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A Quest for Environmental Sovereignty

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A QUEST FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SOVEREIGNTY Chicana/o Literary Experiences of Water (Mis)Management and Environmental Degradation in the US Southwest María Isabel Pérez Ramos A Quest For Environmental Sovereignty: Chicana/o literary experiences of water (mis)management and environmental degradation in the US Southwest © María Isabel Pérez Ramos 2017 Stockholm Papers in the History and Philosophy of Technology TRITA-HOT 2073 ISSN: 0349-2842 ISBN: 978-91-7729-386-6 Environmental Humanities Laboratory Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment Department of Philosophy and History School of Architecture and the Built Environment KTH Royal Institute of Technology SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden Printed in Sweden by US-AB, Stockholm 2017. Front cover of book and dustjacket: La Sierra, colcha embroidery by Josephine Lobato (photo by Suzanne MacAulay). Back cover dustjacket: photo by teddeady; Flickr. Original title Chicano Park Mural 02. Cropped and leveled image, no other changes made. License CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. Front flap: Canyon Lake, Arizona, USA. Photo: María Isabel Pérez Ramos, 2016. Back flap: author by saguaro in Silly Mountain Park, Arizona, USA, 2016. Dust jacket design: Félix de la Varga Chana Paper I reprinted with permission from the publishers. Paper II reprinted in compliance with the Open Access policy of the journal Ecozon@. Figure 2 reproduced with permission of Ezra Zeitler. Figure 3 reproduced with permission of David Hafner. Figure 5 [front covers image] reproduced with permission of photographer and image- rights holder Suzanne MacAulay. Figure 6 reproduced with permission of Fernando Casás/Instituto Franklin-UAH Figure 8 photo by teddeady; Flickr. Original title: Chicano Park Art 30b. Cropped image, no other changes made. License CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. Figure 9 top left to bottom right: Almanac of the Dead book cover, La Grande-1, Quebec, Canada (author: P199, Wikimedia Commons); Överskrida Gränser book cover; Glen Canyon Dam, Arizona, USA (author: Adbar, Wikimedia Commons); Solar Storms book cover; Sardar Sarovar Dam, Gujarat, India (author: AceFighter19, Wikimedia Commons); People of the Valley book cover; The Milagro Beanfield War book cover; People of a Feather BlueRay cover; “The Greater Common Good” Outlook article. Map, author: Canuckguy, Wikimedia Commons. Para Alberto en memoria “Water is like life. It is life” ― Frank Waters, People of the Valley Contents Acknowledgements/¡Gracias! .…………………………… i Abstract and Keywords …………………………………… v Sammanfattning och nyckelord …………………………… vii Preface …………………………………………………… ix Introduction 1 Water Justice ……………………………………………… 1 2 Overview of the Research Fields ………………………… 5 3 Corpus …………………………………………………… 15 Selected Narratives …………………………………… 17 4 Chicanas/os’ Environmental Quest U.S. Southwest ………………………………………… 23 Chicanas/os …………………………………………… 29 Intersectionality …………………………………… 31 A Quest for Environmental Sovereignty ………… 33 Chicana/o “Goodlife” Writing as Writing Activism 42 5 Summary of Research Papers …………………………… 51 6 Concluding Remarks ……………………………………… 57 Bibliography ……………………………………………… 61 Research Papers Paper I …………………………………………………… 75 Paper II …………………………………………………… 99 Paper III …………………………………………………… 131 Paper IV …………………………………………………… 159 List of Research Papers Paper I …………………………………………………………… 75 Pérez Ramos, María Isabel. “Progress and Development According to Whom? Reflections from the margins.” Transatlantic Landscapes: Environmental Awareness, Literature and the Arts. José Manuel Marrero Henríquez, Ed. Alcalá de Henares: Instituto Franklin-UAH, 2016, pp. 95-111. CLYMA Series. Submitted in February, 2014. Accepted for publication in January, 2015. Paper II ………………………………………………………… 99 Pérez Ramos, María Isabel. “The Water Apocalypse: Venice desert cities and utopian arcologies in Southwestern dystopian fiction.” Ecozon@: European Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment, vol. 7, no. 2, fall 2016, pp. 44-64. Submitted on March 15, 2016. Revised version accepted for publication on September 22, 2016. ecozona.eu/issue/view/73/showToc Paper III ………………………………………………………… 131 Pérez Ramos, María Isabel. “Lands of Entrapment: Environmental Health and Wellbeing in Literature about the U.S. Southwest and Chicano Communities.” Submitted to MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States on November 17, 2016. Accepted for publication on April 13, 2017. Paper IV ………………………………………………………… 159 Pérez Ramos, María Isabel, and Susanna Lidström. ““Dam a River, Damn a People?”: Subverting dams in/through subaltern narratives.” Submitted to ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment on March 8, 2017. Under review. Note on Paper IV: I am the main author of the paper; I conceived and wrote it with comments and improvements suggested by Susanna Lidström. Susanna also provided the analysis and corresponding translations of the Swedish novel Överskrida Gränser, by Lars Svonni. Tables, Figures, and Illustration Table 1 List of narratives by category and publication year with geographical reference ………………………………… 17 Table 2 List of narratives analyzed per paper ………………… 18 Fig. 1 U.S. Land Acquisitions from México, 1845-1853 …… 24 Fig. 2 Bioregions of the Southwest ………………………… 25 Fig. 3 Map of the distribution of North Am. regional deserts .. 26 Fig. 4 Federal Lands and Indian Reservations ……………… 36 Fig. 5 “La Sierra” colcha embroidery………………………… 39 Fig. 6 Book cover Transatlantic Landscapes ………………… 75 Fig. 7 Ecozon@ edition of “The Water Apocalypse”………… 99 Fig. 8 Farmworkers mural Chicano Park ……………………. 131 Fig. 9 Contextual Map………………………………………… 159 Ill. 1 Ground Water Storage (14-09-2015). NASA ………… 104 i Acknowledgements / ¡Gracias! My journey into this PhD has been long and for that reason I would like to start by acknowledging the Spanish Ministry, Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, for funding my first period of graduate studies in Spain with a Beca de Formación de Profesorado Universitario, which was the seed of the current project. From the Departamento de Filología Moderna at the University of León I would like to acknowledge Manuel Broncano Rodríguez and Imelda Martín Junquera, for supervising me at the time, and Gelines, for her invaluable support all these years. From that early period I would also like to thank professors Gabriel Meléndez, Susan Castillo, and Genaro Padilla for being my hosts at UNM, King’s College London, and UC Berkeley respectively; and the curator Theresa Salazar, at UC Berkeley, for helping me navigate the remarkable Bancroft Collection of Western Americana. Thanks also to the research group on ecocriticism GIECO- Instituto Franklin, and particularly to the group director Carmen Flys- Junquera. Quite unexpectedly, in 2013 my graduate journey took me to Sweden, to the Environmental Humanities Laboratory at the multifaceted Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment, at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, which has funded my PhD position with the help of a generous grant from Swedish industrialist Carl Bennet. The Division has not only been a vibrant workplace, but is also a community of outstanding scholars and fantastic human beings who have made me feel welcome and supported all along. Without their “so what” questions and helpful feedback this dissertation would not have been the same. Carina Challis, former administrator at the Division, was one of the persons who made me feel most welcome and supported at the very beginning, together with the former Head of Division Nina Wormbs, and the present Head, then Director of Graduate Studies, Sabine Höhler. Special thanks to my supervisors Sverker Sörlin, Marco Armiero, and Joni Adamson. Sverker and Marco have provided me with timely feedback and good counsels all along, and Joni has been a great moral and academic support, despite the distance with Arizona. The journey has not always been easy, but their guidance, support, and mentoring have truly helped me. I also want to thank Libby Robin (Australian National University) for her valuable comments in the capacity of external reviewer. ii Things would not have been the same without the other PhD candidates in my PhD “cohort:” Anna, Hanna, and Johan, the very best colleagues I could have found for this journey. Anna, Hanna, and I shared so many conversations over well-loaded cups of tea and coffee in our long hours at the Division, sharing our anxieties, hopes, frustrations, and achievements. Anna, thanks for been such a wonderful and understanding office mate; Hanna, thanks for always receiving my constant knocks on your door with a welcoming smile; and Johan, thanks for your good humor and hugs. You have all been such a great support, such wonderful and kind friends, I cannot thank you enough. I have been lucky to have had several other fantastic PhD colleagues, such as Susanna, Anna Å., Daniel, Eric (thanks both for helping me figure out all the paperwork and other details at this last stage!), and of course Corinna, the ITN crew: Daniele, Irma, Jesse, and Anne, and my cara Ilenia, you all have brought so much energy (and fun!) to the Division. And talking about people who have made my life better, I have to acknowledge the Division administrators, Emilia and Sofia―who I also cherish as a dear friend (despite your terrible singing, which you luckily compensate with smiley sharks!). Other brilliant scholars who have contributed to this project are Laura Pulido (University of Oregon), my two outstanding seminar opponents, Priscilla Ybarra (UNT) and Serenella Iovino (Università degli Studi di Torino), and those people
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