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The Island Oasis of Isla Cedros, Baja California, Mexico1

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The Island Oasis of Isla Cedros, Baja California, Mexico1 ‘‘Good Water and Firewood’’: The Island Oasis of Isla Cedros, Baja California, Mexico1 Matthew R. Des Lauriers2 Abstract: Today, Isla Cedros is remote from major population centers of northwestern Mexico and the American Southwest, but before European con- tact and throughout the Colonial Period, it was a well-known location to both indigenous peoples and Europeans. Today, a local fishing cooperative shares the island with a massive Mitsubishi Corporation/Mexican government–owned salt- transshipment facility. Far from representing a cautionary tale of excessive de- velopment and environmental degradation, Isla Cedros is one of the few places on the globe where human harvesting of marine resources has not yet resulted in an ecological collapse. It is a place where paradoxes abound and allows an al- ternative view of human interaction with marine and insular ecosystems. Both short- and long-term environmental variation characterizes this ecologically transitional region, and the adaptability of both its human and nonhuman in- habitants presents insights into the possibility of a ‘‘commons’’ without tragedy. Issues of exclusive use rights, short-periodicity variation, localized effects on resources due to sea-level rise, and sustainable socioeconomic systems can be addressed in an examination of Isla Cedros, Huamalgua, the Island of Fogs. This island setting presents us with challenges to many underexamined assump- tions. In essence, it refuses easy categorization, instead offering at least some al- ternative perspectives for future historical ecological research of broad relevance to coastal and island settings worldwide. At first glance, Isla Cedros (Figure 1) ap- rine ecology, surprisingly abundant sources pears to embody the age-old concept of a of potable water, and an adequate base of ter- desert island: dry, rocky, and geographically restrial resources, Isla Cedros has been one of remote from modern population centers. the most densely occupied areas of central Even the modern occupants, fishermen and Baja California for at least the last 2,000 salt-dock workers, refer to their home as ‘‘El years, if not longer. Occupation of the island Piedron’’ (‘‘The Rock’’). However, through a extends back at least 12,000 calendar years unique combination of a rich and robust ma- (Des Lauriers 2006, 2008), and human popu- lations on the island certainly experienced the full scope of Holocene climatic shifts, while never abandoning ‘‘the Rock.’’ For reasons 1 The research partially described here was conducted with the authorization and support of the Instituto Na- linked to geography, demography, and ecol- cional de Antropologia e Historia de Mexico (INAH) ogy, the responses of those populations to and funded by grants from the National Science Founda- such changes may have varied from those tion; University of California Institute for Mexico and of communities occupying other portions of the United States; and the Graduate Division of the Uni- the Pacific coast of North America. versity of California, Riverside. Manuscript accepted 22 December 2008. Drawing upon archaeology, historical 2 Department of Anthropology, California State documents, ethnography of contemporary University, Northridge, Northridge, California 91330 local fishermen, and basic ecological data, a (e-mail: [email protected]). fascinating image emerges of this unique is- land and a complex ecological history, which Pacific Science (2009), vol. 63, no. 4:649–672 both shaped and was shaped by the actions : 2009 by University of Hawai‘i Press of its long sequence of occupants. Far from All rights reserved confirming standard notions about Baja Cali- 649 Figure 1. Isla Cedros in both regional and continental context. Isla Cedros, Baja California Des Lauriers 651 fornia, islands, or human impacts on littoral (Wagner 1929, Montane´-Martı´ 1995) is one resources, Isla Cedros presents us with chal- of the most consistent items mentioned in lenges to many underexamined assumptions. the accounts, and such descriptions clearly in- Among these are assumed negative conse- dicate a level of organized response by the in- quences of human exploitation of natural digenous communities. During the sixteenth resources and the presumption that the cu- though the nineteenth centuries, the use of mulative result of individually centered de- Isla Cedros as a base for sea-mammal hunters cision making is the best way to model (Ogden 1941), Chinese and Japanese fisher- patterns of human behavior in all societies men (McVicar 1964), and other apocryphal for all time periods. The history and archae- stories of pirates and galleon crews is well ology of Isla Cedros refuse easy categoriza- documented and a fascinating story of the tion, instead offering at least one alternative roots and processes of globalization in the perspective for future historical ecological eastern Pacific. But why was such a rugged research of broad relevance to coastal and is- and seemingly inhospitable island such a land settings worldwide ( Jackson et al. 2001, nexus of indigenous and colonial activity? Steneck et al. 2002, Van der Leeuw and Red- The answer is simple—water. Quite the op- man 2002, Bale´e 2006, Rick 2007). posite of Coleridge’s dilemma, Isla Cedros represents an anomalous hydrological situa- island oasis: geographic and tion, and it was this factor in the historical historical factors ecology of the island that enabled so many of the other systems to emerge and processes After the precontact period of indigenous to unfold. history, Spanish explorers (Mathes 1968, In the arid terrain of central Baja Califor- Montane´-Martı´ 1995), missionaries (Des nia, water is perhaps the most critical re- Lauriers and Garcı´a–Des Lauriers 2006), source, and the one in shortest supply. Isla American and Russo-Aleut sea-mammal Cedros is a geographic paradox. The adjacent hunters (Ogden 1941), pirates, California mainland coast has the fewest potable water miners (Veatch 1869), Chinese and German- sources along the Pacific coast of the Baja Japanese fishing operations (McVicar 1964) California Peninsula, but Isla Cedros itself is all visited and exploited the island’s resources well provided with numerous springs, seeps, over the last 500 years. It is from the maps of and tanks (Figure 2). The modern port town Sebastian Vizcaı´no, who was sent at the dawn for the local fishing cooperative (Pescadores of the seventeenth century to chart the coast Nacionales de Abulon), which houses around of the Californias by the viceroy of New 1,200 residents, receives all of its water from Spain, that the title of this article is drawn. one major spring located high on the slopes The handwritten comment ‘‘Good Water of Monte Cedros, the 1,330 m high peak and Firewood’’ is noted for at least seven in the center of the island. This abundance locations around the coast of Isla Cedros, in the midst of scarcity was a critical factor and accompanying documents remark on the throughout the indigenous history of Isla abundance and ease of access to both re- Cedros, continued right through the historic sources for mariners (Mathes 1968). Corre- period, with Manila galleons, otter hunters, spondence by the Jesuit Sigismundo Taraval miners, and travelers taking advantage of the (Des Lauriers and Garcı´a–Des Lauriers island’s abundant water. For the earliest in- 2006) dating to 1732 indicates a strong com- digenous colonizing groups, the presence of munity orientation of native society on Isla reliable water may have made Cedros an ideal Cedros, with some leadership roles and ritual location to stage further exploration and specialists but relatively few hierarchical tiers would undoubtedly have resulted in the island of status visible to European observers. The being a ‘‘known location’’ from a very early rapid, violent, and collective opposition to date (Mathes 1968, Montane´-Martı´ 1995). attempted landings by Spanish explorers Spanish (and other European) mariners may Figure 2. ‘‘Vizcaı´no’s Spring,’’ located on the east coast of the island. Isla Cedros, Baja California Des Lauriers 653 have preferred the water source a few kilo- Themes of Discussion meters north of the modern town due to the proximity of deep anchorages and the shel- It is my intention to energize the dialogue tering effect of the imposing bulk of Monte about the nature of human relationships with their natural environment, with each other, Cedros, which blocks virtually all northwest- and with that unusual convergence of geogra- erly winds. However, their preferences were conditioned by the nature of their vessels phy, ecology, and society that creates not only and the fact that Isla Cedros was simply a the literal, but the conceptual ‘‘island.’’ In this point en route to or from their port cities far- effort, some of the larger assumptions about ther south along the Mexican Pacific coast human-environmental interaction, including the notion that individualistic models of (Mathes 1968). decision making are broadly applicable in The nonagricultural native populations of Isla Cedros did not have the same water non-Western, premodern contexts, will be requirements as horticultural groups, since set aside in favor of a perspective that sees drinking water was the only need that could collective organization of economic activity not be fulfilled by the surrounding ocean. as being an equally plausible way to model Seawater can be (and indeed often still is) ancient human behavior. The ideas will be used in cooking and cleaning, even by locals introduced before discussing the modern Isla
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