The Political Ecology of a Corporate Community in the Santa Cruz River Watershed, Sonora, Mexico
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Parting the Watershed: The Political Ecology of a Corporate Community in the Santa Cruz River Watershed, Sonora, Mexico. Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Emanuel, Robert M. Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 27/09/2021 03:01:42 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/195719 1 PARTING THE WATERSHED: THE POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF A CORPORATE COMMUNITY IN THE SANTA CRUZ RIVER WATERSHED, SONORA, MEXICO. By Robert M. Emanuel Copyright © Robert M. Emanuel 2006 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2006 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Robert M. Emanuel entitled Parting the Watershed: The Political Ecology of a Corporate Community in the Santa Cruz River Watershed, Sonora, Mexico. and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy _______________________________________________________________________ Date: May 8, 2006 James B. Greenberg _______________________________________________________________________ Date: May 8, 2006 J. Stephen Lansing _______________________________________________________________________ Date: May 8, 2006 Marcela Vásquez-León _______________________________________________________________________ Date: May 8, 2006 Thomas K. Park Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. ________________________________________________ Date: May 8, 2006 Dissertation Director: James B. Greenberg 3 STATEMENT BY THE AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: Robert M. Emanuel 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I must first thank my compadres Ingeniero Alfonso Gonzales Siqueiros, his wife Diana Marcela Bernal Cruz, and their two sons, Hanz and José Eduardo for taking me in as part of the family during my time in San Lázaro. Alfonso deserves many thanks for helping me to gather a large amount of data presented in this document. Besides also contributing in this regard, Diana transcribed most of the ethnographic interviews. For their assistance and friendship, I am forever in their debt. The community members of San Lázaro deserve credit and thanks for contributing many hours to this effort. Among those who deserve special thanks are Benigno Lorta Cruz, Ventura Rivera, Enrique Perez and family, Manuel “Solis” Mendoza, Ele, Justo and Monchi Rivera, Jesús “Güero” Zazueta and family, Eduardo Luzanía, Blanca, Rodolfo Dominguez, Marisela Martinez, Cípriano and Amalia Martinez, the students of Telesecondaria No. 56, and especially their teachers, Patti and Araceli Orzonio Bernal. My dissertation committee and especially its chair deserve significant credit for direction, editing and intellectual support. The committee includes: James Greenberg (chair), J. Steven Lansing, Thomas K. Park, and Marcela Vásquez-León. Special thanks are also owed to: Jonathan Mabry, Barbara Tellman, Larry Marshall, Richard Stoffle, Helen Henderson, Robert Hackenberg, Terry Sprouse, Philip Halpenny, Diana Hadley, Rebecca Carter, Anne Browning-Aiken, Maria Carmen Lemos, Steve Cornelius, Alejandro Barcénas, Kay Garrett, Jesus Quíntanar, Luís Nuñez Noriega, Josiah Heyman, Michael Crimmins, and Luís Cervera. I must also thank the staff and researchers of the Departamento de Investigaciones en Cíencias y Tecnología de la Universidad de Sonora and especially Professor Arturo Villalba. In spite of all of the help, all errors herein are my own. For monetary and logistical support, I must first and foremost thank the Sonoran Institute and specifically Dr. Joaquin Murrieta Saldivar. The logistical support of using the Centro Comunitario de Conservación del río Santa Cruz was something that I could not do without, and Joaquin along with Alfonso Gonzales, graciously loaned that space to me while I was in the field. Portions of this research were supported by grants from the Rieker Fund, and the Department of Anthropology. The National Park Service provided some indirect funding for fieldwork. Special thanks are also owed to Dr. Deborah Young at Arizona Cooperative Extension for the release time to complete the write up. I also owe special thanks to friends who have been there: Lydia Bruenig, Cordelia Guggenheim, Jesús Garcia-Yanes, Kevin Ver Weire, Rebecca Carter, Sara Storrer, Lisa Schwartz, Steve Wind, Katherine Holmsen, George Zaimes, Meghan Maloney, and Cortney Phelon. My immediate family, especially my father Joel, and my wife’s parents also deserve credit for support and encouragement. Lastly, my wife Gina Campbell Emanuel put up with my long years of graduate school and sporadic field research. Through it all, she never gave up her support for me. For this, she deserves my utmost appreciation, respect, and love. 5 DEDICATION To my wife, Gina Campbell Emanuel, who not coincidentally, came into my life at the same time as I began this long, generally arduous journey called post-graduate education. If this serendipidity had not occurred, I know that I would never have gotten this far in the educational process, nor would I have had the good sense to set my priorities straight during the journey. May the next steps always carry us together to greener pastures. To my father who taught me to think critically about everything, whatever the consequences, and to the memory of my mother who encouraged me to be unabashedly curious about the world. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... 9 LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................... 10 ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................... 11 1. INTRODUCTION AND NATURE OF THE PROBLEM................................... 13 A Cautionary Tale: “¡Aguas!”.................................................................................................13 Recent Political Economy of Mexico....................................................................................19 Theoretical Context & Contribution.....................................................................................21 Overview of the Dissertation ...................................................................................................24 A Note on the Methods.............................................................................................................27 2. PHYSICAL SETTING AND ENVIRONMENT.................................................... 31 Introduction..................................................................................................................................31 Geography of San Lázaro, Sonora..........................................................................................32 Hydrology, Geology, and Soils ...............................................................................................38 Climate...........................................................................................................................................46 Seasonal Precipitation Variations ..........................................................................................47 Vegetation .....................................................................................................................................50 Water Management in the Upper Santa Cruz Watershed...............................................57 Investing or Expending Natural Capital?............................................................................60 3. CLEMENTS' CURSE: ECOLOGICAL EQUILIBRIA, PANARCHY AND POLITICAL ECOLOGY................................................................................................ 63 The Trouble with Ecological Approaches to Equilibrium.............................................66 Carrying Capacity and Sustainability in Rangeland Ecosystems.................................71 Modeling Non-equilibrium Systems.....................................................................................75 The End of Equilibrium-Dominated Ecology...................................................................81 Thinking like a Watershed: Synthesizing New Ecology with Watershed Science..83 Traditional Human-Ecological Approaches to Tenure