such

movement of capital soon turned the city into a border town of importance for both U.S.

and Mexico.

U.S. money and influence had been present in the borderlands, however, since

time before the era of tourism. Since the Porfirian era, land tenure in Baja California was

monopolized by foreign entities.33 During the first three decades of the twentieth century,

for example, the Colorado River Land Company had the control of 800,000 acres of land,

and 199,000 more acres belonged to other 11 foreign companies.34 In addition, those

companies rented the lands only to non-Mexicans to prevent tenants from the possibility

of getting attached to the land and later claim rights over it.35 The land was rented to

32
David Piñeira Ramírez and Jesús Ortíz Figueroa, eds., Historia de Tijuana. Semblanza general (Centro
de Investigaciones Históricas UNAM-UABC: Tijuana, Baja California, 1985),31.
33
Celso Aguirre Bernal, Génesis y destino de la Liga de Comunidades Agrarias y Sindicatos Campesinos
del Estado de Baja California, in Historia de las Ligas de Comunidades Agrarias y Sindicatos
Campesinos.Norte. Primer concurso estatal, ed. Edén Ferrer (México, D.F.:CEHAM, 1988), 85
34
Aguirre Bernal, Génesis y destino, 24.
35
Ibid., 24-25.

25
Chinese, Japanese, and Hindu immigrants. Mexicans were only hired as laborers, and

were often discriminated against.36 The land reforms that were passed after the Mexican

Revolution were not enforced in the borderlands and the land continued to be under the

control of foreign hands until President Cárdenas promulgated and enforced a major

agrarian reform during the late 1930s.

The tourism industry that flourished in Tijuana after the Volstead Act of 1919 was

also heavily supported monetarily by U.S. capitalists in association with Mexican

entrepreneurs.37 Bars and vice centers proliferated during the decade of the 1920s under

the direction of Americans "barons" such as Wirt G. Bowman, who in 1928 developed

the Agua Caliente resort and casino, a super luxurious complex that cost $10 million

dollars.38

Such links with the economy of the U.S. have not always been seen positively by

leaders in Mexico City. They have often times regarded Tijuana as a place not patriotic

enough, contaminated with too much Anglo culture, a very problematic place. And it has

been problematic: the idyllic vice-tourism industry of the 1920s and early 1930s along

with the control and exploitation of the land by American companies became a

controversial issue. The power, influence, and economic interests that U.S. entrepreneurs

had in Baja California were so great that there were even attempts to buy the state from

Mexico. One of such attempts was that made by California legislator Charles Kramer

36
Ibid.
37
Acevedo Cárdenas, Piñera, and Ortíz, Historia de Tijuana, 100.
38
Vanderwood, Juan Soldado,138.

26
who in May of 1936 proposed to the U.S. congress the idea of purchasing the entire

peninsula.39 The Mexican government began to worry about the possibility of losing that

northern state to the U.S. and thus started to pay special attention to the problems of

border cities like Tijuana and Mexicali.

As soon as General Lázaro Cárdenas assumed the presidency in December of

1934, the Mexican borderlands started to experience major social and economic changes.

Cárdenas' government sought to integrate the northern borderlands into the Mexican

national economy and initiated a series of radical measures in order to achieve such goal.

One of the most drastic and severe measures of Cárdenas was that taken against vice-

tourism: On July 20, 1935 he ordered the closure of all gambling businesses in the entire

country, including the luxurious casinos of Tijuana such as the Agua Caliente and the

Foreign Club.40 The Agua Caliente was turned into a school. Another outstanding

measure taken by Cárdenas was the agrarian reform, which had peculiar characteristics in

Baja California since the lands to be re-distributed were not taken from Mexican owners

like in the rest of the country, but from the control of foreign companies like the

Colorado River Land Co. and others. In 1937 the government expropriated the properties

of the foreign companies San Isidro Ajolojol in Tijuana, and Moreno y Compañía in

Rosarito and the lands were given to Mexican nationals who organized them into

39
José Luis Flores Silva, Piñera, and Ortíz, Historia de Tijuana,136.
40
Ibid, 134.

27
communal lands and founded the ejidos Mazatlán and La Misión in Rosarito, and

Tampico, Matamoros, and Chilpancingo in Tijuana.41

The Ejido Chilpancingo

Nowadays the Colonia Ex-Ejido Chilpancingo is located seven miles east of

downtown Tijuana and just two miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border. It was originally

an ejido, communal lands, used for agricultural purposes until the government started to

expropriate them in the early 1970s. The creation of the Ejido Chilpancingo was the

result of a measure that Cárdenas took to fulfill some of the original goals of the Mexican

revolution, which had not been completely put into effect. With the redistribution of land,

the government aimed at improving the frontier economy and encouraging commercial

agriculture. The creation of the Ejido Chilpancingo and other ejidos, however was not

solely the result of Cárdenas' drive to bring progress to Mexico, but was a result of the

pressure put forth by the many discontent peasants from Baja California who felt that

they were unjustly being treated like foreigners in their own country. In January 27,

1937, a significant number of peasants invaded and took over many lands owned by the

Colorado River Land Co. and other foreign companies. 42 After the invasion, some of the

leaders were granted an audience with the President in Mexico City to discuss the matter.

They were received warmly by Cárdenas who called them "compañeros campesinos,"

41
Conrado Acevedo Cárdenas, Rosarito. Ensayo monográfico (Tijuana: Ediciones ILCSA, 2001), 321.
42
Ibid, 158. According to Celso Aguirre Bernal, January 27 became an important patriotic date: it was
officially declared the "day of the ejido" by the government of Baja California, and is now traditionally
known as "asalto a las tierras"—invasion of the lands.

28
and he gave them a letter in which he promised to resolve their requests for land.43 That

promise was fulfilled almost immediately. Cárdenas declared the expropriation of lands

from several of the foreign companies in order to redistribute those properties among

peasants. On March 14 of the same year he ordered the granting of lands to all peasants

who had requested the creation of an ejido.44 Each member of an ejido was to receive 50

acres of land, an area intended to allow the peasants to go beyond self-sufficient

agriculture and begin trying commercial production.45

On April 25, 1937, a group of neighbors from the area called Buena Vista of

Tijuana—acting according to article 27 of the constitution and the new land redistribution

law decreed by Cárdenas—sent a request for lands to the federal government. 46 The

presidential resolution regarding the request is dated August 17, 1938, and the lands for

the ejido were given to the petitioners on November 26 of the same year.47 The total area

of the ejido –3420 acres –was given to 30 ejidatarios who were to use 1888 acres of land

for communal purposes and 1532 acres for individual use.48 Although there is no

documentation on why the new ejido was called Chilpancingo, if we take into account the

patriotic fervor that was spread around the Mexican nation after the many progressive

measures implemented by the Cárdenas' government, we can infer that the new ejido was

43
Although not a literal translation, "compañeros campesinos" means in Spanish "my fellow peasants."
With that phrase, Cárdenas, a very idealistic man of modest origins, was treating the peasants as his equals.
44
Aguirre Bernal, Génesis y destino, 108.
45
Ibid, 122.
46
José Gabriel Rivera Delgado, "Sistema ejidal en Tijuana:el ejido Chilpancingo," El Mexicano, May 17,
2003, 4.
47
Ibid.
48
Ibid.

29
named in honor of Chilpancingo de los Bravo, the capital city of the state of Guerrero,

home of Nicolás Bravo, a member of the distinguished pro-independence Bravo family,

who became President of Mexico.49 This possibility is further strengthened by the fact

that the local primary school was named Escuela Rural Estatal Nicolás Bravo.50

Chilpancingo is a Náhuatl word formed by Chilpan, that means "wasp nest" and Cingo,

which means "small." Its meaning is, then, "small wasp nest."51

Although Cárdenas' agrarian reform was intended to improve the economic life of

the nation and its peasants, in Baja California the newly established ejidos did not really

produce the expected economic bonanza that both the government and the people had

hoped. The peasants obtained land but they lacked the economic resources needed to

make agriculture a truly commercial enterprise. Self-sufficient agriculture prevailed in

the ejidos, and thus the landscape of the Ejido Chilpancingo and the surrounding areas

did not change much. The area was scarcely populated and many people did not even call

it Chilpancingo, but instead Buena Vista, El Cañón del Padre, or by the name of the water

stream that ran through the area, the Arroyo Alamar.52 The total number of inhabitants of

the area according to a census made by representatives of the ejido petitioners was 264.53

49
Historia de Chilpancingo (Guerrero, México: Asociación de Historiadores de Guerrero, A.C.
Ayuntamiento de Chilpancingo. Gobierno del Estado de Guerrero. Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero,
1999), 162-163.
50
Rosalba Mendoza, first grade school report, June 18, 1957.
51
Chilpancingo. History, http://www.chilpancingo.es.tl/Historia-Chilpancingo.htm (accessed May 3, 2010)
52
Rosalba Mendoza Ibarra, interviewed by author, February 13, 2010.
53
Rivera Delgado, "Sistema ejidal en Tijuana," 4.

30
 Chilpancingo was born as a rural area and remained rural for a very long time. Its

landscape and ecosystem during its beginnings through the 1970s was very different from

that of the city of Tijuana. The area where the industrial park nowadays known as Mesa

de Otay was but a parceled hill that the ejidatarios used to plant beans, corn, and other

crops. From its creation until 1965, Chilpancingo and the other ejidos around it—

Tampico and Matamoros—were still an area almost unreached by the comforts and the

troubles of modernity, and was blessed by a crystal clear river stream—the Alamar

River—that ran through it. According to modern bio-geographical studies, the flora and

fauna of Tijuana falls into the "Californian" classification, which means that the type of

animals and plants found in Tijuana are similar to those of Southern California.54 Thus,

scarcely populated areas like the ejidos were home to eagles, woodpeckers, coyotes,

raccoons, rattle snakes, ducks, rabbits, and many other animal species.55 Among the

species of flora there were poplar trees, holm oaks, bay laurels, diverse types of cactuses,

quince trees, etc.56 Doña Rosalba Mendoza, who has lived all her life in Chilpancingo,

remembers particularly how she and her siblings would enjoy quinces, peaches, and

apricots during her childhood, and also how over the years the fruits slowly became

spoiled, inedible all due to pollution.

Doña Rosalba's parents, Don Miguel Mendoza Ortega and Doña Catalina Ibarra

Figueroa, arrived in Chilpancingo from Nayarit in October, 1949. Their daughter Rosalba

54
Piñera and Ortíz, Historia de Tijuana, 13.
55
Ibid.
56
Ibid.

31
and their other children after her—except for Cipriano, the eldest—were born after their

arrival in Tijuana. The Mendoza family—with the exception of a few trips of Don Miguel

as a bracero—has never abandoned Mexico for the United States, and Doña Rosalba has

always lived in Chilpancingo. When I interviewed her for the first time her memories

went as far back as 1957, the year she received her first school report card, which she

proudly showed to me, almost intact. As we walked through the streets of the

neighborhood in search of another old ejidatario who could grant me an interview, she

kept talking.

There were very few houses here. There was that of the Chávez family
and that empty one belonged to Lourdes' grandparents. Over there, Don
Chuy Murillo and Doña China Pantoja would fire bullets at each other
because they could not stand each other's presence. There were no cars
here. It was easier to spot rabbits than cars.57

Doña Rosalba remembers that life in Chilpancingo was very simple. The

neighbors mainly planted their crops, and since cash was scarce, they would use the

"trueque," that is, they would barter goods among themselves. Doña Catarina Ibarra

Figueroa—Doña Rosalba's mother—acted as the nurse of the town: she was the only one

around who knew how to give injections and thus, whenever someone was sick and

needed a shot she was called immediately. Doña Cata, along with the other Chilpancingo

neighbors used to organize dances, elections of queens, and many other activities to

57
The actual name of "Doña China Pantoja" is Aurora Pantoja de López, as it appears in the register of
ejidatarios of the State of Baja California, a document found in the library of the Centro de Investigaciones
Históricas of the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Tijuana. This and all the following statements
of Doña Rosalba and other interviewees have been edited and translated by the author. This statement is
part of an interview with the author made on February 13, 2010.

32
collect funds for the construction and improvement of places like the local park, the Casa

de la Cultura, the temple San Isidro Labrador, and the primary school Nicolás Bravo.58

For the construction and functioning of the school, the ejidatarios had to travel to Mexico

City to petition the government for teachers. The ejido had donated the parcel of land for

the school and the neighbors had managed to construct the building, but there were no

teachers available and the neighbors had to mobilize in order for their children to get an

education.

Even though Doña Rosalba only went to 5th grade, she developed and carried on

to her adult life a fondness for the study of history. As a gift to her father, she created a

home-made book in which she tried to rescue her origins. The book was full of pictures

of all the family members she could collect, their names, dates of birth and death, and

statements about them or about how their life was.

One day I said to my family that I wanted to do something. I was not

exactly sure of what I wanted to do, but I asked all of them for pictures,
and they gave them to me. My son-in-law helped me to put my project
together with his computer.59

On Fathers' Day of 2006 she gave it to Don Miguel, and the book immediately

became a sensation among the Medoza family; all of Doña Rosalba's siblings asked her

for a similar one. She is now preparing another, for herself, dedicated to her

grandchildren. In this one she is including all the newer generations, and it is intended for

58
Statement about "Doña Cata" in a home-made family-history book made by Rosalba Mendoza Ibarra.
59
Rosalba Mendoza Ibarra, interviewed by author, February 20, 2010.

33
them to know their past, their roots, so that they have a better sense of who are they and

clearer identity.

What Doña Rosalba did not realize was that her project was also going to help

preserve the history of her community beyond her family's circle. Her book, as well as

her oral testimony, did not only tell the story of her family but the story of how her

formerly rural, calm, and clean community became polluted; and how the Alamar became

a "victim of progress " turning from being a popular picnic-spot into a waste-disposal

channel.

The Alamar River

The watershed of the Alamar River is part of the Tijuana River basin system,

which encompasses the municipalities of Tecate, Tijuana, and Rosarito in Mexico, and

the County of San Diego in the United States.60 The Alamar originates in California, in

East San Diego County, as the Cottonwood Creek. Just before it enters Mexico it is

joined by the Tecate River and other tributaries and becomes the Tijuana River. As it

flows south and enters Mexico it changes its name again to Alamar River and it flows

westward for about 10 miles until it joins the proper Tijuana River, which crosses the

border back into the United States and discharges into the Pacific Ocean at Imperial

Beach.61 From its headwaters located in the San Diego County all the way to the Cañón

del Padre bridge—about 4 miles after crossing the border—the natural environment of

60
Victor Miguel Ponce. Hidrología de avenidas del arroyo binacional Cottonwood-Alamar, California y
Baja California. (San Diego, California: San Diego State University, 2001). 1-17.
http://alamar.sdsu.edu/alamar/alamar.html (accessed May 1, 2009).
61
Google Earth. Cottonwood Creek, Jamul, CA. (accessed, May 5, 2010)

34
the water is almost unaffected by pollution or human activities.62 From the Cañón del

Padre bridge, however, 6 miles until its juncture with the Tijuana River, the waters of the

Alamar are subjected to the disposal of trash, debris, dangerous amounts of chemical

contaminants, and domestic wastewaters that come from the various irregular human

settlements or communities not connected to the Tijuana sewage system. Between the

Boulevards Terán Terán and Manuel J. Clouthier, the stream is particularly contaminated

by the chemicals disposed of by some of the manufacturing plants that are located at the

Mesa de Otay. The Mesa de Otay is a plain that stands about 330 feet above the level of

the Alamar, where approximately 200 maquiladoras are dedicated to the assembling of

products or to the business of recycling from paper to lead batteries. This is the area

where the Colonia Ex-Ejido Chilpancingo is located. Lourdes Luján, a life-long resident

of Chilpancingo, when remembering her life as a child she said:

I remember that when I was little this area used to be very different
from what you see now. There were no houses around, and the river was
very clean. As a matter of fact, this river used to be a picnic spot for
people of other areas. People came here on the weekends to swim, to fish,
to have a good time around the river. There use to be fish, a lot of cat-fish
in this waters, and so people would do their catch, gut it, grill it, and eat it
right here. I also remember people swimming in this river. I can't swim, I
have always been scared, but I remember that my father used to carry me
on his shoulders, and he would take me inside all around this area. These
are beautiful and precious memories for me. I thought that one day in the
future I was going to be able to do the same with my own children, but as
you can see, that could not be.63

62
Miguel Ponce. Hidrología, 4-6.
63
Lourdes Luján in an interview with the author, February 13, 2010.

35
 The crystal clear river that Lourdes talked about was the channel that I had

mistaken with an open sewage. There were no traces of the beautiful picnic spot that

Lourdes was talking about—not to say of the fish or the deep-enough- to-swim waters. I

was able to construct a picture of how this river was before only after the interviews that I

had with other members of the community and also after looking at the still unpolluted

areas of the stream before it crosses the Cañón Del Padre bridge.

During its first four miles into the Mexican territory, the stream of the Alamar is

protected by the abundant riparian vegetation that grows along the river banks.64 This

vegetation consists of three types: grasses, shrubs, and trees. The most recognized native

species are two types of willows: the Salix goodingii, and the Salix lasiolepsis; their

heights vary from 4 to 15 meters and are often located in contact with the water or along

the water course.65

A more "live" picture of how both the "undisturbed" and "disturbed Alamar is can

be observed by stopping at the Cañón del Padre bridge, going westward, from Tecate to

Tijuana: on the right side one can see a thick line of very green vegetation and can even

hear the relaxing sound of the water stream. However when turning ones attention to the

other side of the bridge, one can immediately see the awful fate of the river, as a dumping

64
A "riparian" zone is simply an area characterized by the growth of hydrophilic vegetation. Riparian zones
are either natural or engineered and are important in the preservation of the soil along river banks.
65
Victor M. Ponce, Ana Elena Espinoza, José Delgadillo, Alberto Castro, and Ricardo Celis.
Hydroecological Characterization of Arroyo Alamar, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. San Diego State
University/UABC. 2004. http://ponce.sdsu.edu/alamar_hydroecology_final_report.html (accessed April
29, 2010)

36
site for construction debris and domestic waste waters of the ever-growing settlements

constructed near its banks.

Claudia Mendoza, one of Doña Rosalba's younger sisters remembers the river like

their private natural resort. Her family and many other families who lived in the

surrounding areas did not have to worry about going to the beach during summer time

because they had their own beach just steps away from home.

There were different areas in the river: There was an area called La
Piedrera, another called La Corriente, and there was that area nearby our
neighborhood, where there was a lot of sand. The area by our
neighborhood was the area where there were the most trees, and people
would come here on the weekends or during the Holy Week to have a
good time. I remember the river had fish, not ugly fish, but beautiful little
fish, there were even water snakes…
…La Piedrera was a very beautiful place, full of small stones of
thousands of shapes. They were not big and dangerous rocks where one
could get hurt, but small and fine-looking stones, and that was what made
the place nice, the stones. The other place was La Corriente. This place
was called like that because there was a current of water that would push
you to another faraway place if you swam in it…
…I learned to swim in this river. It was deep enough for that. My
brother in law was a wrestler, el Rey Misterio, he was called, and I
remember he would dive into the river. Sometimes he would put us on his
shoulders and then jump into the water. I was a kid at that time. That river
that I am talking to you about had nothing to do with what you see now.66

The memories of Lourdes and Claudia about the river, however, can only take us

back to the late 1970s when they were around seven and eight years old. They do not

remember that the water of the river was also used for drinking, for when they were

children there were already maquiladoras and therefore the purity of the water had

66
Claudia Mendoza in an interview with the author. April 24, 2010.

37
already started to decline. The "drinking water" times are remembered by Doña Rosalba,

who says that the water was so clean that they only boiled it as prevention, but that there

was no other source of drinking water nearby, and there was no need for another source

since the waters of the river fulfilled that need without any problem.67

Don Lucio Salazar González, owner of the aquatic park Albercas El Vergel, also

remembers that the water used to be clean enough to drink it.68 Much of the area where

the Alamar flows was at that time still undisturbed by humans, and for the few people

who lived there the river was their only source of water. In the 1960s, when he started his

aquatic park enterprise the only neighbors that he had "were the coyotes from the hills."69

According to Don Lucio, he as well as other people had plantations of onions, lettuce,

coriander, pigweed, etc. on the sides of the river, but once the pollution arrived he

stopped planting to avoid the risk of poisoning other people. Don Lucio also remembers

that the drastic change of the river happened not only due to the various wastes dumped

in it, but also due to the plundering of its sand. The "sindicatos," he said, took all the sand

there was and did not leave any, "not even for one truck load."70 The issue of rampant

sand extraction from the Alamar will be examined more in detail in the chapter ahead.

67
Doña Rosalba Mendoza in an interview with the author. February 13, 2010.
68
The "Parque Acuático El Vergel" was opened in 1963. It is located 3 kilometers west of Chilpancingo,
very close to the stream of the Alamar. This information was obtained by visiting the website of the aquatic
park. http://www.albercaselvergel.com/historia.html. (accessed May 1, 2010) The measuring of distances
was done through Google Earth.
69
Juan Páez Cárdenas, "Cañón del Padre. Zona Devastada," El Mexicano, April 13, 2002, sec.A, 4, Baja
California.
70
Páez Cárdenas.4. The "sindicatos" that Don Lucio refers to are private companies hired by governmental
agencies to extract construction materials from the lands of the ejido.

38
 The pre-1965 Alamar River was then a source of life for both animals and humans

who lived around its waters, a fact that ironically changed with the arrival of progress to

the region. The Alamar turned from being a crystal clear stream into a current of

chemical wastes that could harm anyone who would get in contact with its waters. The

negative impact that the maquiladoras were going to make in Tijuana was probably never

thought of. When they started to arrive, maquilas were seen by many—including the

Chilpancingo neighbors—as agents of positive change since they carried hope for

economic improvement.

39
 CHAPTER 3

Industrial and Human Invasion: From BIP to NAFTA

Before 1965 the economy of Tijuana was sustained mainly by the tourism

industry and by commerce and services. Its population had been constantly increasing at

a fast pace with the migration that came from the central and southern Mexican states

whose peoples saw a hope for economic improvement in the northern border cities. In

1930, for example, the population was 11,271, and by 1960 it had reached 165,690.71 One

of the main causes of such increase in population was the attraction of the Bracero

Program,—a bi-national agreement that from 1942 to 1964 allowed for thousands of

Mexicans to be temporarily hired as laborers in the United States.72

1965: The Border Industrialization Program

The increase in population, however, did not stop with the end of the Bracero

Program; instead, it grew faster than ever as a result of the industrialization of the border

cities which started in 1965 with the establishment of the Border Industrialization

Program (BIP) or Maquila Program. The Maquila Program was a diplomatic agreement

between the governments of Mexico and the United States that allowed foreign

corporations to establish assembly plants in certain parts of the U.S.-Mexico border. The

manufacturing plants or maquilas were business enterprises that had their headquarters

located in the U.S. They would import—duty-free— raw materials, assemble the

71
Estudio Sociodemográfico del Estado de Baja California (México City: Consejo Nacional de Población,
1984), 196.
72
Cirila Quintero Ramírez, La sindicalización en las maquiladoras tijuanenses (México City: Dirección
General de Publicaciones del Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, 1990), 25.

40
products in Mexico, and then return the finished goods to the United States. Under

special provisions of U.S. tariff laws, the non-precious metal products processed in

Mexico's plants could return duty-free to the U.S. with tax charged only to the valued

added abroad after assemblage.73 By adding the low cost of labor to that equation, U.S.

enterprises had great incentives to locate plants in the Mexican side. For the Mexican

government, the main objectives of the BIP were to solve the problem of unemployment

that had become accentuated in the northern border cities after the end of the Bracero

Program and to stimulate the industrialization of those same areas.74 Within four years

after its establishment, the BIP had helped 219 companies to establish their operations

along the borderland. Those enterprises were producing one hundred and fifty million

dollars worth of goods per year, and more businesses were looking forward to relocate to

the nearby transnational areas to take advantage of the low-priced workforce.75

The BIP and its eventual extension and modifications came to change radically

the economy as well as the demographics of Tijuana. During the next three decades after

the creation of the BIP, the economy of the city changed from being an economy based in

tourism and commerce to one in which industry played a major role. Also, by 1990 the

population had expanded to 1,274,182.76 The industrial expansion affected many aspects

73
John A. Jones, "Mexican Border Industrialization Is Running Into U.S. Protectionist Wall," Los Angeles
Times, January 3, 1971, F1.
74
Quintero Ramírez, La sindicalización,35. One of the original intentions of the BIP was to take advantage
of the surplus labor force that could be found in the border areas after the end of the "Bracero Program."
Nevertheless, the maquilas ended up giving more employment to another segment of the population:
women.
75
Jones, "Mexican Border Industrialization", F3.
76
Piñera and Ortíz, Historia de Tijuana, 336.

41
of Tijuana. The city's urban sprawl, for example, quickly reached places that once had

been scarcely settled rural areas. Many ejido lands were expropriated by the government

to create space for industrial parks and for the new human settlements that naturally

resulted from the labor demand coming from the maquilas. One industrial area that was

created on ejido lands was the Ciudad Industrial Nueva Tijuana, which was established at

the Mesa de Otay, 6 miles east of downtown Tijuana and within walking distance—about

a mile—from the present day Colonia Ex-Ejido Chilpancingo and the stream of the

Alamar River.

Industrialization of Otay/Invasion of Chilpancingo

The diplomatic agreements of the Border Industrialization Program originally

signed in 1965 were gradually modified to allow more concessions to the many maquila

business enterprises that were turning their eyes to Mexico. During the early 1970s, for

example, the maquiladora industry was permitted to extend business to the entire

Mexican territory. In the mid 1970s, the maquilas were allowed to invest as much capital

as they wished and legislation was passed to speed up customs procedures. During the

late 1970s a set of rules and regulations regarding maquila operations were formally

established ratifying all the previous laws and agreements.77 By 1983, the Mexican

government had established a decree "to foster the manufacturing industry operations for

exportation."78

77
Quintero Ramírez, La sindicalización,38-39.
78
Ibid.

42
 The expansion of the manufacturing industry demanded land to build plants for

the growing population of laborers. One area used for those purposes was the Mesa de

Otay, where the Instituto Nacional para el Desarrollo de la Comunidad Rural y la

Vivienda Popular (INDECO) projected to build enough housing units to accommodate

two hundred thousand people.79

The Mesa de Otay is a huge plain that encompasses territory on both the U.S. and

Mexico, territory that after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848 was divided by the

international border line. The privileged position of the mesa was then very appealing for

the maquila business operations.80 In the early 1970s, the Mexican government had

began to look into the acquisition of lands from the ejidatarios of the mesa, and by 1973

the negotiations were almost concluded. The lands of the ejidos Chilpancingo and

Tampico were expropriated by the government through the INDECO in order to expand

the municipal land holdings or fundo legal.81 The same year, the Ciudad Industrial was

created using 1,000 acres of the newly acquired land and, eventually, the Mesa de Otay

became one of the biggest industrial zones of Tijuana, with other industrial complexes or

79
Raúl Organista Ruíz, "INDECO podrá acomodar a 200 mil gentes," El Heraldo de Baja California,
November 14, 1973, 1.
80
Many of the business enterprises at Otay had their headquarters on the U.S. side of the border and the
assembly plant just about one or two miles south, on the Mexican side.
81
In English, the Spanish acronym INDECO stands for "National Institute for Development of the Rural
Communities and Popular Housing." ―Fundo legal‖ is the extension of lands—needed by or in control of a
local government—that are destined for urban development.

43
industrial parks—such as the Garita de Otay, and the Parque Industrial Frontera.82 By the

late 1990s, the Mesa de Otay had over two hundred manufacturing plants.83

The expropriation of the Chilpancingo lands started on August 5, 1972 when,

after a presidential decree, 1,618 acres of land were taken from the ejido and transferred

to the municipal government. INDECO offered the ejidatarios monetary compensation

for their lands as well as a share of any profits coming from the sale of the land and the

exploitation of the natural resources of the ejido.84According to Doña Rosalba, many of

the ejido lands that were previously used for agriculture are the lands that are nowadays

occupied by the maquilas visible from her house. The transfer of the lands was not much

of a problem for the ejidatarios since they were offered monetary compensation, and

money at that time was something that people lacked and needed, and thus there was not

much resistance to the change in land tenure.

Besides the land expropriations of 1973, the Ejido Chilpancingo has also suffered

land invasions by the many new arrivals who could not find a place where to live. The

city's urban planning department could not cope with the wave of migration, especially

because of the high costs involved in developing the many irregular topographic regions

of Tijuana. Thus, many places were illegally occupied by poor migrants who could not

find affordable housing and had to improvise on river banks, hillsides, and unoccupied

82
José Gabriel Rivera Delgado, "Ciudad Industrial Otay," El Mexicano, Tijuana, April 6, 2002, 4.
83
Joel Simon, Endangered Mexico. An Environment on the Edge (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books,
1997), 208.
84
"Ejidatarios burlados," El Heraldo de Baja California, November 21, 1973, 4A.

44
parcels of land that in many cases belonged to the ejidos.85 In August of 1986, for

instance, the lands of the ejido were invaded by a group of 300 people who, under the

leadership of Irma Monge, had adopted the name of "Vialidad."86 The squatters were

peacefully evicted but their action brought about the possibility of irregular settlement in

the ejido. In 1991, 1500 families under the leadership of Alejandro Moreno Berry, the

Director of the Coordinadora Estatal del Movimiento Urbano (CEMUP), invaded more

lands of Chilpancingo.87 Unlike their predecessors, they were not evicted and were able

to come to an agreement with the authorities of Tijuana that allowed them to stay.88 That

same year, President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, answering a request sent by the Comisión

Para la Regularización de la Tenencia de la Tierra (CORETT), ordered the expropriation

of 911 acres of ejido lands.89 The ejidatarios were compensated with 739,184,952 Pesos,

and the lands expropriated were used for the regularization of land tenure among the

newly arrived settlers.90

But land expropriations and squatting were not the only issues that brought radical

changes to the Ejido Chilpancingo. In addition, the excessive and uncontrolled

85
Piñera and Ortíz, Historia de Tijuana, 192.
86
Rivera Delgado, "Sistema ejidal en Tijuana,"4.
87
Ibid. Translated into English, the Spanish acronym CEMUP stands for "State Coordinator of Urban
Movement."
88
According to Paavo Monkkonen illegal settlements or "squatting" in Mexico is often used by politicians
to ensure votes from the less fortunate. Access to land is traded for votes, and subsequently the
regularization and titling of land is also traded for continuous political support. One possibility is, then, that
the director of CEMUP had political aspirations, thus the reason why he supported the invasion of the ejido
lands. Paavo Monkkonen, Land Regularization in Tijuana, Mexico, IURD Working Papers Series
(Berkeley: Institute of Urban and Regional Development, 2008), 1-25.
89
In English, the Spanish acronym CORETT stands for "Comission for the Regularization of Land Tenure"
90
Rivera Delgado, "Sistema ejidal en Tijuana,"4.

45
exploitation of the ejidos natural resources such as sand and gravel mining at the Alamar

started in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This practice has contributed to the degradation

of rivers. It has resulted in the destruction of the riparian habitats, affects the ground

water system, causes erosion, changes the channel morphology and thus the stream's

stability, and makes the fertile streamside land become useless.91

In 1973, the government of Tijuana, through the Secretaría del Patrimonio

Nacional (SEPANAL), started to extract vast amounts of construction materials from the

river at an area that was part of the—agonizing, but still in existence—Ejido

Chilpancingo.92 SEPANAL ordered the extraction of materials to use them for the

construction of a sports complex and for the channelization of the Tijuana River.

However, the ejidatarios boycotted the extraction of materials because they felt that the

government had not fulfilled all the terms that were agreed upon between them and the

INDECO regarding the expropriation of their lands. The INDECO had promised the

ejidatarios to make them partners in the development of the Mesa de Otay, however

INDECO simply transferred some of the lands to SEPANAL which in turn ordered a

private construction company to start extracting materials. The ejidatarios felt they had

been defrauded by the government and thus boycotted the works of the private company

91
"Sand Mining," Three Issues of Sustainable Management in the Ojos Negros Valley, Baja California,
Mexico. San Diego State University. Universidad Autónoma de Baja California. Instituto Nacional de
InvestigacionesForestales, Agrícolas y Pecuarias. Centro del Sudoeste para la Investigación y Política
Ambiental. http://tresproblemas.sdsu.edu/ (accessed May 1, 2010)
92
"Es propiedad de la SEPANAL el Ex-Ejido Chilpancingo," El Heraldo de Baja California, November
16, 1973, 1-5A.

46
by blocking the only entrance to the lands of the ejido.93 Eventually, the ejidatarios were

finally stripped-off of their lands and the sand mining continued, until today. When

driving westward through the many neighborhoods along the river stream, one can see

that some areas have been set apart specifically for extraction of construction materials

such as sand and gravel.

By the mid 1990s, the Ejido Chilpancingo was no longer an agricultural project. It

had been reduced to several highly populated colonias such as the Buenos Aires Norte,

the Buenos Aires Sur, the Loma Bonita, the Puerta del Sol, and the Zona Urbana del

Ejido Chilpancingo.94 Industrialization and its impact on demographics "invaded" the

rural areas and incorporated them into the city's urban sprawl, making the ejidos just a

futile dream of the times of "Tata Cárdenas."95

NAFTA and Nueva Esperanza

By the mid 1980s there was already over half a million people living in

Tijuana.96A large number of those inhabitants were migrants who came to work in the

maquiladoras or came to use the city as their trampoline to their final destination, the

United States. The manufacturing industry had also grown enormously. In 1986, there

were already 238 plants operating in Tijuana alone, providing jobs for 30,248

93
Ibid.
94
Ibid. Colonia means "Residential Development."
95
"Tata Cárdenas" is a term still used by many older people to refer to Lázaro Cárdenas, President of
Mexico from 1934 to 1940. Cárdenas implemented a radical agrarian reform that served in the foundation
of many ejidos throughout the entire Mexican nation. The original "Padrón de ejidatarios del Estado de
Baja California" shows only 29 ejidatarios, but according to Joel Simon in Endangered Mexico, an
Environment on the Edge, by 1990 there were 770 property owners at the "Zona urbana Ejido
Chilpancingo."
96
Estudio sociodemográfico del Estado de Baja California, 196.

47
employees.97 Furthermore, by 1990, 29 percent of the population was employed in the

manufacturing industry.98 In other words, the BIP of 1965 paved the road to the

globalization of border cities like Tijuana, linking to other foreign capital and markets.

In 1994, the governments of Canada, the United States and Mexico signed the

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which aimed to eliminate all barriers

to trade among the countries members of the bloc.99 Although the trade restrictions

between the U.S. and Mexico had been relaxed since the late 1960s, the new trade

agreement did boost the amount of business enterprises and people arriving to Tijuana.

Within three years after the signing of the agreement, 100 plants more were established in

Tijuana—making a total of 581—and the population rose to a total of 1, 210,820.100

During the last years of the 1990s, the population was growing at a rate of 65 to 70

thousand people per year.101 Tijuana was ―invaded‖ by industries and people. Such

invasion, however, instead of making Tijuana a prosperous unified community, turned

the city into a place of high contrasts where one could find luxurious walled communities

97
Tijuana Hoy. Maquila e industria, No.3, Tijuana, Comité de Planeación para el Desarrollo Municipal,
COPLADEM, 1997, 16-17.
98
Salvador Mendoza Higuera, Alenjandro Valenzuela, and Eduardo Zepeda Miramontes, Tijuana: Short-
term Growth or Long-term Development, in San Diego-Tijuana in Transition: A Regional Analysis, eds.
Norris C. Clement and Eduardo Zepeda Miramontes (San Diego: Institute for Regional Studies of the
Californias, 1993), 60.
99
NAFTA, Article 102, NAFTA Secretariat. http://www.nafta-sec-alena.org (accessed May 4, 2010).
100
Data from Tijuana Hoy. Maquila e industria,17 and Piñera and Ortíz, Historia de Tijuana, 336.
101
María del Rocío Barajas and Kathryn Kopinak, "La fuerza de trabajo en la maquiladora: ubicación de
sus espacios laborales y de reproducción en Tijuana," Región y Sociedad 15, no. 26 (2003): 8.

48
surrounded by the many poverty stricken—and in some cases highly polluted—shanty

towns. 102

Few of the beneficiaries of the manufacturing industry—business executives as

well as consumers—took notice of the radical and negative changes that industrialization

brought to the borderlands' cities. The growth in population changed the rural and urban

panorama. Factories and new residential settlements—both legal and illegal—displaced

the natural environment, and very soon many areas that in other times were undisturbed

and full of nature—such as Chilpancingo and the Alamar River—became contaminated

and eventually wasted.

Squatters started occupying land in the ejido around the late 1980s and the early

1990s. Some of the new arrivals though, were able to regularize the legal status of the

place they had invaded and were also able to become part—to a certain degree—of the

Chilpancingo community. Many others, however, could not find a regular place to live

and thus the ejido started to experience a new form of squatting, this time at the Alamar,

along the banks first, and later in the very river bed.

They come from outside, from Chiapas, Oaxaca, Sinaloa. They work
here for a while and then go back to visit their hometown. Over there, they
speak to their folks about the availability of jobs and the better wages that
the maquilas pay, and about the chance to go to the other side, to the U.S.
102
Just to add to the statement: Industrial growth is—according to classic economic theory—a
characteristic of a developed society. An industrialized country is also an economically developed country
whose citizens have an income that allows them to live in good standard conditions. In Latin America,
however, industrial growth does not necessarily result in economic growth or economic development. An
example of that is the case of Tijuana, a place that I think we can call "undeveloped industrialized city."
The industry is there, but the development of the workers is nonexistent. Regarding the high contrasts, the
differences between, let's say, the "Fraccionamiento Chapultepec" and the "Zona urbana Ex-Ejido
Chilpancigo" are simply abysmal differences that, theoretically, should not happen in an industrialized city.

49
 So, that’s how more people arrive every day. When they arrive they
realize that the wages at the maquiladoras are not as great as they
expected, and so in order to survive they go to the Alamar and improvise a
place to live. They have no sewage, no electricity, and no drinking water.
But they stay because they are just trying to survive.103

In the above statement Lourdes Luján is referring to a squatter settlement by the

Alamar, which by the year 2002 was home to 400 hundred families—about two thousand

people—that lived in the most precarious of all situations. 104 Their dwellings were just

improvised rectangular rooms built with used pieces of wood or cardboard, and even with

pieces of canvas. Their little homes had dirt floors, no windows in many cases, and no

services whatsoever. Families had to purchase drinking water from a water truck, and

they stole electricity from the power cables and poles using a device called "diablito."105

Since there was no trash collection service, the garbage was either dumped into the water

stream or became piled up in any corner. The domestic waste waters were discharged

through tubes or channels into the stream of the Alamar.

Many of the people who settled by the river came from rural areas and had a

farming background and needed to supplement their income. They raised goats, calves,

ducks, and other animal, adding the animal wastes –and bad smell—to the overall

contamination of the settlement, of Chilpancingo, and of the river.

103
Lourdes Luján in an interview with the author. February 20, 2010.
104
Juan Páez Cárdenas, "Desalojarán el Alamar," El Mexicano, March 9, 2002, 12A.
105
A "diablito" in this case is basically a cooper cable hooked to the power lines. The cable is hooked
illegally and thus does not go through any process of electricity measurement, so the user does not pay an
electricity bill. The use of "diablitos" is a widely spread practice in many poor communities of Tijuana.

50
 In 2008, when I visited the place for the first time, the scene of Alamar

neighborhood meant for me a picture—a video picture, I might add—of a somehow

famous Latin American song called "Casas de Cartón," or "Cardboard Houses."106 Even

though I had watched pictures and documentaries about shanty towns of various places in

the world, it was the first time I was in front of a house built with actual pieces of

cardboard—left over pieces of cardboard. Suffice to say, the sad song about the

cardboard houses kept playing in my mind all the way back to Los Angeles.

Even with all that, the new arrivals ironically named their settlement Colonia

Nueva Esperanza, or "New Hope." For them, the squalid homes by the Alamar offered

more hope than the agricultural life they had back home. 107 They hope that one day they

could have a decent house ―like it was promised by politicians when NAFTA was

passed‖ –Lourdes adds.108

Many of the Alamar squatters are from the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca, Sinaloa,

and Michoacán, as stated by Lourdes. They came to work, of course, in the

manufacturing plants located at the Mesa de Otay, and their decision to live in the banks

of the river obeys to two reasons: First, their houses are within walking distance from

their workplace, and second, that any other type of housing in Tijuana is simply

106
The song "Casas de Cartón" was composed by the late Venezuelan singer and activist Alí Primera, a
strong representative of the "new song" movement, which condemned capitalist exploitation in all the Latin
American countries.
107
Many farmers in rural Mexico started to give up their agricultural efforts since the Mexican currency,
the Peso, suffered a great devaluation in 1982. The Mexican government cut their subsidies and began
importing huge amounts of low priced corn from the United States. The farmers could not compete with the
American corn and thus many decided to migrate to the north in search of a way to survive.
108
Lourdes Luján in an interview with the author. February 20, 2010.

51
unaffordable. The pay at the factories is more than what they could earn back home, but it

is in no way enough to rent a house, pay all the utilities, food, clothing, etc.109 Tijuana is

an expensive city for the migrants working at the maquilas.110

The Colonia Nueva Esperanza, meant a new hope for the settlers, however, for the

river it meant a hazardous load that—along with the chemical disposals from the

manufacturing plants—precipitated its demise. Since the settlers used it to dump their

wastes, the river slowly became more and more dirty and eventually tuned into a

dumping site for everything and for everybody.

…One day, around four o’clock in the afternoon, someone alerted us

that something strange was being burned. We thought it was just trash, but
it turned out that it was a man. A dead man was set on fire and dumped
near by the river in broad daylight! That was not the only case though.
There was a time when the river became a dumping site for dead bodies.
They would wrap the bodies in carpets and then throw them in the river…
…People throw dead dogs into the river, they burn tires near the
banks—the smog of burnt tires is highly toxic, you know, and we the
people who live here have to inhale all that—they even dump cars into the
river, they dump everything…111

The poverty at Nueva Esperanza and the lack of vigilance from the authorities

also made the place perfect spot for criminal activities. According to the Chilpancingo

neighbors, the area by the river is a dangerous place where criminals sell drugs and

109
According to testimonies of maquiladora workers in the documentary film Maquilapolis. City of
Factories, in the year 2006 the average maquila operator was making around sixty five dollars per week.
By that time, most of the original ejidatario families of Chilpancingo were not working in maquilas
anymore. Instead, they had moved to services, commerce, and transportation. Thus, the length of land
tenure, culture—urban vs. rural—and the difference in wages created a difference between those on the
north side of the river—the Colonia Chilpancingo—and those on the south—the squatters of "Nueva
Esperanza."
110
The statements on the entire paragraph are based on the newspaper report ―Desalojarán el Alamar,‖
already cited before.
111
Statements by Lourdes Luján in an interview with the author. February 20, 2010.

52
engage in all types of illegal activities. ―We used to leave our doors open at night because

we trusted each other, but all that came to an end when the outsiders arrived,‖ said Doña

Rosalba, who, like Lourdes, lives very close to the Alamar and to the Colonia Nueva

Esperanza and therefore has experienced all these changes first hand.112

There have been several attempts to relocate the squatters of the Alamar. In 2002,

for example, the government of Tijuana through the Inmobiliaria Estatal Tijuana-Tecate

(NETT), attempted to relocate the people and offered them a parcel of land at Vistas del

Valle, a not yet urbanized area located five miles away.113 Naturally, because of the

distance from their workplace, most people were not interested in the offer.114 Instead of

relocating to other places, the new arrivals kept building shacks in any free spot they

could find. During a drought period in 2008 they even built in the very river bed, and

when the winter came the current swept away everything in its path and many people lost

everything they had, some even lost their lives.115

I feel very angry. If the government had not allowed the maquilas to
come so close to our neighborhood this situation perhaps would not exist.
The maquilas never go nearby the wealthy neighborhoods. You don't see
maquilas by the Agua Caliente area. They only put the plants nearby the
poor neighborhoods. They know that people have a need for jobs. They

112
Doña Rosalba Mendoza in an interview with the author. February 13, 2010.
113
Páez Cárdenas. "Desalojarán el Alamar," 12A. In English, INETT stands for "State's Realtor for
Tijuana-Tecate."
114
Ibid.
115
Excessive sand mining result in a decrease in the flow of rivers, and the water level lowers on both sides
of the mining site (according to the information found in "Sand Mining," Three Issues of
SustainableManagement in the Ojos Negros Valley, Baja California, cited before). In the case of the
Alamar, the first sand mining site is about one mile down the stream, and during drought times the stream
almost disappears, making most of the river-bed look just like any other empty piece of terrain.

53
 choose us and then they call us marginal. I don't like the word
marginal…116

Lourdes' feelings are shared by many other members of the Chilpancingo

neighborhood. They are very conscious now that the growth of the manufacturing

industry resulted in the rise of population, which in turn—and because of the inadequate

or complete lack of urban planning—is one of the main causes of the harsh

environmental degradation in their neighborhood and their precious river. Besides the

"human invasion," the other major cause of the environmental chaos at Chilpancingo—

something that has claimed the lives of several people—is the irresponsible treatment and

disposal of chemical contaminants. The examination of this "toxic invasion" is in the

chapter ahead.

116
Lourdes Luján in an interview with author.

54
 CHAPTER 4

Chemical Invasion

In this age of environmental awareness, most people know that a very harmful

byproduct of industrialization is pollution. The various and dangerous chemicals used in

and transformed by industrial processes end up polluting air, water, and soil.

Furthermore, industrial pollution greatly affects human health. When unregulated,

industrial pollution results in extreme environmental degradation and in serious and

sometimes irreversible human illnesses. Extreme pollution happens usually when

industrialization is prioritized—for one reason or another—over the environment and

over anything else.

The process of industrialization in borderland cities like Tijuana promised to

improve the economy and living conditions. Many people as well as politicians believed

that industrialization was the motor that would push their city towards progress, and

thus—not officially, of course— they prioritized industrialization, even at the expense of

the environment.117 A specific example of such prioritization happened with the

industrialization of the Mesa de Otay and the environment in the Chilpancingo

community, where the levels of industrial pollution were allowed to go so high that, at a

point, the soil in some areas of the Alamar became almost twenty five percent led.118

117
In a meeting with American journalist Joel Simon, for example, Tijuana's industrialist Enrique Mier y
Terán argued that the environmental problems of Tijuana had been exaggerated and that "the best solution
for the city was the new growth promised by free trade." Simon, Endangered Mexico, 213.
118
Hillyard, "Where is Away," 18.

55
 Industrial pollution from the Mesa de Otay, however, not only affected greatly

Chilpancingo and Tijuana, but also affected the United States, for the chemical

contaminants that seeped down from the factories to the Alamar eventually crossed back

to the U.S to discharge in the waters of the Tijuana Estuary and in Imperial Beach, San

Diego County.

Toxic Invasion and Health Hazards at Chilpancingo

In the mid 1980s, the incorporation of the Ejido Chilpancingo into Tijuana's urban

sprawl was in full swing. The industrial plants at the Mesa de Otay had multiplied and

were getting very close to the Zona Urbana Chilpancingo—the area where the old

ejidatario families had established their homes near the stream of the Alamar River. The

types of industries operating at the Mesa de Otay were, from the beginning, among the

most contaminant because of the types of residues that they produced. The plants

processed electronics, metals, plastics, chemicals, paper, furs, glass, wood, and auto

parts.119 Although they were connected to the municipal sewage system, the factories also

had their own pluvial drainage channels that discharged directly into the stream of the

Alamar River.

According to the Chilpancingo neighbors, on rainy days, the maquilas released

the chemical residues so that they would get confused with the rain, and mix with the

mud as the river swelled, and the river would "turn orange, green, red, and of other

119
Marnie Gonzáles Estéves, "Evaluación del peligro de contaminación del acúifero del Arroyo Alamar,
Tijuana, Baja California" (M.A. thesis, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, 2008), 40.

56
colors."120 Those declarations are backed by video images taken by Lourdes Luján for the

documentary film "Maquilapolis," which addressed several of the problems in the

manufacturing industry that affected the workers.121

The mid 1980s were the last days of the river as a real river, for in the following

years—especially after the arrival, in 1986, of a lead smelting maquila to the Mesa de

Otay,—the stream would turn into the current of putrid waters that I confused with an

open sewage channel. The disproportionate mining of sand and gravel, the disposal of

both biological and chemical contaminants, and the over exploitation of the ground water

for municipal purposes had to finally pay their toll. The price was the extreme

degradation of the water stream, for the river turned into a channel of shallow and muddy

waters that carried a variety of toxic elements capable of inflicting serious illnesses in

people and animals. Studies carried by the Enviromental Protection Agency in April of

1990 revealed that the run-off from the Mesa de Otay contained led, cadmium, mercury,

and other hazardous chemicals, all in high concentrations, posing great dangers to the

health of the people who were living in that area.122

Environmental Hazards from the Maquilas

Although the Chilpancingo neighbors are sure that more than one plant has

discharged chemicals during rainy days, it is difficult for them to say with certainty—

since it is impossible to determine by simple sight examination—to what plant the pluvial

120
Rosalba Mendoza Ibarra, in an interview with the author.
121
"Maquilapolis, City of Factories," produced by Vicky Funari and Sergio de La Torre, 68 minutes,
California Newsreel, 2006, DVD.
122
Cass, "Toxic Tragedy," 102.

57
drainage tubes belong to. However, there is one maquiladora to which the Chilpancingo

neighbors can point out with more than enough confidence in being right: Metales y

Derivados.123

Metales y Derivados, S.A de C.V started in March, 1972 as a business enterprise

dedicated to the manufacture of products from nonferrous metals, alloys, and

derivatives.124 The U.S. parent company, New Frontier Trading Corporation was based in

San Diego, California. The maquila initiated its operations in the area known as Centro

Industrial Los Pinos, but in July 1986 it moved to Ciudad Industrial Tijuana, also known

as Mesa de Otay. The main two activities of the plant during the following 8 years were

the recycling of led and the production of phosphorized copper granulates. The lead was

recycled from led scraps such as telephone cable sheathing, led-containing soils, led

oxide, and—the main source—discarded automotive and industrial batteries.

Among the residues produced by Metales were lead and copper slag, phosphorus

and phosphoric acid, waste oils, heavy metal sludges, battery casings, and empty arsenic

containers. In many cases the residues were piled up in the back of the plant, unprotected,

exposed to the elements.125 Obviously, during rainy days many of those chemical

residues seeped down the hill, crossed the streets of Chilpancingo—leaving its poisonous

trail—and ended up in the Alamar River. Soon after, residents started to suffer from skin

123
According to statements by Doña Rosalba Mendoza, Claudia Mendoza, Yesenia Palomares, Lourdes
Luján, Antonia Arias and Mirna Flores, all residents of Chilpancingo.
124
Metales y Derivados Final Factual Record (SEM-98-007) Prepared in Accordance with Article 15 of the
North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, 20. http://www.cec.org/Storage/84/7955_98-7-
FFR-e.pdf. (accessed May 6, 2010) S.A. de C.V stands for "Public Limited Company."
125
Metales y Derivados Final Factual Record, 22.

58
diseases and respiratory illnesses. Lourdes Luján, among many others, experienced

severe rashes in her arms. Many children suffered from diarrhea and other infections,

some started to lose weight, and some even lost their hair.

In 1994—interestingly enough, the year that NAFTA was passed— the

Procuraduría General de Protección al Ambiente (PROFEPA), closed down the plant for

violation of environmental laws.126 The closing down of the plant was—ironically—the

final blow for the river, a sort of death sentence, for the plant was completely abandoned

by the owner—leaving behind 8,595.45 tons of contaminated materials—and for the next

14 years the chemical residues, now with absolutely nothing to contain them, dispersed

through the action of wind, through the fluvial waters, and through the soil that

maquiladora workers who passed nearby the plant brought to Chilpancingo in their shoe

soles.127

Illnesses increased more than ever. The cases of asthma in children multiplied at

an alarming rate, many pregnant women suffered miscarriages, and many other gave birth

to babies with birth defects like anencephaly –a grave disorder in which babies are born

with their skulls open and undeveloped brains—and hydrocephaly—another disorder in

which water accumulates in the brain and enlarges it, provoking intracranial pressure,

mental retardation and possibly death. Both of those disorders are classified as Neural

126
PROFEPA is a Mexican governmental agency. In English it stands for "Federal Attorney's Office for the
Protection of the Environment." The possible reasons why Metales y Derivados was closed down during
that specific time are examined in the chapter ahead.
127
The PROFEPA estimated that there were 6,557.75 tons of waste left outside, but adding what was
buried in the concrete floor the total amounted to 8,595.45.

59
Tube Defects and the risks to suffer them have been linked to the exposure of the parents

to metals, solvents, pesticides, mercury, anesthetic gases, ionizing radiation, and other

pollutants.128

Yesenia Palomares, a maquiladora worker and resident of Chilpancingo, suffered

the loss of a long expected child because of the unavoidable exposure to the contaminants

that she and all the Chilpancingo neighbors were subjected to. When she was at the clinic

to be treated after the miscarriage she realized that her tragedy was not the only one.

I was very happy expecting my first baby boy. I knew it was a boy
because I had already gone through all the analysis, and so my husband
and I were very happy. But I got an infection, or at least that was what I
thought, that it was just a minor infection. The doctors tried hard to stop
the miscarriage, but they could not because the baby was already hurt too
much. If he had been born he would have had heart problems, I was told.
They also told me that during the previous two weeks forty other women
also had miscarriages.
I was not aware then that all the chemicals that came down from the
maquilas were so harmful, but with time we started to see children being
born with hydrocephaly or without their brain, and then they would die
really soon. There were too many illnesses here in the community, and we
realized that it was all because of that foamy red stream of liquids that
came down from the hill. No wonder so many children were getting sick,
for that current passed by the community's kindergarten.129

The number of miscarriages and birth defects in Chilpancingo and surrounding

neighborhoods kept increasing. In 2002, there were 8 cases of babies born with

hydrocephaly and anencephaly in a two block radius, a frightening number if we take into

128
Lowell E. Sever, "Looking for Causes of Neural Tube Defects: Where Does the Environment Fit in?,"
Environmental Health Perspectives 104 (1995): 167-168.
129
Yesenia Palomares in an interview with the author. February 27, 2010.

60
account that in the United States hydrocephaly occurs only in about six of every ten

thousand births, and anencephaly only in two to four of ten thousand births.130

The "foamy red stream" that Yesenia talked about and that came down from the

abandoned maquila was composed mainly of lead, cadmium, arsenic, and antimony.

Each of those substances is highly toxic and their potential to damage the environment

and affect human health is enormous. Lead, for example, has been identified as a

carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). It affects

virtually every organ of both humans and animals. It causes anemia, high blood pressure

and kidney decease. Lead dust or lead fumes irritate the eyes and throat, and high

exposure to it can be fatal, especially to children.131 Cadmium, a heavy metal also

classified as carcinogen by IARC and the EPA is a cumulative toxicant that remains in

the body for several years after exposure. It affects the reproductive systems of both

males and females, causes birth defects and is also linked to prostate and kidney

cancer.132 Arsenic, a toxic metalloid, if ingested in high amounts leads to seizures and

coma; when in contact with the skin it causes itching, redness, and swelling; and its

chronic inhalation causes perforation of the nasal septum. Aquatic plants and animals are

very sensitive to the toxicity of arsenic. This metal has also been classified as carcinogen

130
Kevin Sullivan, "A Toxic Legacy on the Mexican Border. Abandoned U.S. Owned Smelter in Tijuana
Blamed for Birth Defects," Washington Post, February 16, 2003, A17.
131
Metales y Derivados Final Factual Record. Appendix 11. Synopsis of the Potential Health and
Environmental Effects of Certain Substances Present at the Metales y Derivados Site. 124.
132
Metales y Derivados Final Factual Record. Appendix 11, 123.

61
by EPA and IARC.133 Antimony, lastly, has been found to be toxic to fresh water

invertebrates as well as to fish and algae. In humans, this chemical is sometimes used to

treat parasitic diseases, but exposures to high amounts of it can lead to pneumoconiosis,

which is severe lung inflammation, and also to the deterioration of heart muscle.134

Environmental Hazards in the Maquilas

Contamination with led and other hazardous elements affected not only the

community but also happened inside the plants, where the workers were exposed to a

wide range of hazardous materials that in many cases proved to be deadly. Carmen

Durán, a single mother of three who lives in Lagunitas, another neighborhood close to an

industrial area, is very concerned about the chemical load that she carries to her home in

her clothes after work. In the documentary Maquilapolis she explains that workers at the

maquilas do not receive any type of safety gear nor information about the possible

dangers they are exposed to.

I wanted to work in Sanyo because it was close to my house. What I did

not like was the pressure that we worked under, and besides all the
chemicals that one is exposed to. At the plant there is a horrible smell of
burnt plastic, and it sticks in ones clothes…
…Right now I am making sixty eight dollars per week at the job I have.
I think it is a good job, The only problem is the contamination. One is
breathing lead every day. Panasonic or Sanyo never tell you about the
risks of contamination. So, I have gotten these rashes in my skin by my
nose…
…We must wash our clothes aside, not mixed with the children's, nor
should we get close to our children right after work, because the chemicals
affect them…

133
Ibid, 122.
134
Ibid, 121.

62
 … I was told by the doctor that I am in risk of developing leukemia.135

After six months in Panasonic, Carmen was so affected by the chemicals that she

had to leave her job. The doctor told her that she had to choose between working –and

risk dying—or staying unemployed and recuperate.

Other maquiladora workers did not have Carmen's luck. In a 2008 meeting at

CITTAC, some of the activists told stories about how many of their co-workers had died

after prolonged exposure to hazardous fumes at the work place.136 Antonia Arias, worker

of Optica Sola, a manufacturer of plastic eyeglasses, said that the chemicals used in the

maquilas and the fact that there is neither ventilation nor extraction of the contaminated

air from inside the plants, contribute to the development of several types of cancer,

kidney disease, and many other illness. A frequent speaker against injustices at the

workplace, Antonia often tells the story a friend who perished in a maquila after exposure

to chemicals.

…This friend of mine used to work in a small room, about 2x2 meters,
exposed to paint, solvents and thinners used to paint glasses. When she got
sick she requested a transfer to another area, but the managers refused to
do that several times. As her problem aggravated she was told by the
doctor that she had to leave her job if she wanted to get better, but she
stayed. She planned to leave at the end of December so that she could get
the Christmas bonus, because if she quitted at that time, the company
would not have given her any money. She died the first week of January,
however, and the autopsy revealed that her lungs were all wrecked
because of chemical contaminants. She did not have any family in Tijuana
and left behind a boy.137

135
"Maquilapolis. City of Factories."
136
In English CITTAC stands for "Information Center for Working Women and Men."
137
Antonia Arias in a speech at CITTAC. November 8, 2008

63
 The neighbors of Chilpancingo are very concerned about the fate of their children.

They think that kids are the most vulnerable part of the population. When exposed to

lead, children have a very slow physical and mental development, and sometimes the

damages are irreversible. One of the Chilpancingo families whose child was terribly

affected by the pollution is the family of Graciela Villalvazo. In 1992, her child was born

with hydrocephaly. Since then, she suffers as much as her child who has to have a valve

in his head in order to drain the excess water from the brain.138 When I asked the

Chilpancingo neighbors for an interview with Graciela, I was told that she no longer gave

interviews because she felt used by the many journalists who, through the years, had

come to her for a note. She came to the conclusion that "they didn't really care," because

they would just get the information and leave. She felt "defrauded by those who

interviewed her," and thus she stopped giving interviews.139 I could not help but turn red,

for what I was doing was no different than what the journalist did.

Tijuana's Pollution on the U.S Side

The hazards of Tijuana's industrialization process are not only felt on the south

side of the borderline, but also on the north. The toxic-carrying Alamar joins the Tijuana

River, which crosses the border line to the United States and end up first in the Tijuana

Estuary and then, finally, in the waters of the Pacific Ocean at Imperial Beach. According

to Congressman Bob Filner, a democrat representing California 51st Congressional

138
Patricia Blake Valenzuela, "Contaminación por plomo," El Mexicano, August 8, 2001, 7C.
139
The story of Graciela was told to me by other neighbors of Chilpancingo and I also got more data from
the Mexican newspaper El Mexicano. The information about Graciela not giving more interviews was
given to me by Lourdes Luján.

64
District, the Imperial Beach area was receiving in 2008 "up to twenty five million gallons

a day of polluted water."140 The stream, contaminated with fecal coliform, hepatitis A,

chromium, arsenic, xylene and other solvents, and the previously mentioned toxic metals

has—in more than one occasion—forced the San Diego authorities to close down the

beach because the extreme danger that the waters pose to tourists and surfers.141 During

the years 1984 to 1985, for example, about 7 miles of beach were put on quarantine

because of high risks of contamination with coliform bacteria.142There have been times,

however, when anxious surfers do not stop to read the warning signs and have almost

perished after being infected with the polluted waters. Feeling fortunate to have survived

what he considered "the dirtiest waters I have ever surfed in," Chris Schumacher tells his

2007 surfing adventure at Imperial Beach:

…I started to feel nauseous, I was throwing up a lot, I was really tired

and my right eye started to swell a little bit but then it got almost
completely shut. By the time I hit the hospital I had fever of about 105 and
I didn't know what was going on. I got up and I walked past a mirror and I
saw my eye and I just couldn't believe that that was on my face. I just
looked like a monster, I just could not understand how something could be
so bad and I not feel it at all.143

Chris's doctors determined that he had gotten the Fusium bacteria, which is a soil

born bacteria, and that he likely got it when surfing in the dirty waters at Imperial Beach.

140
Bob Filner, interviewed for web documentary "Agua Peligrosa," produced by David Washburn, 11
minutes, Wildcoast, 2008, video-webcast. http://www.wildcoast.net (accessed May 1, 2010)
141
Hillyard.
142
Roberto Sánchez Rodríguez, El medio ambiente como fuente de conflicto en la relación binacional
Mexico-Estados Unidos (Tijuana: El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, 1990), 67.
143
Chris Schumacher, interviewed for web documentary "Agua Peligrosa," produced by David Washburn,
11 minutes, Wildcoast, 2008, video-webcast. http://www.wildcoast.net (accessed May 1, 2010)

65
Chris' situation worsened to a point that he almost had to go through brain surgery, but

luckily the antibiotics saved him from the procedure. During that surfing trip, four of the

five surfers who went to Imperial Beach got sick.144The warning signs of polluted water

still stand, but one also can still watch absentminded surfers riding the waves.

The pollution of U.S. waters with Mexican raw sewage and chemical polluted

waters is an old problem that has generated tensions between the governments of the two

countries. Tijuana's rapid demographic growth has proved to be a serious obstacle for the

adequate treatment of waste waters. The many new irregular settlements that form

seemingly overnight do not have sewage service and thus their domestic waste waters

flow through the canyons or water streams and end up in the concrete-channeled Tijuana

River which, as stated before, crosses into the U.S.

In 1965, the federal government of Mexico and the San Diego local government

had agreed to create an emergency system in which Tijuana's excess sewage effluent

would connect to the Point Loma treatment plant of San Diego.145 However, Tijuana's

effluent kept increasing and, at a point, the connection was being used twenty four hours

a day, sending thirteen million gallons per day to the Point Loma plant. 146 By 1986, San

Diego could not handle the costs of the connection—mainly because Tijuana kept paying

the same fees of 1965—and thus the San Diego authorities canceled the agreement.147

144
"Agua Peligrosa," produced by David Washburn, 11 minutes, Wildcoast, 2008, video-webcast.
http://www.wildcoast.net (accessed May 4, 2010)
145
Sánchez Rodríguez, El medio ambiente como fuente de conflicto, 62.
146
Ibid.
147
Ibid, 63.

66
 The issue of Tijuana's untreated waters crossing into the U.S. escalated into a very

controversial bi-national conflict. The U.S. federal government and the San Diego

County government severely criticized Mexico because of its inability to contain the

effluents that crossed the border through the Tijuana River—the one that carries the

waste from the Mesa de Otay, through the Avenida Internacional, and through the

canyons of Los Laureles—a neighborhood just across the border with a similar

socioeconomic situation to that of Chilpancingo.

One of the reasons that contributed to make the conflict very heated was the fact

that in 1982 the United States had declared the Tijuana Estuary a federally protected area,

and therefore the discharge of Mexican residual waters in such an area became a source

of high tension for both countries. The government of the United States wanted Mexico

to stop polluting U.S. waters, forgetting that a great deal of the pollution was caused by

the U.S. manufacturing industry located south of the borderline. In his study about the

San Diego-Tijuana environmental conflicts, Roberto Sánchez argues that the conflict was

very contradictory. Even though the estuary depends highly on the waters from the

Mexican basin, Mexico was never invited to participate in the estuary's conservation

project. Furthermore, the estuary was being used by the Unites States as a political tool

against Mexico.

For the United States, the pollution of the estuary and the South Bay-San Diego

beaches was an unacceptable situation, and thus, during the late 1980s, it started several

projects to create a defensive system. The largest of these projects was called Big Pipe,

67
and its original idea was to collect Tijuana's effluent and send it back south to where it

came from. Big Pipe, which was estimated to cost 34.5 million dollars, was conceived to

rehabilitate South Bay area, recover 108 million dollars in tourism and recreational

activities, and to add 85 millions in value to the local properties.148 Eventually, the Big

Pipe developed into the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant, SBIWTP,

which, instead of simply creating a u-turn, collects the sewage waters from Tijuana—

about 25 million gallons per day—treats them, and then sends the waters through a four

and a half mile long pipe to discharge into the Pacific.149 Even though the treatment plant

has helped significantly to stop Tijuana's sewage waters from crossing into the U.S., the

estuary and a good section of Imperial Beach are still polluted. During the rainy season

especially, the Tijuana River always overflows and its waters inevitably reach the Tijuana

Estuary and Imperial Beach.

148
Sánchez Rodríguez, El medio ambiente como fuente de conflicto,77-81.
149
International Boundary and Water Commission. United States and Mexico. United States Section. South
Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant (SBIWTP) http://www.ibwc.state.gov/home.html (accessed
May 5, 2009)

68
 CHAPTER 5

Environmental Activism Along the Border

Industrial pollution coming from the maquilas at the Mesa de Otay is still a

problem. In 2000, the Dirección General de Ecología de México partially closed down 12

maquiladoras for discharging untreated waters.150 However, the biggest polluter Metales

y Derivados has been cleaned since about three years ago, giving a significant break to

the health of the Chilpancingo neighbors and to all the people who was reached by the

pollution that came out of that plant.

The cleaning of Metales y Derivados though, was not an easy task, and it required

the constant mobilization of the Chilpancingo neighbors who fought for over a decade for

their right to have a clean environment. Although their activism reached their highest

point during the fight to clean Metales y Derivados, the Chilpancingo neighbors have a

long trajectory of mobilization for the benefit of their community, a trajectory that

deserves a chapter in this study.

Chilpancingo's Activism

To speak of the first Chilpancingo organizations we have to go back to the 1950s,

when the first generation of ejidatarios mobilized to build the Nicolás Bravo primary

school so that their children could have an education. During those times Chilpancingo

was still a rural area, faraway from Tijuana proper. There was no practical transportation

for the children of Chilpancingo to go to the schools at Tijuana and then come back home

150
"Maquiladoras continúan echando desechos tóxicos," El Mexicano, July 3, 2000, 36A.

69
safe. Therefore, the only way they could have some education was having a school in

their ejido. Doña Rosalba Mendoza was only able to study until fourth grade in that

school. She remembers that since it was a single room, all the grades were mixed and

thus all of the students were learning the same lessons. "It was a very modest school,"

Doña Rosalba says, "We did not learn much, but at least it was something." 151 For that

"something" the ejidatarios not only collected the money to build the school but also had

to travel to Mexico City to ask the federal government to send a teacher to attend their

children. Nowadays—with all the advancements in travel and communication—those

efforts might seem small, but during the 1950s things were difficult, and the efforts of

those humble ejidatarios to educate their children are worthy of admiration and respect.

The spirit of cooperation of the original ejidatarios was carried on by the second

generation. Doña Rosalba and her Chilpancingo cohorts organized to improve the

neighborhood and to help those in need. That new generation—the second generation—

formed during the late 1970s an organization that they called Organización de Mujeres

Voluntarias del Ejido Chilpancingo (OMVECH).152 They organized activities to collect

funds pro-betterment of the community, and those activities included beauty contests,

charity fairs, raffles, dances, etc. They used the funds collected to help anyone who was

ill, to improve something in the community, or for the community members to take a day

off in Ensenada. In 1985, the Chilpancingo neighbors organized to build the

community's park, a 805 square feet eucalyptuses-populated park with a basket ball court
151
Rosalba Mendoza, in an interview with the author. February 20, 2010
152
In English OMVECH stands for "Organization of Volunteer Women from the Ejido Chilpancingo."

70
on a side and a concrete gazebo in its center, so that they could celebrate with due

solemnity the National Independence Day every September.

There was a lot of cooperation among us during those times. When we

organized a dance to collect money to help someone in need, for example,
those who brought the music equipment did not charge anything.
Everybody helped each other. Even the young people helped by making
sure that fights would not escalate into scandals and violence.153

OMVECH came to an end, according to Doña Rosalba, when the new arrivals

started to show up in the dances, causing trouble and messing up everything. "They

didn't show up to have fun, but to fight. It was too much for us. We just couldn't handle it

and so the group disintegrated"—says Doña Rosalba.154 The disintegration of OMVECH

reflects the impact of demographic growth on Chilpancingo. New arrivals—squatters—

were seen by the Chilpancingo neighbors as foreigners, as trouble- makers who did not

have enough roots in the community. Of course, the squatters must have felt the rejection

and did not respond in the most appropriate manner.

Activism, however, did not end with the disintegration of UMVECH. By the late

1980s and early 1990s, the Chilpancingo neighbors had more than enough reasons to

organize to defend their community. Their river was being destroyed and their children

were being poisoned with chemical contaminants that came from bigger and powerful

new arrivals, the maquiladoras up at the Mesa de Otay. The first organization to defend

the environment was called Comité Ciudadano Pro Restauración del Cañón del Padre.155

153
Rosalba Mendoza, in an interview with the author. February 20, 2010.
154
Ibid.
155
In English it means "Citizens' Committee for the Restoration of the Cañón del Padre."

71
The name referred to one of the many ways through which the Ejido Chilpancingo was

before known, El Cañón del Padre. The leader of the organization was Maurilio Sánchez

Pachuca, a very clever man who organized protest marches against pollution, spoke on

television constantly about Chilpancingo's brain damaged babies, contacted the

international press, sent letters to congressmen, and even contacted President Salinas

petitioning the nation's leader to help them restore their neighborhood.156 Sánchez

Pachuca's crusade against the polluting maquilas helped to turn Chilpancingo from an

inconsequential rural border town into a significant—and perhaps strategic—part of the

political negotiations that helped to create and pass NAFTA. To understand such

particular situation it is necessary to review some events that paved the way for it.

In 1987, the lead smelter Alco Pacific—owned by and American named Morris

Kirk—started its operations at El Florido, a former cattle ranch located about eight miles

southeast of Chilpancingo.157 Like Metales y Derivados, that smelter used car batteries to

extract lead. By 1991, Morris Kirk had decided that his enterprise could not continue and

departed from Mexico, leaving behind six thousand tons of lead waste in the plant's open

yard.158 Soon—of course—environmental chaos happened.

Around the same time, the governments of Canada, the United States, and Mexico

were enthusiastically negotiating a free trade agreement, NAFTA. Mexican President

Carlos Salinas de Gortari did not face any major debate since the congress was controlled

156
Simon, Endangered Mexico, 220.
157
Blake Valenzuela, "Contaminación por plomo," 7C.
158
Ibid.

72
by the PRI, his own party. In contrast, for U.S. President George H. W. Bush, NAFTA

became a very heated debate, especially because environmentalists groups believed that

many companies would go south of the border to avoid the strict environmental

regulations in the United States. Nevertheless, Bush and Salinas were not actually

concerned about including effective environmental protection terms in the agreement.

Bush had planned to boost his re-election campaign with NAFTA, and Salinas wanted to

use the agreement to undermine the leftist opposition in Mexico.159

But things did not go quite as planned. In 1992, Democrat presidential candidate

Bill Clinton—who had committed publicly to watch for the environment—was elected

president. Clinton's election was a setback for the original free trade terms planned by

Bush and Salinas, and the environment was now put on the table of negotiations.

Through Clinton's negotiations, two organizations pro-environment were created:

The Commission on Environmental Cooperation (CEC), and the Border Environment

Cooperation Commission (BECC). The first was created to investigate the

"nonenforcement" of environmental laws, and the second to evaluate funding for

environmental infrastructure projects along the border.160

President Salinas understood that NAFTA was not going to pass unless there was

some type of commitment from Mexico to take care of the environment. Thus, he

159
According to Simon, President Salinas was able to realize his plans: leftist opposition to the PRI was
based on nationalization of industry, subsidy to farmers, and protectionist policies. Thus, when the
agreement was passed the left wing could not continue with their platform because such policies would
violate the treaty.
160
Simon, Endangered Mexico, 226-227.

73
determined that the uproar provoked by the activism of Maurilio Sánchez was not

convenient for the negotiations. Furthermore, the Mexican government had to make sure

that the environmental chaos caused by Alco Pacific at El Florido would not be

repeated—at least not during that specific time—in a strategic industrial area such as the

Mesa de Otay.

In May of 1993, then, the government of Mexico through the Procuraduría

Federal de Protección al Ambiente (PROFEPA), issued an order for a total temporary

shut-down of Metales y Derivados on account of violation of environmental regulations.

In May of the next year, PROFEPA stated that the smelter posed an "imminent" risk to

public health and ecosystems and thus ordered the total permanent shut-down of the

plant.161

Maurilio Sánchez's activism paid off. Chilpancingo's problems had finally gotten

attention from the government and, apparently, something had been done to stop the

suffering of the community. What the Chilpancingo neighbors did not imagine was that

with the closing of Metales y Derivados a scarier nightmare had just started, and that they

would have to fight another long battle. After the closure of Metales y Derivados in 1994,

José Kahn, the owner, moved to San Diego. Even though he had promised to clean up the

mess, he completely abandoned the plant, which was full of unprotected hazardous

materials.162 With no maintenance whatsoever, the maquiladora's premises soon

deteriorated, and chemical residues started making their way down to Chilpancingo and
161
Metales y Derivados Final Factual Record, 51.
162
"Challenging the NAFTA Side Agreement to Protect Public Health," Toxinformer, December 1998, 5.

74
to the Alamar River, causing new outbreaks of asthma, skin diseases, severe anemia,

slow development of children, miscarriages, among other health problems. The

environmental chaos that had happened before with Alco Pacific was repeated at the

Mesa de Otay. This was, of course, after NAFTA—with its environmental side

agreements—was passed and put into effect.

The economic prosperity and environmental improvement promised by NAFTA

and its environmental side agreements were never felt by the neighbors of Chilpancingo.

Instead, they were exposed to an even bigger environmental catastrophe and had to

engage in a slow and long battle to protect themselves and their families.

Transnational Activism

In October 1998, the Comité Ciudadano Pro Restauración del Cañón del Padre

joined forces with the Environmental Health Coalition—an environmental organization

based in San Diego—to file a petition to the Commission for Environmental Cooperation,

(CEC) to investigate the impact of the abandoned lead smelter.163 The petition was

supported by Bob Filner, the democrat representing California's 51st Congressional

District which includes California's entire border with Mexico.164As an international

organization, CEC,however, does not have punitive authority, but it is limited to expose

problems, inform the community and create awareness on environmental problems. In

2002, four years after the petition, CEC issued a report about Metales y Derivados, which

163
"Challenging the NAFTA Side Agreement to Protect Public Health," Toxinformer, December 1998, 3.
164
Ibid.

75
in summary stated that the abandoned plant posed significant hazards to the environment

and the health of the nearby inhabitants.

Meanwhile, the Chilpancingo neighbors kept fighting. Suported by the

Environmental Health Coalition, a group of women from Chilpancingo started gathering

to discuss the health problems of their community. The meetings eventually lead to the

formation of a group that was named Colectivo Chilpancingo Pro Justicia Ambiental.165

The group also became part of of a network of support formed by several NGOs

dedicated to inform the maquiladora workers of their rights, to help fight injustices at the

work place, and to inform people living north of the border about the problems that

Tijuana's poor neighborhoods had to endure for the sake of industrialization.

The core of the Colectivo Chilpancingo was, at this time, formed only by women.

One of its first members was Lourdes Luján, a young woman descendent of one of the

original ejidatarios. Since 1998, when she started participating at the colectivo, Lourdes,

along with other member, worked actively to improve conditions in her community and

for the future generations of Chilpancingo. When talking about how she became an

activist she said:

I never thought I would see myself involved in activism. I did not even
know what activism meant. One day at the pharmacy I saw a job offer for
ten women to conduct a health survey in the neighborhood, and so I went
to apply for the job. The survey project was of the Environmental Health
Coalition. They wanted information about how the health of the
community was affected by the chemicals from Metales y Derivados.
That's how it all started.
165
In English it means Chilpancingo Collective for Environmental Justice. The group was funded by the
Environmental Health Coalition from San Diego.

76
 Soon we became very conscious and well informed on the details of the
problem, and then the ten women who worked doing the survey started
gathering to talk about the problem among ourselves. Eventually, with the
help of the EHC of course, we formed the Colectivo and we began to
organize protests, and push for the cleaning of Metales y Derivados.166

The Colectivo Chilpancingo soon gained regional recognition. They organized

peaceful protests and 24 hours vigils in front of government offices in Tijuana as well as

in Mexico City. They used the power of the press, and they spoke about the problem

anywhere they were allowed to do so such as in front of the government offices, in public

parks, in press conferences, and at local schools. The governmental authorities started to

pay attention to the group and their request to clean up the abandoned plant. However,

the process to clean up the plant was very expensive –it would cost seven million dollars,

according to Lourdes Luján—and the answer that the government officials always gave

was "it is too expensive and there is no money to do it."167

After years of struggle, in June of 2004, the Mexican government finally signed

an agreement with the Colectivo Chilpancingo. The first part of the agreement was the

commitment of the government to clean up, completely, the polluted site within five

years.168 The second part stated that the government will form along with the Colectivo

166
Lourdes Luján, interview with the author, February 20, 2010.
167
According to Lourdes Luján.
168
"Convenio de coordinación de acciones derivado del convenio para la remediación del sitio de Metales y
Derivados." Tijuana, July 8, 2008, 1. Key Documents and Media Coverage. Community/Government
Agreements. Environmental Health Coalition website.
http://www.environmentalhealth.org/BorderEHC/BorderPoll2_CECdocs.html (accessed April 20, 2010)

77
Chilpancingo a workgroup to monitor the cleaning activities until they were completely

carried out as planned.169

The signing of the agreement meant a victory for the Chilpancingo neighbors, but

they did not take a break from their struggle. During the following years, they kept

actively monitoring the cleaning process, doing public speeches, and cooperating with

other organizations from Tijuana and San Diego to raise awareness about the unknown

aspects of the maquiladora industry. One of the San Diego based organizations is the

San Diego Maquiladora Workers' Solidarity Network. Since 2004, this group has

organized tours for the people from the U.S. to go to Tijuana, meet the maquiladora

workers, and visit places devastated by pollution like the Chilpancingo neighborhood.170

The organizer of the tours is Enrique Dávalos, a Chicano Studies Professor at San Diego

City College. Since 2004, he has been taking students from several schools across the

border to meet with maquiladora workers at CITTAC in downtown Tijuana, then to the

premises of the abandoned smelter, and then to the Alamar River, where students have

met with activists such as Lourdes or with another member of the Chilpancingo

Colective. When speaking about the activities of the Colectivo Chilpancingo, he says:

For me, the Colectivo Chilpancingo is an inspiration. Slowly, little by

little, they have taken roots in her neighborhood, roots that are stronger all
the time. In every visit I pay them I see more women. They have an
initiative now to work with their children [to make a younger generation

169
Acta de instalación del grupo de trabajo de seguimiento al proceso de saneamiento y reducción de
riezgos a la salud del predio de Metales y Derivados. Tijuana, Julio 7, 2004. 1. Key Documents and Media
Coverage. Community/Government Agreements. Environmental Health Coalition website.
http://www.environmentalhealth.org/BorderEHC/BorderPoll2_CECdocs.html (accessed April 20, 2010)
170
According to Enrique Dávalos, tour organizer, in an interview with the author.

78
 Colectivo] is excellent because they are giving alternatives to the youth
there. You integrate the youth and then they become a vital force in the
development of a group. They have now [the youth] a chance to attract
more college students to visit Chilpancingo and show them what the
situation. So, they are opening doors, paving the way.171

The maquiladora tours organized by Dávalos have been very important in

publicizing the story of the pollution in places such as Chilpancingo. Many students—I

included—have been transformed by what they have seen and experienced, and they have

passed on the word through alternative media like the internet. Just one example of that is

an excellent photo essay made by student Sahn Luong. In 2008, Louong joined one of the

maquiladora tours and—as he says himself—was shocked because he "did not expect

such living conditions to exist next to the United States."172Once back in the US side,

Louong gathered all the images and audio recordings he had collected during the trip, put

together a photo essay, and published it in the popular video sharing website YouTube.

Since the photo essay was very comprehensive in presenting the situation at Tijuana, it

was included in the webpage of the San Diego Maquiladora Workers' Solidarity Network

as part of the information.173

The use of alternative media is also a way through which the members of the

Colectivo Chilpancigo have spread the word about the environmental chaos and the labor

conditions in the maquiladora industry. The Colectivo was a key participant in the 2006

independent documentary film Maquilapolis. City of Factories, produced by American

171
Enrique Dávalos in an interview with the author. April 22, 2010.
172
"Maquiladora Photo Essay," produced by Sahn Luong, 8:37 minutes, 2008, video-webcast.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqkle7w8uTw&feature=related (accessed May 6, 2010)
173
http://sdmaquila.org/ (accessed May 7, 2010)

79
film-makers Vicky Funari and Sergio De La Torre. The film depicts the lives of Lourdes

Luján, Carmen Durán, and several other women who had worked or were working at the

time in a manufacturing plant. It also shows images of the polluted Alamar River and the

squatter's settlement on its banks, and of the smoggy factories nearby the Chilpancingo

neighborhood. The production of the documentary was a collaborative process: some

footage was shot by the participants using regular video camcorders. Carmen filmed

herself working in a plant and at her home; Lourdes and Yesenia shot together scenes of

the Alamar River, of a maquiladora plant, and of the Chilpancingo neighborhood during

a rainy day. Other participants contributed with ideas for the script and for the promotion.

The film's website states that its production process "breaks with the traditional

documentary practice of dropping into a location, shooting and leaving with the goods,

which would only repeat the pattern of the maquiladora itself."174

The documentary was very well received in the United States and other parts of

the world. It opened many doors for the members of the Colectivo to voice out the hidden

truths about the maquiladora industry that the traditional media would not speak of.

Lourdes and Carmen were invited by many universities and other institutions to talk

about their struggle as workers and as residents of a polluted town.

After the film I visited Korea, Norway, New York, Los Angeles, [and in
Mexico] Tamaulipas, Piedras Negras, and other places. I remember when
we went to do a presentation in Burbank, California: I was very nervous
because I was in front of one thousand people, but when I finished
everybody got up and applauded, and then I felt that my work was worth

174
http://www.maquilapolis.com/project_eng.htm (accessed May 3, 2010)

80
 it. That is the best reward that one can get: to know that people appreciate
what you do, to know that your children are realizing that what you are
doing is important.175

In January 2008, the cleaning process of Metales y Derivados came to an end.

Because of the high costs, however, only two thousand tons of contaminated materials

were repatriated to a containment area in the United States and the rest were sealed up

underground the premises of the plant using a special technique of containment that—

according to Lourdes—is based on a model used by the American EPA.176 A thick

concrete platform was put on the containment area and special openings were left to keep

monitoring the sealed contaminants. Nevertheless, the next year on January 28, 2009,

members and supporters of the Colectivo Chilpancingo, representatives of the Mexican

government, and the press gathered at the premises of the dreaded plant to hold an

official ceremony announcing the end of the cleaning process. Finally, after fourteen

years of struggle, the efforts of the Chilpancingo neighbors paid off.

Nowadays the Colectivo Chilpancingo continues fighting to improve the still

polluted environment of their neighborhood. The trucks drivers that pick up and deliver

materials to the plants have figured a way to shorten their trip: going through

Chilpancingo. On their way, they pass by the community's kindergarten, distracting the

175
Lourdes Luján, in an interview with the author.
176
According to trade agreements between Mexico and the United States (more specifically Annex III of the
La Paz Agreement of 1983) the hazardous byproducts of the manufacturing industry had to be returned to
the United States. Metales y Derivados, however, did not comply with the rules of the agreement and just
piled up the residues. When the cleaning of the plant was finally agreed upon between the Colectivo and
the Mexican government in 2004, the repatriation of all the residues became an issue of debate, especially
because it would cost a great amount of money that the government either did not have for that project or
was not willing to spend. Thus, the "burying" of most of the contaminants was the only alternative that
could be agreed upon by both parties.

81
children with the continuous noise and leaving air contaminated with the burnt- fuel

emissions. The members of the Colectivo have already measured the levels of pollution

that the trucks leave in their neighborhood and have determined that they are extremely

high and pose a health hazard for the children, therefore their fight now is to reroute the

trucks.

As of February of 2010, Lourdes is no longer part of the committee of the

Colectivo. The members of the committee—herself included—decided that in order to

fully integrate more women in the group they had to change the committee members

every certain period of time so that all the participants would get a chance to represent the

community like Lourdes, Yesenia, and others have done during the past decade. Lourdes

still continues helping. She says that being an activist has been for her a wonderful

experience and that she will continue fighting for the improvement of her community

"until the day she dies."

82
 CHAPTER 6

Conclusion

This study re-constructed and told the history of a small community in Tijuana,

the Ejido Chilpancingo. Through the historical examination of this small community it

has contributed to a better understanding of a phenomenon that is common all along the

U.S.- Mexico borderlands: environmental degradation. The case of the Ejido

Chilpancingo and the Alamar River illustrates how the manufacturing industry, when

unregulated, is capable of radically and —in this, as in many other cases—negatively

transforming both human and natural environments.

By describing the main historical events and issues that concern the Ejido

Chilpancingo, this thesis demonstrated how the manufacturing industry transformed

directly and indirectly its environment. The study reconstructed the history of this place

from the formation of the ejido in the late 1930s to the arrival of the maquilas in the

1960s and its consequences. It paid special attention to the demographic growth in

Tijuana after the maquiladora industry arrived, to the chemical contamination of the

Chilpancingo neighborhood and of the Alamar River by the residues that came from the

plants, and to the struggle of the Chilpancingo neighbors for their right to have a clean

and healthy community.

In the first chapter I discussed the scholarship on the U.S.-Mexico borderlands to

understand the development of those areas as they are nowadays. This review of the

works of historians like Reséndes, Mora Torres, De León, Ngai, and Vanderwood, among

83
others, showed that the northern borderlands—even though geographically far from the

centers of power— have always exerted significant influence on the governments of both

the United States and Mexico. In addition, the first part also examined the contributions

of Environmental Studies, which show the importance of incorporating a bottom-up

approach to our understanding of environmental history and also of looking at the

environment as an important element to understand the borderlands.

As many other ejidos, the Ejido Chilpancingo was formed in the late 1930s as part

of the Agrarian Reform process carried on by President Lázaro Cárdenas. The ejido, then,

was originally rural land used for agricultural projects. The Alamar River was a crystal

clear river that served for the irrigation of many crops and fruit trees planted by the

ejidatarios and was home to a variety of aquatic species. The water of the Alamar River

was also clean enough for drinking and was the only source of drinking water for the

ejidatarios for many years.

This environment was completely transformed after the arrival of the

manufacturing industry in 1965 as a result of the Border Industrialization Program. The

availability of jobs at the rapidly multiplying manufacturing plants located along the

borderlands originated a wave of immigration from the interior of Mexico and thus very

soon the population of cities like Tijuana became very large. The growth of the

manufacturing industry as well as population created a need for a change in the use of

land, and the government started to expropriate land from many ejidos in order to expand

the urban sprawl and also to give space to more manufacturing plants. The ejidos started

84
to lose land to the government in the early 1970s and they kept loosing land all the way to

the early 1990s. Some of those lands eventually became industrial areas and some others

became illegal settlements of the immigrants who came searching for better wages at the

maquiladoras. Since many of newly arrivals could not find a place to live, they simply

improvised a roof anywhere they could. The banks of the Alamar River near the

Chilpancingo neighborhood was an area where as many as 400 families settled illegally.

Since they had no municipal services whatsoever, they began discharging their waste

waters and their trash into the river, which eventually became a dumping site for

everyone and everything.

Industrialization also brought chemical contamination. The neighbors of

Chilpancingo accused the manufacturing plants of discharging chemical residues down

the pluvial drainage system, contaminating even more the river stream and exposing the

people to contact with substances that are extremely hazardous for the human health and

fatal for the river's ecosystems. By the mid 1980s, the Alamar River had already stopped

being the crystal clear water stream from where people could drink water, and by the mid

1990s the stream had turned in to a shallow channel of muddy waters that could easily be

confused with an open sewage passage. Contamination affected the health of the

neighbors: there were wide spread miscarriages, an unusual amount of deformed

newborns, many cases of asthma, skin deceases, and other ailments that afflicted the

community. Pollution, ironically, was taken back to the United States, since the river

stream joins the Tijuana River which in turn crosses the border into the United States and

85
ends up at Imperial Beach in San Diego. The polluted waters have affected through the

years the tourism industry and in some cases have put in jeopardy the health of the

residents of the area.

Since the early times of the ejido until the present, the Chilpancingo neighbors

have been active and organized. They have always gotten together to solve problems and

needs such as the construction of a primary school for their children, the construction of a

decent park to celebrate the festivities of independence and other events, the collecting of

funds to help a neighbor in need, and, of course to solve the problems of environmental

degradation they were subjected to after the maquiladoras arrived. The Chilpancingo

community, even though it is a very modest community, has a history of activism which

in a way has helped to give strength to its modern days' environmental activists to never

give up their fight.

The damage that industrial plants can exert on the environment is a well known

fact among scholars nowadays. Thus the value of this study, lays in its approach: it has

zoomed in into the affected neighborhood and tells the story through the voices of the

people who have actually felt in their skins the harmful effects of chemical residues. The

study is, then, an addition to the collection of "histories from below" that are needed to

balance out the equation of top-down vs. bottom-up approaches on the historiography of

the U.S. Mexico borderlands.

The study, however, did not include all possible aspects and issues that have to do

with environmental change. These missing aspects open the doors for further explorations

86
that—since they require a good amount of research—could become entirely new studies.

One of those aspects is air pollution. The fumes that are expelled in the air by the

manufacturing industry are also carriers of particles that affect the health of the people

south and north of the borders—there is a study, for example, that shows how the cases of

asthma in Los Angeles increase during the time when the Santa Ana winds are blowing.

The Santa Ana winds are well known by the Chilpancingo neighbors, and thus there is

the possibility that the particles expelled by some of the maquiladoras to the air reach as

far as Los Angeles. Another potential study is an ethnography of Colonia Nueva

Esperanza, the squatter settlement on the banks of the Alamar River. This study did not

attempt to do that because of the possible dangers that a visit to the settlement posed.

In any event, the historian of Chilpancingo, Doña Rosalba, can now be even more

proud because her work helped to recover not just the story of her family but also the lost

history of her community. In one of our meetings she expressed to me that she felt sad the

first time she visited Guadalajara because she realized that that city, unlike her Tijuana,

did have a very long, well documented, and great past. Since she was so awed looking at

the buildings, a security guard asked her the motive of her state. She told him that she

was from a place relatively new compared to Guadalajara. The guard then said, "you

mean you guys don't have history?‖ to which she answered "no we don't have history, we

are making it, we are making it right now!" This study echoes Doña Rosalba's answer.

87
88
Figure 1. Map showing the area under study
Image from Google Earth. Modifications by author.
89
Figure 2. Doña Rosalba Mendoza and siblings , 1959.
Photo courtesy of Rosalba Mendoza
90
Figure 3. Alma and Teresa Mendoza at the Alamar River, late 1970s.
Photo courtesy of Rosalba Mendoza
Figure 4. First page of Doña Rosalba's home-made family- history book.
Courtesy of Rosalba Mendoza

91
92
Figure 5. Park of Chilpancingo, Mid 1970s.
Photo courtesy of Rosalba Mendoza.
93
Figure 6. Park of Chilpancingo, 2010. Same spot as previous image
Photo by author.
94
Figure 7. Abandoned maquila Metales y Derivados. Mid 1990s.
Photo courtesy of Colectivo Chilpancingo for Environmental Justice.
95
Figure 8. Alamar River and maquiladoras, 2010.
Photo by author.
96
Figure 9. Abandoned house in Colonia Nueva Esperanza, 2010.
Photo by author
97
Figure 10. 2010. River bed of the Alamar near the Ejido Chilpancingo, 2010
Photo by author.
98
Figure 11. Warning sign at Imperial Beach, San Diego, 2010.
Photo by author.
 \

99
Figure 12. Maquiladora Tour visiting the Alamar River, 2010
Photo by author.
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