An analysis of the impact of the construction of aqueducts and dams along the Río Yaqui on the Yaquis of Sonora, Mexico, through the lens of political ecology

Abstract

Speaking to political ecology, this article takes a more holistic analysis of the impacts of the political decisions taken to construct aqueducts and dams along the Río Yaqui, Sonora, Mexico, diverting water away from the traditional homeland of the Yaqui, Indigenous people of Sonora. Moving away from just the agricultural and health implications, instead I demonstrate that environmental change has political sources, and how we regard nature carries deep and often unacknowledged implications and ramifications. Particularly, the dams and aqueducts have had a severe impact on Yaqui culture, as they view the Río Yaqui as crucial culturally. In addition, this article demonstrates that environmental change alters the ability of marginal groups, such as the Yaqui, to resist other actors by showing that their autonomous political system has increasingly been eroded as the Yaqui have been forcefully integrated into the capitalism system.