The “River People”

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28 

PROGRAM #10608  12:00 PM PT 

The “River People.” 

The Cocopah, a transnational Indian Tribe divided by the US-Mexico border, was once a thriving people that used to fish in the Colorado River Delta. As the water of the Colorado was diverted for agricultural needs and without the nutrients from the river, the fisheries declined and now the tribe is facing displacement and loss of water and fishing rights. In this program, leading Cucapá fisherwomen in a coastal town where the river ends remember the traditional ways they used to fish in the Colorado River, the factors that forced them to be displaced, the way they manage to survive amid Mexican government fishing bans, the Cucapá’s legal fight to fish gulf corvina, the prominent role of fisherwomen and other topics.

Guests: Hilda Hurtado Valenzuela, Founding President; Inés Hurtado Valenzuela, Treasurer; Rita Hurtado Valenzuela; María de la Luz Macías, Vocal; Cucapá Indigenous People’s Cooperative Society, El Indiviso, BC, MX; Alejandro Maciel, Reporter, Special Correspondent, El Indiviso, Baja California, MX.

Photo: fannyes/Adobe Stock

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