Fall 2002 Bulletin

Amigos Bravos' Staff Presents at 2002 River Rally

River Network’s 2002 River Rally was held in Asheville, North Carolina during what southerners called a ‘drought’. While Carlos Martin, member of the RIO (Recognize It’s Ours) Collective, Assistant director Linda Carlson, and I were leaving the runway of Albuquerque’s Sunport, we spied the rising cloud of white smoke above the South Valley’s Río Grande Bosque. An early morning fire was reported and said to be man-made but we hadn’t caught sight of it until that moment. Our excitement for take-off was dampened by the sight of our beloved Bosque’s destruction. Upon final descent, we found North Carolina was wet and rainy, with bountiful greenery. The foliage was so dense that it took just two days before I began missing the high desert, open vistas, blue skies and yes, mi Río Grande. Brian Shields flew in from New York and beat us to the hotel. The River Rally was a new experience for all the Bravos except Brian. While he spoke in a panel entitled, “Ask The Experts,” I put final touches on my Questa oral history project presentation. If gathered correctly, oral histories can inform today’s practices and practicalities. I offered several poignant interview selections on how oral history provides knowledge otherwise unavailable and often lost. Because these histories were confined to a specific place and time, they offered valuable information about the rivers and worsening water quality, plants, fish, coloration changes, and cultural stresses caused by mining pollution. While most stories were corroborating, those that didn’t exemplified a different view...that miners were not polluting but taking care of the water and environment and employing many residents. These stories helped document conditions of the river pre and post mining on the Questa mountain. This community’s stories helped inform technical and legal processes that held Molycorp accountable for polluting the Red River and its cleanup. Carlos Martin was invited to present a non-traditional approach to river protection. Reni DeLeon from River Network made it feasible for Carlos to participate in the four-day Rally by providing a youth scholarship and a portion of his air fair. Carlos spoke on how the RIO project began. He incorporated a color slide presentation of the RIO CD Release Event, explaining how the project grew to involve more than 50 additional volunteers, contributors, and supporters. They produced the RIO “Recognize It’s Ours” River Anthology CD. Carlos also performed his own poem and played a piece from the CD, capturing the attention and interest of the room. Amigos Bravos continues to receive CD orders from the Rally. As Brian, Linda, and Carlos continued to network with rally attendees and funders, I was in my room preparing for one more discussion. This was a last-minute request to fill in for Robert D. Bullard, Ph.D. of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University. The presentation was one I had not conducted before. I was able to fall back on my experiences and training in Environmental Justice with Linda Velarde of Vallecitos Mountain Refuge, Carlos Porras of Communities for A Better Environment, and Aditi Viadya of the Southwest Environmental Justice Network. As I spoke on environmental justice principles derived from the EJ Summit over ten years ago, I noted that they were often used in poor communities across the United States consisting mostly of people of color. Present in the workshop were eager young leaders who were experiencing similar environmental concerns linking people’s health to environmental injustices. They expressed interest in understanding and implementing these principles. The workshop was also enlightening for me because it reinforced that many environmentalists who know much about the environment often understand little about the political, social and economic inequities and the deterioration of the health of children, families, and communities often targeted by industry. These situations exist in communities such as Questa, Las Vegas, and Albuquerque’s South Valley, where both people and rivers are being polluted. The River Rally was not all work. We also played hard, took long walks in the forest, and experienced our first-ever river raft trip including spilling into and recovery from raging waters. One of us also visited the Builtmore and gardens. But that was just a bit of a break before we returned to attend sessions on grassroots fundraising involving youth; the Art of Listening; Winning Campaigns; Making Coalitions Work; Diversity Training; Getting and Keeping Members and more. The flight back home was a sight for sore eyes. Crossing over the Sandias and Manzanos brought a clear sky, a bright sunset, and the beiges, greens, and brown earth greatly missed. Thankfully our Bosque was still mostly intact.

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