Imperial (220 page)

Footnote: “A posting by the Centro de Información para Trabajadoras y Trabajadors”—CITT website. Text begins: “Again, a factory runs away without paying workers their severance benefits! Again, Baja California Labor Board colludes with the company and violate [
sic
] Mexican the Labor Code! . . . The owner ran away to the US[,] abandoning more than 100 workers, without paying salaries and the severance benefits required by Mexican labor law.” Information on the protest in front of the Governor’s office also comes from this source.

Production of the biggest taco in the world and date of closure—Ueinternational website (Límon).

Brown International Corporation mentioned as responding to an EPA subpoena against Flor de Baja—Factiva,
Pesticide and Toxic Chemical News
(CRC Press), 7 December 1994, vol. 23, no. 6 (“Some Firms Object, Others Claim Error in New River Subpoenas”). Document #penw000020011029dqc70019v.

Footnote: “A total of 19 gravely poisoned women was the result . . .”—
El Mexicano
newspaper, 7 October 1993, David Loyola, “19 Mujeres Intoxicadas en Mexicali: Hipoclorito de Calcio, la Causa,” trans. for WTV by Teresa McFarland.

156 . Subdelineations: Waterscapes (1975-2005)

Epigraph: “Thriving young towns . . .”—Tout,
The First Thirty Years
, p. 410 (Robert Hays, “The Next Thirty Years”).

The secret teaching of Mr. Leonard Coates—
Fresno Morning Republican
, Sunday, March 28, 1920, p. 18B (“Cultivate Now”).

Imperial County yields of honeydews and miscellaneous melons, 1999-2002—Imperial County Agricultural Commission papers for those years.

“More than fifteen hundred persons have been arrested . . .”—Social Responsibilities Round Table website.

Richard Brogan: “Field crops are cheap to grow . . .”—Interviewed in Calexico, April 2004.

“In fact, earlier this year the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California . . .”—Association of California Water Agencies, p. 13.

“Imperial attitude”—Already quoted above, in the chapter “Then and Now” (“Imperial attitude: Desert farmers are their own worst enemies,” in the
Sacramento Bee
, Sunday, June 2, 2002, “Op-ed” section).

Kay Brockman Bishop—Interviewed December 2006 on her ranch just west of Calexico. Terrie Petree was present.

Decision against IID, 1984—DeBuys and Myers, p. 170.

Description of Tlaloc—After Carrasco and Moctezuma, p. 65 (photo of a polychromed ceramic vessel).

“Our life’s blood, our water, was being hemorrhaged away . . .”—Billie Bernal, pp. 120-21.

Absentee ownership in the IV, mid-1990s—DeBuys and Myers, p. 165.

Tale of the Bass brothers—Ibid., pp. 165-67.

Richard Brogan—Interviewed in Calexico, April 2004.

“If the city did wrong in buying, they did wrong in selling.”—Nadeau, p. 76.

“The company was not planning to farm, but to sell water.”—Hendricks, unnumbered p. 8.

“Agriculture: Once thought to be an essential means . . .”—
Imperial Valley Press
, Wednesday, March 19, 2003, “Voice of the People” column, p. A4: “IID director defines water terminology” (Andy Horne, IID director, El Centro).

Situation of the Borrego Springs aquifer—
Borrego Sun
, vol. 52, no. 12, June 5, 2003, p. 6 (Editorial: “Supervisors need to act on aquifer”). In no. 21 (October 9, 2003), a new headline reported a record rate of decrease in the water levels of northern Borrego, “closest to the agricultural zone.” One well declined six feet in one year (p. 4, “Northern well levels decline at record rate”).

Dropping water levels in Cabazon—
Press-Enterprise
, Friday, January 14, 2003, pp. A1, A8 (Steve Moore, “Bottler denies blame for drop in well levels”).

The seasoned private detective from San Diego: “All the incestuous, evil little politics going on . . .”—George Michael Newman, Tactical Investigative Services. I interviewed him by telephone in 2003.

NACRP: “No more public money be invested . . .”—UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library. Paul S. Taylor papers. Carton 5. Folder 5:2: “To Make the Desert Bloom Like the Rose, 1969?” Yellow typescript on “The American West” letterhead, entitled “Issue: Colorado Book.” P. 53.

The newspaper up in the state capital’s “water-wise tips” and quote from Angela Anderson—
Sacramento Bee
, Saturday, July 5, 2003, “California Life Home & Garden” section, pp. 13, 15 (Dan Vierra, “Drips and Drops: The smart way to water your lawn and garden”).

Marcuse: “The individual comes to the traumatic realization that full and painless gratification of his needs is impossible . . .”—Op. cit., p. 13.

The San Diego County Water Authority’s sale of nearly 600,000 acre-feet of water per year to 32 agencies—San Diego County Water Authority, p. 42 (actual figure: 589,062 acre-feet in 2000).

Water cutbacks in Los Angeles and Marin—Ibid., p. 27 (unnumbered table: “Reductions in Water Usage for the Month of May 1991”).

No water cutbacks in Imperial and Coachella valleys and Palo Verde Irrigation District—Ibid., p. 17.

80% of California’s share of Colorado River water to Imperial and related districts—
The California Water Atlas
, p. 42.

All-American delivery figures to Imperial and Coachella valleys—Munguía, p. 23 (Francisco Zamora Arroyo, Peter Culp and Osvel Hinojosa Huerta). But another essay in the same book [p. 59, Barrientos et al.] gives a figure of only 2.59 MAFY.

Richard Brogan on MWD—Interviewed in Calexico, April 2004.

Phil Swing: “It would constitute the economic murder of any community . . .—Senate Committee on the Colorado River Basin (1925), p. 191 (Swing’s statement).

“One academic’s” cost comparison between water transfer and an earthquake—
Imperial Valley Press
, Thursday, March 27, 2003, “Farm” section, p. D4 (Juan Guerrero and Karl McArthur, “Economic Theory and Fallowing,” part 1 of 4). The academic was Keith Mayberry.

San Diego: “The urban agencies . . .”—San Diego County Water Authority, p. 53.

“Surely one of Coachella Valley’s defining images . . .”—Laflin,
A Century of Change
, page after chapter header “1900-1999.”

Assertion of American sovereignty over All-American Canal seepage—Munguía, p. vi.

The laudatory biography of Mulholland: “In spite of rationing . . .”—William Leslie Davis, p. 271.

L.A.’s request for New River water, and the federal government’s attack on IID about the lack of return flow from the New River et al.—IID objection to Part 417 determination.

American Imperial’s cry to “My Fellow Farmers Throughout California”—IID letter to farmers, 9 July 2003, pp. 4, 1.

“Fertile Lands Surrounded by the Desert . . .”—Mexicali yellow pages (2001-2002), p. 10 (“Guía Turística/Tourist Guide”).

Television announcement of water suspension to
colonias
—Seen in Tijuana, July 2004. No one seemed bothered or surprised; it was an everyday occurrence.

The agronomist in Tijuana: “At this moment, we are not in a water crisis . . .”—Terrie Petree’s translation of Via Oriente, unnumbered p. 13 (interview by Terrie Petree with Javier Melendrez, agronomist, Department of Agriculture, Tijuana, 8/1/2005).

Mexican lawsuit over lining of All-American Canal, and the latter’s probable and possible effects—Munguía, pp. viii, 78 (Saillé et al.), xx (intro.), 62-63, 68 (Barrientos et al.), 96 (Saillé et al.). Much of the seepage presently goes to refresh the Mexicali Valley’s aquifer.

Interviews: Richard Brogan, by telephone, September 2003; Stella Mendoza, October 2003; George Michael Newman, by telephone, 2003.

The hairdresser Evalía Pérez de Navarro—Interviewed in her establishment in San Luis Río Colorado, October 2003, Terrie Petree translating. She was cutting my hair at the time, and she and I got so interested that she kept right on cutting until I was practically bald.

Salinity of All-American Canal seepage,
ca.
2000—Munguía, p. 75 (Jaime Herrera Barrientos et al.). This figure was expressed in grams per liter, but the two measurements are nearly equivalent.

Calculated salinity of Mexicali Valley aquifer 20 years after lining of All-American Canal—Ibid., p. 91 (Saillé et al.). The actual figure given is 2,445 mg/L.

Specific crop production declines—Ibid., pp. 94-95 (loc. cit.). According to USDA Handbook no. 60, alfalfa and onions are tolerant when it comes to boron, and cotton semitolerant; barley and cotton are salt-resistant, onions and alfalfa only middlingly so.

Lesser irrigation efficiency of Mexicali Valley—Salinity of All-American Canal seepage,
ca.
2000—Ibid., p. 46 (Jaime Herrera Barrientos et al.).

Kay Brockman Bishop—Same interview cited earlier in this chapter.

Paper by Eduardo Paredes Arellano: “The greatest danger threatening the future of our civilization . . .”—White-head et al., 1988, pp. 305 (Eduardo Paredes Arellano, Secretaría de Agricultura y Recursos Hidráulicos, Mexicali, “Water, the Most Important Natural Resource for the State of Baja California, Mexico”).

Water inflow to Mexicali Valley, 1979-81 (8,830 million cubic meters of water)—Ibid., p. 308.

Ten more waterworks proposed—Ibid., p. 309.

“It should be pointed out that along the international boundaries . . .”—Ibid., p. 310.

“Recuperation” of Irrigation District 014—Ibid., p. 311.

“It is pertinent to point out that all of the privately owned wells”—Ibid., p. 312.

“How much do you pay for water?” I asked Josefina Cruz Bermúdez, whose shack sprawled right across the dirt road from the border wall in Tecate.

“It depends. Around a hundred, sometimes a hundred twenty to a hundred fifty pesos per month.”

“Where does it come from?”

“I don’t know where it comes from,” replied the old woman. “I have lived here for fourteen years. For a little while we have plenty of water. But sometimes when they’re cleaning the cisterns they warn us on the radio: This neighborhood won’t have water for a couple of days. Right now it’s Friday and the water went off on Monday.”

In the same city, an ancient ex-citrus picker who sat on a green bench in the park every day,
waiting to die
as he put it, told me that he paid about the same: “Normally fourteen or fifteen dollars or two hundred pesos a month. I’ve lived here thirty-five years, and when Álvarez was President of the Republic he robbed and stole. All the Presidents steal a lot ...”

“Where does it come from?”

“Now, the water comes from . . .” He thought, then triumphantly cried out: “
Arizona!
I think from the Río Colorado. Yes, that’s right. All the Presidents have taken the money and taken it to the other governments . . .”

In Tijuana, a vast lady in Colonia Agrarista in the dry hills overlooking Boulevard Insurgentes got her water bill for the month as I watched; it was a hundred and fifteen pesos for her shack and her mother’s shack combined, for washing and everything.—“Not expensive,” she said.

That was how much they all paid for household use, between a hundred and two hundred pesos. It took me awhile to realize that of course that wasn’t their drinking water; who’d want to drink that water? In Mexicali, the parking lot attendant Lupita said that she paid
poquito
for her water in the house: a hundred pesos. But for drinking water she paid five dollars more (fifty pesos), and a hundred and fifty pesos for when she got thirsty in the street. In the same city, Sergio Rivera Gómez, who was a legal assistant for the Confederación Revolucionaria de Obreros y Campesinos, thought that the average monthly water bill in Mexicali was between five and fifteen dollars
for washing hands and showering,
as he put it. Ninety-nine percent of the people drank bottled water, he thought; the very poor didn’t. If he himself drank tap water only once or twice he’d probably be all right; more than that, and he’d get sick.

In San Luis Río Colorado, a juice vendor paid about a hundred and twenty pesos per month for his water. When asked, he proudly informed me that it came from a
presa,
a reservoir. Down the street, a hairdresser paid thirty dollars for her water.

Household and agricultural water prices, Tecate, Mexicali, Ciudad Morelos, San Luis Río Colorado—Interviews by WTV, October 2003, Terrie Petree translating. The hairdresser in the latter town was Evalía Pérez de Navarro.

Household water prices in Tijuana—Interviews by WTV, July 2004, Terrie Petree translating.

E. J. Swayne, 1901—Already quoted and cited in “Then and Now,” above.

Carl Calvert on artesian wells, etc.—Interviewed in Campo, October 2003.

The farther west of San Luis they lived (and of course the farther south of the line), the more likely Mexicans were to be sanguine about the water situation. Señora Socorro Ramírez, proprietress of the restaurant Yocojihua, expressed a fairly typical view (interview of 19 February 2004, Terrie Petree interpreting). Señora Ramírez folded her arms and said: “In Mexicali the water comes from the Colorado River and they have a certain quantity from the United States and another quantity which goes to the valley for the farmers. Sometimes we hear that there’s a lack, but if it rains a lot up north on the other side then we get extra, too. But they always harvest.”—She spread her hands; she wasn’t worried.—“The people who have water problems are those who live near the coast. There are always two harvests a year, and sometimes there could be three. It’s more salty now,” she agreed. But even now it’s not as salty now as it once was. Fifty years from now, it will be all right.”

157. As Precious as This (2003)

Epigraph: “And behold the people . . .”—León-Portilla and Shorris, p. 213 (“Hymn to Tlaloc”).

“MWD will pay higher prices for short-term water transfers . . .”—IID letter to farmers, 9 July 2003, p. 4.

Geoglyph of the four-headed snake near Pilot Knob—Von Werlhof, p. 15.