Archives and Memories of Water in the Colorado River Delta

The Archivo Familiar del Río Colorado (The Colorado River Family Archive) is a collaborative project of cultural management, artistic and curatorial research that emerged in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico, on the Colorado River Delta in 2021, shortly before the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation declared a water shortage in the basin for the first time in its history. We were living in a moment of provoked scarcity created by decades of water dispossession in the American West, planetary changes induced by the extractive economic system, asymmetric power relations between Mexico and the United States, and significant transformations in the ecological dynamics and water landscapes in Mexicali and the Delta. In this talk, we will present how, as a collaborative network with other archives and water activists, we have experimented with art and archiving to foster community conversations about the lived experience of loss in the territory of which we are part. Situated between geopolitical, epistemological, and disciplinary boundaries,  El Archivo Familiar de Río Colorado is a technology to investigate our relationships with water and territory, fostering collective (re) imagining of the interwoven temporalities of our relationships with water, the land, the plants and animals that inhabit it, and each other in the Colorado River Delta.

On Friday, Jan 24, at 11 am there will be a guided walking tour along the Salado River Canals, guided by artist Richard Laugharn. You will need to register to participate.