“We found out about the plans to build a dam in El Zapotillo and that our village, Temaca, would be flooded, through the radio and TV. The Government never came to tell us.”

This was five years ago, in Temacapulin, Jalisco State, Mexico, and resulted in the carrying out of an international meeting which will set the “eyes of the world” on this community, located only three hours away from Guadalajara.

“A TV report, an official comment, the disappearance of this village, the flooding of lands inhabited since the 6th Century. Find out and prepare yourselves to be displaced.”

This is what Maria Alcaraz Martinez, one of the local leaders of the resistance said to Real World Radio, one day before the beginning of the meeting.

The population of Temaca, together with several networks against megadams, such as International Rivers and Mapder, have been opposing El Zapotillo dam for years.

A small and introverted population learned how to organize and link with other populations inside and outside Mexico, recognizing themselves as part of a common problem in many parts of the world.

“We used to be somehow reserved”, said Maria with reference to the community. “But today we talk with people coming here, and that has been a progress for me, because we used to be isolated, and now we are not”, she said. “Where there is a dam, there is never progress, just the opposite”.

Maria and other residents born and raised in Temaca are some of the leaders of this resistance. “But there were many people who got depressed, especially older people, although young people are determined to be a part of the struggle”, Maria said.

All of the delegates coming to the 3rd Meeting of Dam-Affected People and Allies will stay in the homes of families who offered their houses to the almost 1000 people arriving for the meeting and to visit the rural areas which will be affected by El Zapotillo dam.

From the school to the local church there are welcome signs with words of resistance, which communicated the will not to leave their lands in favor of a project that doesn´t benefit them at all.

Neither the power generated by the dam nor the availability of water will benefit the population of Jalisco State, said Maria. “The water will go straight to Guanajuato, to the businesses”.

“We don´t want their new town. If they are going to flood this place then they might as well do it, but we will stay here”, she concluded.

Photo: Real World Radio