Category: Stories of the Land

An interview with San Antonio filmmaker Laura Varela 

1.  Name / location / how you identify

Laura Varela, San Antonio, Texas Yanaguana via El Paso, TX.  Xicana.

2.  Why did you feel compelled to witness and document this event?

I wanted to support the Water Protectors in Standing Rock and I just wanted to do something anything.  This is when people were just starting to come out, before winter, before the assaults by the Morton County Sheriff and private security attacks on people praying.  I was compelled to go because of the location to make sure I could be of service somehow even if it just meant documenting.

3.  Why was it an historic moment (and location) for our Texas community?

Being from Texas the Alamo has a different meaning if you are Mexican American or Indigenous; this Danza group was going to do ceremony in front of the Alamo.  I knew it was historic for both those reasons.

San Antonio is going through a rebirth right now of young people reconnecting with their indigenous roots.  Also many Mexican Americans are working to decolonize their minds, diets and ways of life.  Part of that decolonizing process is opposing systems and structures that do not protect mother earth, the water and our families.  I just wanted to make sure that that event was documented and wanted to share it with the world.

Excerpt from video:

In solidarity with the Water Protectors in North Dakota, in September 2016, Kalpulli Ameyaltonal Tejaztlan and other Danza groups in the United States all dedicated a day of ceremony called Ayoyotes on the Ground. Many ceremonies were held in different cities as well as Standing Rock. The ceremonial Danza and prayer was dedicated to the people of the Standing Rock Reservation and for all those working to protect Mother Earth. This particular historic gathering in San Antonio was held in front of the Alamo; which was originally Mission San Antonio de Valero and built by indigenous labor. Yanaguana is the indigenous name of San Antonio, it means place of clear waters; it had always been a gathering place for the indigenous populations for thousands of years.

Special Thanks to Laura Rios Ramirez, Delia Enriquez, Maribel Hermosillo, and Kalpulli Ameyaltonal Tejaztlan

varelafilm.org

From the flooded streets of Houston, longtime community warrior Bryan Parras of TEJAS (Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services) has been on the ground in his city documenting the damage caused by hurricane Harvey.  Through live feeds he and the TEJAS family have been keeping a careful eye on the hurricane’s impact in the community and in particular communities already dealing with contamination and environmental justice issues, most of which are communities of color.   These extra circumstances of “multiple marginality,” such as being undocumented or being from a low-income neighborhood already experiencing contamination, add extra layers of crisis to an already devastating situation in which people facing life and death can’t escape and ask for help, much less ask corporate companies already violating human rights to take extra measures of precaution during a natural disaster.

Below are a few clips that detail what is happening on the ground in these neighborhoods:

• Interviews with Democracy Now and the environmental crisis unfolding in Houston
• A live taping of the Nuestra Palabra show discussing the situation around Hurricane Harvey
• A live toxic tour around Houston that was broadcasted on FB live during the first days of Hurricane Harvey’s arrival

If you would like to support the critically important work that Bryan and the TEJAS family are doing, please donate to them here:  https://www.paypal.me/tejasbarrios

INTERVIEWS WITH DEMOCRACY NOW

NUESTRA PALABRA SHOW

TOXIC TOUR SERIES

A call for water protectors and danzantes to stop the Trans-Pecos Pipeline in West Texas.

Via Jefe Jose Garza of the tradición of danza Azteca (Texas/New Mexico) and Madeleine Santibañez of San Antonio, Texas

Jefe Jose Garza:  “Good afternoon, we are here at the Two Rivers camp this afternoon outside of Marfa, Texas. We’d just like to invite everybody to come join us. We are here to fight the Trans-Pecos pipeline. We’ve got this black snake on hold since Cannonball and we need some help.

“We need water protectors and anyone that understands the dangers that are presented by this pipeline. To take a minute to pray with us. To work with us to put an end to this pipeline and all the pipelines, that are not needed. Thank you.”

Madeleine Santibañez: “This is a call out for any people of this land that have the opportunity to come out here and do some prayers or direct action directly on the pipeline, we’d love for you to come out.

“This is a call out for Ayoyotes on the Ground.  It’s about time that we come together as a people rising up and regaining that knowledge that this land teaches us and the sacred elements. So I invite everyone, if you can, come out here and put your boots on the ground and ayoyotes on the ground and help us stop this pipeline.”

Jefe Jose Garza:  “Estamos llamando a toda la Danza Azteca que se unen para este resto y que nos ayuden a parar esta línea. Espera nuestra llamada.  Tlazocamati.”

Translation: We are calling all the Danza Azteca to unite for this prayer and help us stop this [pipe]line.  Await our call.  Thank you.”

To learn more:

• Ayoyotes on the Ground
• Deceleration News
• Trans-Pecos Pipeline
• Toyahvale Camp
• Two-Rivers Camp

Related video via Deceleration:

As originally posted on Deceleration
By Greg Harman

Dozens of self-described water protectors flooded a construction site in Far West Texas this morning, shutting down construction on a high-pressure natural gas pipeline for more than two hours.

Members of the Society of Native Nations and Big Bend Defense Coalition, two of several groups fighting the construction of the Trans-Pecos Pipeline, chained themselves beneath an excavator while others ran deeper into the easement and occupied sections of the disjointed pipeline itself.

The event represents yet another escalation in a two-years-long-running struggle that has moved from local coalitions fighting state and federal regulators, regional land owners resisting eminent-domain property seizures in the courts, and, most recently, increasingly indigenous-led direct actions intended to more directly interrupt pipeline construction. In recent weeks, several native-run camps have been established in several area counties, including Presidio, Brewster, and Reeves.

Owned by Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, the primary force behind the Dakota Access Pipeline being resisted by the Standing Rock Sioux and native and non-native allies from around the world, the 42-inch Tran-Pecos Pipeline is intended to transport fracked gas 148 miles from outside Fort Stockton, Texas, and beneath the Rio Grande, to join an expanding network of natural gas infrastructure in Northern Mexico.

Mexico’s Department of Energy’s five-year plan for energy reform projects (2015-2019) has focused on the enhancement and expansion of natural gas infrastructure across the country, including feeding U.S. resources into a network of existing pipelines in Northern Mexico. New lines in the states of Chihuahua, bordering Far West Texas, and Tamaulipas, which run alongside South Texas, and Nueva Leon, are expected to be finished in the next three year, according to the plan.

Through these new lines, the Mexican government hopes to triple the amount of natural gas it imports from the United States in that time. Natural gas imports from the United States to Mexico have doubled just since 2009, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The following videos are from the front lines at Standing Rock, North Dakota where people in prayer were surrounded and attacked by police on Saturday, October 22, 2016.

As reported previously on Xica Nation, the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) is a threat to all people and the native children of Cemanahuac / Turtle Island.  The water protectors at the at the Standing Rock reservation are the ones leading the way to protect our vital resources.  The money trail behind the project extends far beyond North Dakota, from Donald Trump all the way down to Texas, where Kelsey Warren, head of Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind DAPL, was appointed to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission in 2015 by Gov. Greg Abbott.  As it turns out, the DAPL is one of many catastrophic pipelines planned to gut, contaminate, and control earth resources, with the controversial Trans Pecos Pipeline also being constructed.

Today in Standing Rock, human rights and treaties were once again violated as police attacked water protectors with force and violence, using army tactics and led by the wasichu henchmen of Morton County Sheriff’s department and others who recently heeded an extra-judicial call by the sheriff for an armed mob of officers (from outside the jurisdiction) to come to Standing Rock to raise an army against the prayer camp.

There were reports of fire hoses spraying pepper spray on people:

“Before during and after attack by police”: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=391883267868401&id=100011401944206&hc_location=ufi

“During attack”:  https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10209029601349577&id=1003805648&hc_location=ufi

SPECIAL THANK YOU TO Wiyaka Eagleman, Indigenous Life Movement, Atsa E’sha Hoferer, Ashley Melton, and Bucky Harjo for your service as digital warriors!  The world is watching!!!

NOTE: To save the videos, click “play” then “stop.”  Right-click, then select “Save as…”

#WaterIsLife #MniWiconi #StandingRock